← Her Style Podcast | Shopping, Color Palettes, Fashion, Wardrobe, Outfits, Clothing
Her Style Podcast | Shopping, Color Palettes, Fashion, Wardrobe, Outfits, Clothing
233 | Nuuly Review! I Tried a Clothing Rental Service for 2 Months and Here's What I Think
00:19:05
I finally did it, friend. I decided to see what all the fuss is about firsthand. I joined Nuuly in March and after testing out two months worth of hauls, I’m ready to share all of my candid thoughts about this clothing rental company. If you’ve...
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I finally did it Friend. I decided to see what all the fuss is about firsthand. I joined Nuuly back in March and after testing out two months worth of hauls, I am ready to share all of my candid thoughts about this clothing rental company. If you've been debating about whether to rent clothes on a monthly basis, you are definitely going to want to turn up your AirPods. In today's episode, I'm sharing the good, the bad, and the unexpected discoveries I've made about Nuuly and whether or not I'll be continuing to rent on the regular.
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Welcome to her Style podcast where we're all about empowering you to show up and get dressed every day with confidence. I'm your host Heather Riggs, a 15 year and counting certified image consultant and color specialist ready to build a wardrobe and a personal style you love. Let's get started.
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Let's back up for just a minute before we dive in into the nitty gritty of Nuuly. Friend. I never thought that I would be trying a clothing rental service aside from maybe rent the Runway. After uncovering more than 30 cocktail dresses in my closet just a few years ago, I vowed not to buy any more special occasion pieces. Now I will just wear what I own or I may rent for a one time event like a wedding or something really special like that. But my husband has always been a hard no on regularly renting clothing or anything for that matter. He has a very Dave Ramsey mindset about money. So we don't rent, we buy. If we can't afford to buy, we save up or we do without. It's super practical over here around these parts and I've been a very strategic shopper in recent years so I haven't really had the need to rent clothing either. Now let's cut to about 6 to 8 weeks ago I sat down and I got really serious about planning my spring and summer wardrobe. I already told you in another recent episode that I never ended up buying anything on my shopping list from last year. So I knew that I had some gaps to fill in for the season ahead and I really wanted to get on top of it this year. Now if you're on my VIP email list, I sent you all the details of my under 1k spring wardrobe. If you missed that email and you're not on my email list and you want to see how I budgeted and exactly what I bought for this season, just send an email to supportherstyle llc.com and we will get a copy of that over to you but anyway, as I was mapping out what I needed for the spring and summer, I really wanted to pick up a couple of pretty blouses. These were not a need, and they were at the very bottom of my shopping list. I do like to have some fun feminine pieces for meeting with clients, running my weekly group coaching calls for her style collective, going out with friends, or for the random date night. I do have occasions to wear pretty tops, but I also knew that I could make do with what I have. So as I was window shopping for all the pieces that I wanted and needed for the season, I stumbled upon this really lovely blue printed blouse at Anthropologie now friend. It was $98. And this isn't about whether you find that price to be reasonable or unreasonable. Personally, I would have happily spent that money, but my entire spring and summer budget was $1,000. So to buy this one pretty top, even at a price that I found reasonable for a top, I would have been spending one tenth of my entire spending money on that piece. And I had other things that were much higher on my list of priorities, like bathing suits and a matching linen set and some new shorts and some pretty important basics for my wardrobe. So a pretty blouse like that was a nice to have but not an essential need. And I kept looking at different tops and thinking about how much all of these beautiful pieces were going to add up to. And I had a thought. I was like, okay. Instead of using easily half of my budget to get a handful of cute shirts that I would likely get tired of more quickly because I don't know about you, but I feel like the more memorable a printer, a color, or a style of top, the less likely I'm going to want to wear it over and over and over. I will wear all of my basic staple pieces again and again. But the more memorable an item, the less frequently I want to break out that item. So I had the thought, what if I used some of my spring summer budget to rent some clothes instead? I had heard a lot of great things about Nuuly. Some of my clients have used