Rent the Runway: My summer body confidence hack

After two years of recovering from diets and making the great leap to intuitive eating, I’ve come to a place of okayness—sometimes even more than okayness—with my body. This didn’t come overnight and in fact, it sort of snuck up on me over the summer. 

And here’s where I confess, Rent the Runway helped me get there. RTR was already my go-to for special occasion dresses, so I was familiar with the ease of renting and quality of the offerings. After I got a promo code for its monthly clothing subscription service in June, I decided to give it a shot. I loved the idea of adding a few more fabulous outfits to my wardrobe for a fraction of the cost of buying them. And I loved the idea of discovering new designers that fit my now-plus-size body.

Thanks to intuitive eating, I am no longer weight cycling or pursuing intentional weight loss, and I’m learning to love my body for what it is. And I’ve been roughly the same size for the last year and a half. But in my early days of transitioning to intuitive eating, renting clothes would have been a great way to expand my wardrobe without spending a lot on new pieces, especially since I wasn't sure what my final size would be.

As I shared in my piece Practical tips when our clothes no longer fit:

It’s really important that we find clothes we love in the bodies we’re in right now. Depending on your size, you could have a lot of options or you could have fewer options than you used to. And this can be challenging, but it is so important to find them. 

When we wear beautiful clothes, they make us feel more beautiful. When we wear clothes that fit, we feel both comfortable and beautiful. This was what I was hoping to get from Rent the Runway.

My big worries with Rent the Runway

Of course, I had concerns about using a clothing service, especially as someone who is plus size. 

Would there be enough options? 

This is something I didn’t have to worry about when I wore straight sizes.

Rent the Runway goes up to size 22. While this includes me, this just isn’t all that size inclusive. The average American woman was a size 16 as of 2016! If I were any bigger, I’d have to pick another service. Nuuly, in contrast, goes up to 5x. Gwynnie Bee takes the cake when it comes to inclusivity, going up to size 32. At a time when many clothing designers are pulling back on plus size clothing as

Corinne Fay

recently wrote about, this is a real concern.

Would RTR match my vibe? 

In the last few years, as I’ve gone gray and stopped fixating on what I weigh, I’ve grown more confident as a person. I’m boldly stepping into who I am, and my style reflects this. I’m all about vibrant colors and bold patterns; I want to stand out, not shrink from anyone!

Would all the good stuff be hard to get?

Unfortunately, there’s no way of really knowing what’s available to you before you sign up as you can’t see sizes or what’s in stock until you pick a plan. It did sort of feel like I was rolling the dice, but with the initial discount, it seemed like it was worth the risk.  

How Rent the Runway helps you get the right fit

Getting the right size is a challenge many of us—maybe even most of us—face with shopping, especially online shopping. And this is especially true when we’re straddling extended and plus sizes—and sometimes even the occasional straight size! Typically I’m a XL-XXL and 16-18, but with certain brands, I wear large, and still for others 18 is too small! So, of course, sizing was a concern, but one thing I like about Rent the Runway is that it gives you several ways of gauging whether an item will fit.  

First, there are member reviews of the item, including the most helpful feature, a bar chart showing whether the item runs small, true to size or large. 

Second, most items are well reviewed with customer photos, and basic information like what size you wore and what size you typically wear. While those reviews tend to include straight sizes, you can often get some sense of how the clothing fits even if you’re larger. Some pieces just don’t seem to fit anyone, but I feel like these are outliers on Rent the Runway, and the vast majority of pieces are universally flattering.

Third, on some pieces of clothing, Rent the Runway provides an estimate of how likely this size will fit you based on your fit profile, which starts with stats you input. And then with every piece of clothing you rent, you provide feedback on how it fits, and this is factored into the algorithm. I am not sure why it shows up on some items and not others, but this is the best indication a particular size will work for your body. 

The logistics with the RTR clothing subscription

Rent the Runway offers three plans, 5 items starting at $79 per month, 10 items starting at $87 per month or 20 items starting at $169 per month. I did the 10 items per month plan, which meant I had the option of picking up to five pieces of clothing in two shipments per month.

