Renting clothes for vacation is taking over Instagram travel posts

A fun seafood print linen top against the brushed white walls in Santorini. A delicate, flowing floral print dress against the rolling hills of Tuscany. A draped, bright red ensemble against a multi-colored sunset. Somehow, every girl on my Instagram feed is affording herself both the spectacular vacation and the spectacular vacation outfits. If you scroll down your IG feed, you might notice something similar.

It’s easy to feel like trendy, colorful outfits are completely out of reach for the more stylish people in your feed. But in 2024, there’s a trick to everything, including wearing Lisa Says Gah and Farm Rio while simultaneously traveling around Europe. The secret to being able to afford those vacation clothes isn’t always an endless fountain of cash or unimaginable credit card debt. It’s simpler: you don’t own those cute clothes. Everyone rents their vacation outfits.

Dress rental services are nothing new. Rent The Runway started back in 2009. Celebrities have been renting dresses for special occasions since red carpets were invented. But it’s only in the last five years that dress rentals have evolved from something only offered for special occasions to a way for regular people to add higher-quality pieces to their wardrobes.

Marley Peters, a Washington DC-based attorney, has been using clothing rental services for about three years. “I started using them when I was in law school because I wanted some variety in my outfits, but I didn’t necessarily want to spend a lot of money and I wanted higher quality clothing,” she says. She continued using the service when she started working in an office. “I needed some variety in my clothes and I wanted to have nice clothes, but I didn’t want to pay the high price. Plus, I wasn’t sure what I liked.”

Peters uses Nuuly, one of several clothing rental services that offer their customers monthly rentals for a set price. “I chose Nuuly because I thought it was kind of fun and there was a bit more variety to choose from.” One month while picking out her clothes, she noticed that the site had holiday deals. Since then, she has split her monthly selection between work and vacation.

This holiday edition that Peters saw on Nuuly was the result of thousands of customers using the service as a kind of travel inspiration. Rental services have started to adapt their collections to customer behavior.

Sky Pollard, head of product at Nuuly, quickly noticed a trend on the platform. When customers created wishlists for items they wanted to rent in the future, they were all named after different cities.

“There are destinations that people put on their bucket list, Positano or Vail or some other wonderful place,” says Pollard. “We knew pretty early on that travel was a big reason why people choose Nuuly in the first place.”

Nuuly’s internal survey found that 80% of their customers wanted to use the service for vacations and travel, including outings, concerts, parties and weddings. Customers under 30 were most likely to rent clothes specifically for vacation, especially in spring and summer. One brand that was particularly popular for vacation lists was Farm Rio. Farm Rio, a Brazil-based brand known for its colorful prints, typically sells dresses for $200 and up.

“With a brand like Farm Rio, for example, the range is so great for travel,” says Pollard. “It suits us so well. I think customers really feel the value of my $98 subscription. You can get a lot of these amazing clothes that really stand out, that look great in photos and that you wouldn’t normally wear in everyday life. It just gives that trip that extra something special, something different, something that really feels like a vacation that’s so different from normal life.”

Brands like Farm Rio will soon be even more prevalent on the rental site as travel-related activities like concert tours become more popular. “We’re actually going to get more specific about some of the ways we talk about travel on the site,” Pollard says. The company plans to make the rental collection even more destination-focused. Think pink outfits for Nashville, cowboy clothes for music festivals and linen dresses for Italy.

If you go to Nuuly’s website, you can see that “Rent Trips” is already one of the top tabs on the page, between “Rent Trends” and “Rent Occasions and Events.” It’s similar to another popular rental service for young women. Fashion Pass breaks its vacation categories down into subcategories: Tropical Getaway, City Exploration, Summer in Europe, and Travel Day. This model is very attractive to young people who want to wear something new and fun, but don’t want to make big purchases on clothes they only plan to wear once.

“I feel like I can have fun expressing myself, but I also don’t have to waste my money and the environment. In college, I would always do a big Pretty Little Thing or Fashion Nova haul on vacation,” says Peters. “I started working, had more resources, and became more educated on the subject. I realized how damaging fast fashion can be not only to the earth, but to the people who design and make these clothes. It just became a better option for me instead of spending a bunch of money on clothes I might only wear once.”

So how does it work? With both Nuuly and Fashion Pass, you pay a set price per month ($98 with Nuuly, $125 with Fashion Pass) and for that price, you get a set number of items. With Nuuly, six items are included in a monthly order and with Fashion Pass, you can get two monthly orders of five items each. To get more orders or more clothes per month, you have to pay more.

After you sign up and pay the fee, you choose the clothes you want to rent. This can be challenging for two reasons. First, you now have a huge closet of options at your disposal. Second, you need to know your own sizes exactly so you don’t end up with shorts that are too big and dresses that are too small.

“The stress is that every body is different. Although I try to read the reviews, it can be a little stressful when you have something you really want to wear and it doesn’t fit,” says Peters. “I’ve just gotten into the habit of trying the clothes on as soon as I get them, even though it’s kind of annoying. But that way I can see what fits and what doesn’t, and that way I don’t overpack and waste space in my suitcase.”

Once you receive the clothes that come through the mail, there is also the stress of not owning them. What if you spill something on them? Or something gets stuck?

“If you make a mistake or have an impact that causes a scratch or something, they seem to take care of it,” Peters says. “I haven’t had anything stripped, but I also try not to get any cracks. But I don’t worry too much about that because that’s life and things happen.”

When you return home, you can pack the clothes back up without worrying about washing them and send them back whenever you’re ready. While researching this story, I tried Nuuly for a trip to Chicago. I wanted to know if being in a new city with new clothes would be as big a change as it seemed to my friends online.

Almost everything fit except for one dress. It was nice to wear clothes that were nicer than what I had in my closet. I wore $110 Farm Rio shorts, a $150 Wrangler jacket, a $300 sundress, and a $100 tank top. The outfits were cuter and more expensive than I would have packed from my own collection of basic t-shirts and versatile dresses.

As I walked around Chicago in my expensive shorts, there were things that a perfect outfit couldn’t change. I was still sweating in the August heat. My hair was still frizzy to comical heights. My body was still in the clothes and in the photos. It was a good reminder that no matter where you go, you are always there – even if you are wearing new clothes in a new city.

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