Many Australians may find designer dresses or luxury outfits financially out of reach, but a new trend is making high-end fashion more accessible: renting.
While suit rentals have long been common, the demand for designer dress rentals has surged in recent years.
One Newcastle resident, Annabelle Scott, calls herself a “dress-hire convert.” Since discovering a local rental shop two years ago, she has rented over 20 dresses.
“Being in my early 30s, I’ve attended lots of engagement parties, weddings, and now christenings or first birthday parties as friends and I start families,” she shared. “Thanks to rentals, I haven’t bought a new dress in two years, and I don’t plan to.”
Convenience and Cost Savings
Renting a designer dress can cost just a fraction—up to one-tenth—of its retail price, making luxury more accessible. For Ms. Scott, it’s opened up options for bold, bright outfits she wouldn’t usually buy.
“These are dresses I’d only want to wear once or twice,” she said. “Hiring them is far more cost-effective.”
Renting also saves her time and effort, as cleaning is handled by the rental service.
Business Growth
Australia’s first major dress hire businesses began about a decade ago, with both online-only companies and boutique shops expanding steadily.
Taya Calder-Dawson, a Newcastle business owner, has grown her dress hire business significantly since opening in 2020. “We expanded from two to four change rooms, increased staff from one to four, and grew our collection from 300 to 800 dresses. It just kept growing.”
How Dress Rentals Work
In a typical rental shop, customers browse, find a dress in their size, and book it if available for their event date. Most rentals last for four days, with options for extended periods. Shops handle both shipping and dry cleaning, so renters need only return the dress undamaged.
Customers can also become “lenders” by providing dresses for the shop to rent out, earning monthly commissions as their dresses are rented. “It’s a sustainable way for us to grow without constantly buying into new trends,” Calder-Dawson explained.
Environmental Impact of Dress Hire
Australia has one of the world’s highest clothing consumption rates, with over 200,000 tonnes of garments ending up in landfills annually. On average, each Australian acquires 56 new pieces of clothing per year. Dress rental services offer a circular fashion solution to help curb this trend.
However, questions remain about rental’s environmental impact. Researchers at the Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Fashion and Textiles have partnered with The Volte, a major Australian dress rental service, to study the sustainability of rental garments. They’re analyzing ten dresses to measure the environmental impact based on factors like fabric type, packaging, shipping distance, and laundering frequency.
Associate Professor Timo Rissanen noted that while research is ongoing, initial findings are promising. “These dresses are worn 30, 40, 50, even 60 times,” he said. “In an individual wardrobe, a dress might be worn only five times. That’s where the real sustainability benefits seem to be.”
The research team found that a Zimmerman mini dress, rented 39 times, had saved the carbon equivalent of 507 trees, based on data from Cogo, a carbon footprint tracker.
Dr. Rissanen emphasized the role of rental in reducing overall clothing consumption. “It’s not the complete answer, but it’s an essential part of the range of solutions we need.”
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