You can keep items as long as you want, and they deduct from your monthly allotment. You also have the option to buy anything you love at a discounted price. Rent the Runway doesn’t tell you when it’s time to order, so it’s up to you to go in there and get new stuff. I have to be honest, I didn’t do a good job of keeping track, and I’m not sure I rotated items as often as I could have. It was more like I would go see what was available when I was feeling bored with what I had or didn’t have an occasion for a certain piece of clothing anymore. I can’t imagine anyone doing the 20-item plan and being able to keep up with weekly ordering!

You can cancel, pause or change plans at any time. And Rent the Runway has made swapping outfits as seamless as possible. With a 10-item plan, clothes arrive within 1-2 business days depending on your zip code (with the 5-item plan, it’s 1-3 business days). Rent the Runway ships everything to you in reusable garment bags with the return label inside. When you’re ready to swap, you just swap the label, put the clothes back in the bag, and set the bag outside your door for UPS to pick up. By the way, Rent the Runway takes measures to offset carbon emissions and reduce waste.

While other clothing subscription services are better priced, they also seem to have more basic and casual options. Nuuly is the other one I’d most likely consider, since it’s owned by the company that owns Anthropologie and Free People, two of my favorites for bohemian styles, but I really wanted to treat myself with more upscale clothing from indie and designer labels. This is where the Rent the Runway shines. One important note: Rent the Runway’s most basic 5-item plan limits you to clothing that retails for less than $350; the other two give you access to clothing retailing for up to $3,000.

You can pick clothing based on all sorts of criteria, including by occasion and specific designer, but I typically searched by clothing type. I’m a dress girl through and through, so I typically scrolled through the available dresses and added the ones I liked to my cart. Then I went through each item in the cart and read reviews, so I could make a final decision. Most of the time, when I got an item that wasn’t wearable, it was because I hadn’t read the reviews or chose to ignore something multiple people mentioned in the reviews. 

The verdict on Rent the Runway

Obviously, I’m writing about how Rent the Runway helped me learn to love my body, so it was overall positive, but there are downsides that I’ll get to. 

In three months with the service, I would say there were four dresses I absolutely loved, wore over and over again, and got tons of compliments on. Seriously, some of these dresses were so stunning, they fit my body perfectly, and I felt like a queen in them. I didn’t take a full-length pic in it, but this Eudon Choi Collective dress was one of my favorites.  

Some of my other favorite pieces were from Jason Wu Collective, Tanya Taylor and Cara Cara New York, Veronica Beard and Ulla Johnson.

There were dresses I loved but for whatever reason didn’t quite work (sleeves kept falling down, didn’t have the occasion for it) and some that just flat out didn’t work (too tight or not flattering). Some pieces were a little “too loved,” faded or not in pristine condition, and while all of the pieces are meant to be thoroughly cleaned, at least once, I wasn’t sure this was the case. 

While you can rent accessories, I generally focused on clothing. The one exception, a beautiful pair of Chloe sunglasses that I loved so much I ended up buying from another discount site (the pair on RTR wasn’t in the best condition). 

While overall there was variety in my size, I often felt like I was seeing the same items over and over each month. And not surprising, but many of the popular designers seem to have less availability. For example, Farm Rio is one of Rent the Runway’s featured designers. I already own a few of their dresses and know XL fits, but there was almost no availability any time I checked.

So that’s the good and the bad with Rent the Runway. It definitely helped me feel beautiful in my body, but was it worth the price? I canceled the service in August, thinking it was too expensive, but within weeks, I missed having the variety in my closet, so I started it again. We will see what the fall and winter months bring!

Quick summary: Rent the Runway Subscription

Pros

• Designer, high-end and indie brands

• Decent availability in plus sizes (16-20)

• Seamless transition in ordering and quick delivery

Cons

• Higher price than most other services

• Not as size inclusive as others (Nuuly, Gwynnie Bee)

Now it’s your turn! Have you tried Rent the Runway or another clothing subscription service? What’s your take? Love it or leave it?

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