When Courtney Fitzsimmons splashed out $3500 on a designer dress, she knew she spontaneously paid for something she was only going to wear once or twice.
“I’m a single mum of four kids and could have paid half a term of school fees,” the 33-year-old tells 7Life.
“I couldn’t return the runway dress from Zimmermann and I loved it too much to resell it.”
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Instead of letting her statement piece go to waste, she listed it on a fashion rental marketplace.
“Within just three weeks of listing it at $325 a hire, I’d made back my money,” Courtney says.
The Australian CEO of a finance company has always invested in high-end pieces, so when she realised her little side hustle could lead to a lucrative business, she decided to cash in her wardrobe.
“I’ve always been a fan of buying quality clothes and having a limited wardrobe, but a great one,” she explains.
“Buying into the ‘fast fashion’ economy doesn’t sit well with me. I would never contribute to the $4 top.
“It’s amplified by targeting younger girls and they get stuck in the cycle of you just chuck it out if it washes badly, but it wrecks the planet.
“The maths just doesn’t add up for me and I have a corporate job where I have to wear nicer clothes often.”
With a stunning collection of designer dresses in her wardrobe, Courtney went from renting out a single frock to 20.
“I was on a high after my first rental,” she says.
“This is a great way for me to have a banging wardrobe and make extra money on the side from it. It justifies the way you turn spending into something mindful.
“It’s money for jam… and it’s not hard on the pocket. I like that it reduces my carbon footprint too.”
Eventually, Courtney started struggling to keep up with the demand.
So she employed Alice Thaxton to help run her wardrobe on dress hire platform The Volte under her business name Rentrobe.
“The volume of orders I was getting was sizeable and it was becoming hard to sustain with a full-time job and four kids,” she says.
“It’s a way for me to justify my wardrobe spend to now being something I consider a second income, and allows me to take time off with kids and bridge the gap with more expenses.”
The business now brings in up to $15,000 a month just from renting out Courtney and Alice’s own dresses to women all over Australia.
“Side hustles are a great added income stream,” Courtney says.
“The money we’re making from hiring out dresses definitely helps with the rising cost of living, and we’ve now been able to expand and get a studio where we can store the dresses and photograph them.
“Business is booming and it gives women the chance to wear beautiful dresses while saving on wardrobe space and money, and helps prevent fast fashion.”
The lemon and pink feathered Rachel Gilbert Zion mini dress she purchased for $1000 has been so popular leading up to Christmas, it generated more than $10,000 in the last four weeks alone.
“It’s been a great return on investment,” Alice tells 7Life.
“It’s a super flattering dress and suits lots of different body shapes. This fun style is proving popular for Christmas parties and girls’ lunches, weddings and christenings.
“Plus it’s a statement dress so it makes sense for people to hire over buying and wearing to only one event.”
Courtney says the dress hire platform offers lenders the option to purchase insurance for loss of items so there’s peace of mind when renting out her gowns.
“There aren’t really any negatives to renting out your wardrobe — the highs definitely outweigh the few lows,” she says.
“Occasionally, a tiny number of returns might require specialist cleaning or alterations to fix accidents, such as a stiletto heel piercing a hem.”
The business now offers 450 luxury dresses to rent.
“We started off buying and listing the clothes we like personally, but now it’s become a business we have expanded,” Alice says.
“We get popular dresses in extra sizes and colours, like the $439 L’Idee De Luxe Gown which we have in nine colours.”
The Volte is the brainchild of Perth friends Kym Atkins, Bernadette Olivier, Genevieve Hohnen and Jade Hirniak, who saw a gap in the market for luxury fashion at an affordable price.
“Designer fashion is no longer just for the wealthy and elite. You now get to wear the designer dress without the exorbitant price tag,” Bernadette says.
“There’s been a big shift in consumer behaviour over the last few years, people want less garments in their wardrobe.
“It’s more about fashion on demand and being able to reinvent your look.
“Renting is becoming more mainstream, you can rent a beautiful dress and give it back.”
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