OOTJI

I started Rent the Runway unlimited because I'm always curious about new things in retail and thought it'd help curb my shopping habits. Too many times I buy something and only wear it once or twice, then feel guilty about buying it and having it. With RTR, it's like guilt-free try-on every week, especially really nice designer pieces at a fraction of the cost. But given all these great perks I still canceled my membership after 2 months, keep reading to find out why!


Here's a summary of the pros and cons of RTR from my personal experience:

Pros:

1. Discover new brands & designers that you'll love
2. Experiment by wearing things you wouldn't buy (or keep)
3. Find unique pieces for special occasion & events
4. Dry cleaning is taken care of
5. Ability to return & rent from the stores
6. Rent clothes at your travel destination = less luggage (to NY, SF, Santa Monica, Georgetown, and Chicago)
7. Love their app!

Cons:

🙆🏻 More detail on the great things 

1. Discover new brands & designers

2. Wear things you wouldn't buy (or keep)

3. Wear RTR for special occasion & events

If you have at least 1 weddings / parties / special occasions to go to every month and have gone through all your clothes and your friend's clothes then RTR is going to be a great solution. It started off as a special occasion rental so it has a wealth of dresses available from Sunday casual to black tie.

4. Dry cleaning

5. Return & rent from the stores

I think having access to the stores is a game-changer for an RTR unlimited membership. These stores are super cute, set up like a boutique store where you can return your items, try on new things, and check out from the storer. The store assistants will help you from picking the right dress to help you zip up. There are some cons to the stores as well, keep reading!

Rent The Runway SF flagship store, courtesy of Rent the Runway

6. Rent clothes at your travel destination = less luggage! (New York, San Francisco, Santa Monica, Georgetown, Chicago)

🙅🏻 More details on the annoying things: 

1. Many styles are never available in my size (in-store and online)

I'm not sure how many of each size RTR stocks online but there are few pieces that I favorited that I never saw available when I had open slots. The stores have even less stock than what's available online. I wish there's a way to reserve something or even get on the waitlist for an item. There's no transparency to the availability of an item currently.

2. Ordering & return takes so long in transit (easily 4-5 days)

RTR will FedEx your order in 2 days, given you order by 2pm EST or 11am PST Monday - Friday (as I remember, could be off by an hour). When you return your order using the prepaid label it takes another 2 business days to get back to RTR. If not timed perfectly you could easily lose an entire week without any rentals. If relying solely on online orders, you effectively only have half the amount of days wearing your rentals.

There are ways to get around this by visiting the stores. You can also stagger your rentals, like rent 4 pieces, wear 2 and return immediately. While you wear the next two, RTR should've received your returns and you can order 2 more. Receive, return, repeat. Still requires a bit of planning and time regiment. If done perfectly, you can get about 13 items per month (see calculation below), in reality, I rented about 20 pieces over 2 month period WITH visits to the store (would be much lower w/o stores).

3. Fit is a hit or miss when ordering online

Can't really complain too much about this one - even when you buy something fit might be weird. At least you can just return it with RTR if it doesn't fit!

4. Stores are rather small and limited in sizes and styles

Because of the slow transit turnaround and uncertainty of fit, stores are vital to a good RTR experience to me. However, there are limited style and sizing selections to choose from. When I went on a Friday afternoon to the SF store there's only a handful of 0 sizes available. NYC associate said Saturday mornings are a good time to come by.

Some of my favorites I did not get to try:

5. Some pieces are showing age, especially bags

I only rented 1 bag, because I mostly carry work totes to work and have my own selections of bags for the weekend LOL. I did notice however in stores the more popular bags are showing signs of aging. I favorited 4 Marni bags but never saw them being available 😞

6. Not the newest styles (definitely not runway), most designer pieces are from seasons ago

I was hoping Rent The Runway would actually provide pieces from the runway - like Moda Operandi (collab opportunity!?). Reality is many pieces are quite old... a dress I own from Free People from 3 (4?) years ago is available to rent. I also noticed a few pieces I liked are on sale in stores (actually a good thing, yay!) or even clearinghouse type of stores (Outnet, Yoox etc.)

RTR is probably still working on brand partnerships given how new this unlimited (every day) wear plan is, so I think the selection will definitely get better. It probably doesn't even matter if you're wearing the newest season as long as you love the piece.

7. Dry cleaning isn't always crisp... and squeaky clean...

Most pieces come in clean, although sometimes wrinkled. However, I had one dress that came with a slight BO smell 😨another one came with some white crunchy stuff on the sleeve... 😰I also wish pressing was done with more care, many times the ruffle is not pressed in the right direction and I pressed it again my self LOL.

Some people have a phobia of wearing things that strangers have worn before - then this service is definitely not for you. It doesn't bother me as much... and I just try not to think about it 😅

8. It's kinda expensive

At $159 per month, it's not cheap. But it's not targeting kids in college or young adults that are buying Forever 21 and Zara. If you choose the right things and do end up buying less, I do believe it's a sustainable and beneficial business model. I would say definitely give it a try if you find the Pro section appealing, you can always cancel anytime 😊

There's also a lower-tier at $89 per month, you will get 4 items per month but you won't be able to exchange them.

You can use my link for $30 off your first order!! (Or search around for better offer)







Hope you found this post helpful 😆I have not been sponsored in any way for this post and full-disclosure: I've stopped my RTR Unlimited membership for the time being (because of the cons). If you're trying it, let me know what you think! I look forward to trying it again sometime in the future 😁