You don’t have to be a fashionista to appreciate the thrill of wearing the right outfit at the right time. So as a mom reassessing (or tossing out) her wardrobe after five years of pregnancy and breastfeeding, I couldn’t help but wonder out loud, like Carrie Bradshaw, whether renting might be the best way to build confidence in the wardrobe department.
On social media, I was seriously bombarded with ads for clothing rentals. And it makes sense that rental companies had plenty of money to spend on targeting: after the pandemic occasionally ruined rental services, the U.S. online rental market has seen the ultimate boom, with predictions that it will be worth $2.33 billion by 2030.
Then there’s the OG, Rent the Runway, which charges $89 for five items per month or up to $169 per month for 20. There’s also Nuuly, which charges $98 per month for six items; ModLux ($125 per month for five items); accessories-only options like Vivrelle ($5 to $309 per month for one to two pieces of jewelry or handbags) and Switch ($41 to $221 per month for one to four pieces of jewelry or accessories); and a bunch more I’ve never heard of because did I mention I have two young kids?!
With a referral coupon code from another mom who drinks a certain brand of Kool-Aid, I decided to dip my toe in the water. I paid about $68 for six pieces from Nuuly , which seems to sell the same slew of items as Anthropologie — that is, statement pieces that you can’t really wear more than a few times, and trendy, high-quality basics.
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My first order included three occasion dresses, hoping one would work for an upcoming party, a pair of barrel jeans that I wasn’t sure I could pull off, a lightweight bomber jacket to bridge the gap between summer and spring, and a one-shoulder floral bodysuit, just because. Since I would have otherwise invested in a few new pieces to transition between seasons, I felt like I had hit the jackpot in terms of value.
But as my rental period came to an end, I wasn’t sure anymore. I’d worn the jeans a handful of times and the bodysuit on a girls’ trip, plus on two dates with my husband (who completely ignored my repetition). I wore one of the dresses to the aforementioned party and again on a date, but I didn’t have time to wear the other two dresses before it was time to return everything. Even though it quickly got too warm for the jacket (retail value: $144), I impulsively bought it with a coupon code that sneaked into my inbox, and spent another $73.60. Oops.
Was I dressed well…or was I tricked into spending more than I intended? I reached out to California-based consumer savings expert Andrea Woroch and money expert Nicole Lapin, co-founder and CEO of MoneyNewsNetwork.com and TheMoneySchool.com, to help me do the math. The big question: Does it make more sense to rent or buy everyday clothes?
Both experts agreed that the only way to answer this question is to take a hard look at your own spending habits, lifestyle, and values. “It’s a personal decision that depends on your individual clothing needs,” says Woroch. So if you’re as conflicted as I am about investing your hard-earned money in a permanent versus temporary wardrobe, read on to assess your situation.
The argument for renting
You spend all your money on clothes. I’m personally not organized enough to have a monthly clothing budget… sometimes I buy nothing, sometimes I splurge on an item or two, and sometimes I go to Target for Paw Patrol Band-Aids and accidentally come home with a new wardrobe. However, in the month I rented from Nuuly, I had six cool new items in my wardrobe and felt like I had scratched the itch to go shopping.
By assessing how much you’re really putting into your wardrobe (and being honest about how long fast fashion items last before they get tossed), you can figure out whether renting makes more sense than buying, Woroch says.
“Switching to a subscription rental service can help you keep track of your spending while still enjoying the benefits of new clothing,” Lapin says. “If you’re spending less on rent than you would on clothes each month and it fits within your budget, that’s a good use case — as long as your net profit includes the items you buy from your rental batch,” she cautions.
Your size fluctuates. Now that I’m child-free and breastfeeding, I could theoretically invest in a capsule wardrobe. But for people who find their bodies swell and deflate faster than they can say “elastic,” whether due to pregnancy or some other form of size change (ahem, aging), rental services can be especially valuable. “You don’t have to overhaul your entire regular wardrobe and end up stuck with items you don’t want or need (when you change sizes),” says Woroch.
You care about trends. Being relatively trendy makes me feel confident, but buying super trendy clothes or accessories can be a waste of money because you typically don’t get a good price per wear (which you can calculate by dividing the total cost of an item by the number of times you wear it), Woroch says. As a mom, it’s important for me to model that resulting confidence for my kids — even if I can’t put a monetary value on it. In this case, renting can save money.
