Rent frock Repeat all started when founders, Lisa Delorme and Kristy Wieber were invited to a wedding one March. Neither wanted to spend the money or time on yet another dress that would be worn once, then subsequently tossed in the closet to collect dust and eventually be forgotten. The pair had seen an article about a US-based dress rental service but quickly discovered that they didn’t deliver to Canada. Determined to make sure no Canadian woman found herself in the same dilemma, Kristy and Lisa founded Rent frock Repeat in August of 2010. It is a 100% Canadian owned and operated business, based in Toronto.
Not only did they realize that they would be solving a common event dilemma many women face, Kristy and Lisa also realized they would be solving the issue of having a mishmash of sizes in their closets, due to size fluctuations (sometimes that dress purchased after indulging over the holidays just doesn’t fit the same way a month later). One of the most common questions their friends asked when Kristy and Lisa were explaining the concept of the company was, “How will women know they will get a dress that fits if they can’t try it on?” This made them realize that sending a backup size and providing detailed information about the size and fit would help alleviate that concern and hopefully ensure the perfect dress every time.
At the same time, Kristy and Lisa assumed that the overwhelming response they would receive would be all about the financial savings, but what they heard most often was, “It’s obvious this will save me money, but do you know how much time and aggravation you’ve just spared me? I no longer have to go from mall to mall, store to store, parking lot to parking lot. Now I can even shop for a dress after I put the kids to bed.” As friends kept sharing reasons why Rent frock Repeat was such a good idea, Kristy and Lisa booked a flight to New York City and started buying dresses.
Kristy and Lisa have a combined 13 years of experience in sales and marketing and an infectious passion for the fashion industry. They work with designers, purchasing dresses either directly or through their authorized sales agents. Rent frock Repeat scours both the runways and the showrooms of top designers to find amazing frocks that would normally be outside of the average woman’s budget–or just not available locally–and makes them available to rent and return at a small fraction of retail prices.
Following their mantra “Less stuff, more life,” Kristy and Lisa built their business with collaborative consumption in mind. Collaborative consumption, by definition, refers to a massive shift in perspective in the minds of today’s modern-day consumer. These days, conscious consumers value access to goods and services over ownership. After a free online or in-showroom consultation and fitting, women can rent their dress of choice for events and functions. Once they’ve worn their dress, they return it back to Rent frock Repeat to be dry-cleaned and rented again by the next customer. Through “collaborative sharing”, Rent frock Repeat is able to allow customers to not only save time, money and closet space, but to also reduce the environmental impact of fashion by lowering the number of unused garments sent to landfills across Canada.
Rent frock Repeat is offering all of our listeners a 15% discount until the end of November 2016! Use the promo code THEJEWEL when ordering your next show-stopping number online!