that service before. So I decided to head over there and I check it out for myself. And I discovered that their regular monthly service is $98 a month. So for the exact same price of the one Anthropologie top that I was looking at, I realized I could rent six items from Nuuly for the exact same price. Better yet, I followed my own advice and I did a quick search for online coupon codes, and I found that Nuuly will actually give you $15 off for your first two months of rentals. So I decided to pitch this $166, 60 day experiment to my husband and he actually agreed. Much to my surprise that it made sense he got on board with my girl math. I also in turn agreed to use a portion of my spring shopping budget to cover the first two months of payments. And so I went ahead and signed up. And do you want to know the craziest part of this whole story? Is that as I'm browsing around after I just signed up for Nuuly, looking at what they had to rent. Do you know they had the exact anthropology top that I wanted to buy for $98, so I was able to rent it in my first haul instead of buying it. And with that money I was able to bring five other pieces home at the same time. If you didn't know, Nuuly is actually owned by Urban Outfitters, which is the parent company to Anthropologie and Free People. So the first thing I should say is that you really need to like that general clothing aesthetic because it does have a largely Anthropologie vibe, which personally is right up my feminine and dramatic style alley. So I was definitely at home looking at all of these beautiful, fun pieces. So let me start by sharing how I chose my first six rental items because I do think this is the hardest part. Like with any online shopping, you want to make sure that you're choosing wisely, not only in terms of styles, but sizing, color, all of the things. So as I do with all of my wardrobe planning, I looked at the calendar first to see what events I had coming up in that first 30 day window. Really all I had going on was my typical work zoom calls, including the Shop your closet challenge. I did wear a couple of Nuuly rentals for that event. Would love for you to guess which ones. Feel free to head over into our free community and take a gander. I also had some sports events for my son and a couple of social outings with friends. So just some basic stuff that I would do on a normal month. So what I chose for my first rental, the first piece that I chose obviously was the Anthropologie top that I wanted because how could I resist? And I really did love it. But it was also fun to send it back and then get all new things for the next month. So I have not bought any pieces from Nuuly. Other things that I picked up for that first month were a favorite daughter Collegiate sweatshirt which ended up being perfect for the transitional spring weather. It gave me a sporty chic look that I could wear to my son's lacrosse and baseball games. I also wore it to a casual dinner out with friends. I picked up a pink long sleeve mini dress that ended up being a little bit heavyweight for this time of year. I only wore it once to church, but it was still cute. I enjoyed it. It was fine. I also got a floral print pintuck blouse, a ruched blouse from Aster the Label, and a sequin button down shirt that was super fun. I wore and enjoyed everything. And if you want more tips on how to pick the perfect rental pieces, please let me know because I will tell you it took quite a bit of time and strategy to get this right, but I have been 2 for 2 on successful rental hauls thus far and you know I'm always happy to share my tips and tricks. So I will be happy to let you know my method for choosing and ensuring that I get the best quality rentals. And then for this current rental that I have now, I planned two pretty dresses, one for Easter and one for Mother's Day, which I may find other occasions to wear as well. But I also don't feel bad about wearing each one only once because that is the beauty of a rental. I just get to send it back and get new things. And then I got another button down shirt in my exact eye color this time which I've already worn twice, and a butter yellow cashmere T shirt because you know my obsession with soft butter yellow pieces. I also picked up a balloon sleeve blouse which I wore on a recent collective group coaching call. And I got a cute ruffle sleeve top that'll be perfect for spring and some upcoming social events that we have. So that's kind of what I picked and what my rentals have looked like over the last two months. I'm really not using it for any wardrobe basics, but just those fun pieces that I wouldn't normally buy for myself. So let's talk a little bit about the experience. As you know I'm a half glass full kind of person, so I always like to start with the positives. And some of the pros are that first I realize this is kind of an isolated experience for me and others that are in this area, but I live very close to Nuuly's home base, so my orders have arrived super fast. I'm talking within one to