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You like ~fashun~. “Renting luxury handbags and jewelry often makes financial sense,” Lapin admits. Think about it: It would cost more than a year’s worth of rental fees of $200/month to buy a $3,800 Dior bag, she estimates — and most people don’t have just one bag, since many like to switch it up seasonally.
Plus, owning luxury items comes with a lot of responsibility, Lapin points out. “Rental companies can help you test out a lifestyle before you spend a lot of money on it,” she says. “You don’t want your kid to throw up on your $10,000 bag or your hand sanitizer to leak into it.”
It’s scary to wear the same outfits. Spend too much time (read: every time) on Instagram or TikTok and you might start to believe that you’re the only one who wears an outfit more than once. Truth is, according to Lapin: “It’s easy to think that you need that next thing you saw on TikTok, but no one needs new clothes every month,” she says. But who said this debate has to be about need? If you like monthly refreshes and typically only wear items once or twice, renting might be for you.
“Renting an outfit once is a big ‘Yes!’” Lapin tells me. “If you’re going to spend $100 on a dress that you love and will never wear again, why wouldn’t you spend $100 on renting a $500 dress that you love but will also never wear again?”
Minimalism makes you feel everything. I recently donated a huge suitcase full of fast fashion, stained items, and pieces that just weren’t growing on me. So the last thing I wanted to do was buy more cheap crap that would inevitably get stained or go out of style. (I never said I was an optimist!) Renting clothes makes it easy to move new items in and out of your closet, with no real receipts other than the rental price on your bank statement.
You don’t always wear what you buy. High expectations won’t make up for the lost money if you end up collecting mountains of clothes that are gathering dust with the tags still attached — and the same goes for the high cost per wear if you only wear it once or twice. In these cases, you might as well rent, since the cost per wear will be lower in the end.
You are prone to regret when you buy something. Renting can help you decide if you want to invest in an item — like those barrel jeans I rented, which were cool to wear twice, but were stretched out and not really flattering on my butt. So, back!
You have “nothing” to wear. “If you own thousands of dollars worth of clothes and still feel like you have nothing to wear, renting can help you save money and feel like you have more options,” Woroch says.
Otherwise you would buy clothes at full price. Renting can open the door to great discounts, as many services let you keep the items you rent for a fraction of the item’s retail price. While the same goes for secondhand shopping, Woroch points out that it can cost you valuable time to sift through racks or online junk.
You don’t have time to go shopping. As a working mother of two, I have less time to shop in stores/online than ever before. So I save time by doing my shopping on one rental site. And time, as anyone who pays for childcare by the hour knows, is money.
The argument for buying
You are in dire need of basic supplies. When renting, it’s definitely fun to buy unique pieces. However, the pieces you rent may not fully meet your clothing needs, and if you replenish what you rent, you could end up spending more on clothing than you planned. For example, in the month I rented, I also spent about $100 replacing old Bombas socks and probably twice that amount replacing stained white T-shirts and upgrading my summer loungewear. I bought some new underwear. I bought two bathing suits. There are some things you just don’t want to rent, right?
You hardly leave your house. I don’t have an office job, and no one really cares what I wear when I’m working at a coffee shop or driving my kids around Brooklyn. That’s why “renting makes more sense for someone who has a lot of events,” Woroch told me. For people like me, investing in a few quality staples that will last forever and can be worn anytime without anyone batting an eyelid might be the answer — even if I believe capsule wardrobes are a scam.
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You tend to make impulse purchases. “If renting makes you spend more because you’re trying more things (at home) and falling in love, then stay away from renting,” Lapin says. This way, you avoid the temptation to buy buy buy and focus on a smaller number of items that you really want to own permanently, and not just because they are already hanging in your closet.
You are good at reselling your clothes. Switch to renting clothes and “at the end of the day, you don’t have them to wear anymore — or to sell,” Woroch points out. When you buy clothes, however, you can sell items you no longer wear or love and get back up to 50 percent of what you paid, depending on the brand and whether it’s a high-end item, she estimates.
What is ultimately cheaper: renting or buying?
“For luxury items or special occasion wear, renting can make sense or even save money, but for many people, these services are completely unnecessary,” Lapin says. “Unless you’re going to galas or test-driving Birkins, you don’t need new clothes every month and are better off shopping consciously for things you love.”
What does Woroch think? “Renting is really great for ultra-trendy fashion that will probably go out of style next year”… and that’s when my clothing budget would dry up if I paid retail price for all those cute rental items I’m fighting over.
*goes back to putting together the rental cupboard*
The post Is it cheaper to buy or rent clothes? Personal finance experts weigh in first appeared on Frugals ca.
