Blink and we’re four months from February 2021 when I was first introduced to Armoire, a clothing rental service that is based in Seattle. Since then I’ve rented 31 items and $5583 worth of clothing using the Unlimited Service Plan and that’s a pretty amazing feat considering that I also did a bit of quarantine in Canada during that time and I didn’t have any in-person events to go to.
Because our family is all now fully vaccinated and my kids are home this summer I’m ready to head to Canada to see family as soon as Canada gets rid of the lengthy quarantine so I’m going to put my subscription on pause for a bit along with pausing a lot of the rest of my life for summer as well. But I’ve been really thankful that Armoire let me try this out and I thought I’d share the highlights and benefits and why I’ll likely be back to renting in the fall.
I love that you can rent seasonal items with Armoire
I rented an amazing Nike coat that I probably wouldn’t usually buy because it was lavender and not totally practical but I ended up wearing it a few times during my rental and it was such a fun coat. I also rented a leopard print Boden jacket that I was really tempted to keep (it’s still available to buy at nearly 50% off its retail price). I like that using this clothing rental service allowed me to try things that are outside my usual fashion comfort zones. When you don’t actually have to buy something it takes a lot of the pressure off feeling like you need to wear it to make the purchase “worth it”. And I really liked trying things without worrying they would end up in the landfill if I didn’t end up liking them.
My favorite items were from Boden where I could rent soft jersey dresses and I also liked the Wish You were Northwest brand sweatshirts that I tried. (They were really soft). It was nice to have leisure options from this clothing rental service as well as fun attire and dresses for more formal events. There was a gold dress I had my eye on as well but I did not have much opportunity to wear a gold dress while we were staying at home.
I might actually have too many rentals with the Unlimited Subscription
I am not a fashion blogger so I’m not usually the focal point of my social media and our fast-paced, on the go lifestyle usually means I’m frantically getting dressed and not thinking too much about what I’m wearing on any given day. So as we go back to life, I think being able to rent a few set items a month and not having to worry if I’m utilizing my subscription would be the best way for me to do a clothing rental service. So when I sign up again I will be doing a capsule with a smaller number of rentals especially because I like the idea of renting seasonal items or items that usually get only one use like the dresses I often buy for galas.
But if I was someone who needs a lot of different clothing options during a month the Unlimited is such a handy plan. I think I could have rented over 31 items in one month alone if I really organized what I was wearing day by day and kept track of my ordering. If you rent a lot of things the price of renting is considerably less than what you would pay if you had to buy all these clothes. It also helps keep a lot of clothing out of the landfills and that is something that is very cool.
I do still like buying my own clothes and washing and wearing them again and again. But with Armoire’s clothing rental service, I also really appreciated being able to borrow instead of buy, to try new to me styles without the pressure of having to keep them in my closet and I love that this company is based here in Seattle. I’m looking forward to starting up again after we get through the most epic summer we’ll ever have. Do you have big summer plans too?
(PS. In September 2021 Armoire just added NFL jersey rentals to their site which is absolutely brilliant. I’m not sure if it’s all the teams but I know I saw pictures of Seattle Seahawks jerseys you can rent. So that might be one more reason to sign up too. It’s nice to be able to wear fanware to a game but and if you don’t want to keep it in your closet, this feels like such a great idea.)
Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys. She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live. She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)