Monday, May 7, 2012

Walk the catwalk for charity

By on September 30, 2010

Facebook is ruining outfits.

You head out for the night, wearing your gorgeous new dress, naturally take a ton of pictures — you’re looking spectacular after all — and the next day, bam! Tagged. And everyone has seen it.

Now that outfit’s taboo for at least a week.

Rent the Runway, a new company founded last November, has a solution for college students who want to consistently wear the latest high-end trends, but may not have the budget for it.

It works as sort of a Netflix for fashion.

Sign into the site, create a profile, and reserve a dress that catches your eye for a special occasion. All designer clothing, the dress will arrive on the day you selected in a garment bag with a stylist kit of double-sided tape, deodorant wipeouts, and other goodies.  When you’re done, send the dress back in the prepaid, preaddressed envelope by dropping it in a USPS blue box.

Tonight Rent the Runway will be hosting a promotional fashion show with all proceeds and ticket sales going to UGA HERO.

“We were so excited to work with HERO, for us it is all about supporting the community and being part of things that students are passionate about, and it seems like the entire campus kind of rallies around it,” said Brooke Hartmann, ***.

The fashion show will feature looks by Herve Leger, Robert Rodriguez, Nicole Miller, and others, all whose clothing can be found, and borrowed, on the site.

The show will be broken down by occasion into five different college-appropriate looks — semi-formal, formal, fall wedding, casual date night, and game day.

“We’re trying to just show a wide variety of what’s offered for a wide variety of occasions,” said Melissa Worth, Co-Manager and liaison for Rent the Runway at UGA.

Included in the evening will be a band before and after the show, a date auction, catered food, and a cash bar. And of course, laptops will be on hand so each attendee can create their Rent the Runway profile on the spot.

“At every college we do something a little bit different because it’s like important to have a really customized experience and event based on what’s going on at that school,” Hartmann said.

Hosting an event at UGA makes sense for the Rent the Runway team because Athens has been in their top three college towns in terms of customers.

Merchandise on the site is the current season’s looks, and most are marked down to 10% of retail. Students attending the event will get an additional 20% off their first rental.

“We know one of the reasons you Rent the Runway is because you want to experience a designer that you’ve never been able to wear before,” Hartmann said. “What’s important is that you can, you know, wear that neon, bandage, one shoulder dress that you’ve never really want to own, but you’re dying to wear one night.”