When I was invited to a charity gala last minute at my first consulting job, I panicked. I had less than 24 hours to find a black tie dress that I liked and that fit. It was my first official adult black tie event, so I didn’t even know where to shop. After hours of searching online for what stores I could drop by in NYC and what they had in stock, I ran into Rent the Runway. That was my first experience in renting clothes off the internet. The first dress fit like a glove, and since then I’m sold on the world of rented clothes.
To be fair, I really only rent dresses for special occasions - cocktail events where I’ve known the people for years and don’t want to show up in the same clothes, weddings with specific dress codes, etc. Every time, I went back to RTR because it was what I tried first and it worked.
More recently, my coworker put me on to Nuuly, another clothing rental service. The $30 off the first month had me switching over fast. I was curious how the two compared, so here are my two cents:
1. Diversity
Rent the Runway has a massive catalog: dresses, bags, sunglasses and so much more. It also has a lot more options within each product category. Nuuly felt much more targeted and focused only on clothing.
2. Shipping
Nuuly was so fast! My order was packed and on its way within 2 business days. Rent the Runway had a couple of instances where I was worried that the order wouldn’t arrive in time, so this was a big Nuuly win for me.
3. Presentation
I think Rent the Runway wins here, but barely. I always felt like both could be delivered in bags that felt cleaner. The Nuuly one definitely felt very used and worn out, which made me somewhat less excited to open the bag. I wanted to take a picture of it for this review, but I didn’t want to touch it so here is a very bad picture of the top of the bag on the ground:
4. Product Quality
Overall, nothing I received from either felt like poor quality. That said, I did read more reviews on Nuuly where the fabric felt too worn, the colors were faded, etc.
5. Other Notes
I personally love Rent the Runway’s one-off rental option with a free backup size vs. Nuuly’s subscription-only model. On the other hand, Nuuly does explicitly state that any dry cleaning and cleanup is included, which made me feel a lot more at ease with my dresses. RTR used to have in-store pickup too, which I loved for a faster pickup, but unfortunately the stores closed in 2020.
Rent the Runway wins the place in my heart as the default option for clothing rentals. It was fun to experiment with Nuuly, especially to be able to see new brands and designs I haven’t seen before, but I don’t love being locked into a subscription-only service.