two days of putting in the requests. So at least for me, I will say the turnaround time was very quick, which makes planning a whole lot easier. I can't speak for everyone's experience nationwide, and obviously Nuuly is only available in the United States, but if you're in the Philadelphia area, this is definitely a nice perk. And for friends listening in other parts of the world, you might want to look into clothing rental options near you and just kind of see how it compares on all of these different points. But I will say another pro is that it's been so much fun getting new pieces every month without having to spend hundreds of dollars. If I added up how much all of the individual pieces cost, there's no way that I would have been able to get those things on top of what I needed for my base spring and summer wardrobe. I've been able to try out new brands, items I wouldn't normally want to invest so much in, and have really cute, somewhat impractical pieces to wear to the events on my calendar. This also allowed me to get everything on my spring summer wish list without sacrificing the fun once that I had in mind. At the same time, yes, I realize I'm investing in the clothing rental service itself, but at a fraction of what I would have spent to buy all of these great extras. So it's been a really nice win win and it's working out well so far for my family. And I will say also Nuuly has a very nice selection of clothing. It's easy to search for what you want based on your preferred sizes. You can look at what types of clothing you want. So searching by categories whether you want dresses, pants, shorts, skirts, etc. You can look by occasion and you can even filter your search further. For example, I knew that I wanted to get a long sleeve dress for Easter since the weather can vary so much this time of year. I definitely didn't want to be cold or have to worry about a layering piece. So that filter helped me more easily find the selections that I was looking for and the return process is very simple. Thankfully I have a UPS location right next to our nearby grocery store, all within about 10 minutes of where we live. So I just doubled up and I dropped off my Nuuly return right before hitting up the grocery store for the week. And I wanted to get my next Nuuly delivery before the Easter holiday which was was prior to my next rental period. But it was very easy to move up my shipment date and just pay for my next rental ahead of time. Now that said, I wish it was all a glowing review, but there are a few cons that I do want to warn you about. First, sad to say, the quality isn't amazing. The anthropologie top that I wanted initially was brand new. It arrived to me with the tag still on it, so that was pretty awesome. But everything else that's come so far you can tell has been worn a few times. Nothing's been completely worn out, although I have seen negative reviews on some items to that effect. But you're not getting a fresh new wardrobe. You can tell other people have worn these pieces before they've been around the block, so you might need to lower your expectations just a bit. That said, I've also had to steam and freshen things up when they arrive. Nuuly does take care of laundering the items for you, which is nice, but they don't arrive in perfect condition, so I will either fluff them up a little bit in the dryer or steam them, iron them, and I will always spritz on a hint of my own Henry Rose perfume so I don't feel like I smell like someone else or someone else's laundry. I have figured out a way to guarantee a decent rental selection to the best of my ability. As I said, I'm happy to share that if it's of interest to you, I can do another episode on that specifically, but but it's tricky. There are no size charts on Nuuly, so you kind of have to go by what other renters have said about the fit when you're deciding which size to request in an item. Or you have to try to look up the original item elsewhere to find more of those fit details. And to that same point, it's kind of time consuming. You can browse Nuuly anytime and save items that you're interested in to your closet. So I have started accumulating some pieces that I'm interested in for the future, but it's taken me quite a while to curate both of my monthly hauls so far. Maybe I will get faster with experience. That's my hope. But there are a lot of options to sift through and I found that it's pretty critical to read through the reviews in order to make the best possible picks. So if you are super busy and you hate shopping, it might be kind of a nightmare for you. I just have to warn you now, this hasn't happened to me yet, but apparently if something becomes unavailable after you've already selected to rent it and you've locked in your rental for the month, Nuuly will voluntarily swap in another piece without checking with you first. So as you can imagine, with me, that is probably not going to go over very well because I am so picky about what colors, prints and styles I wear. In fact, a lot of the selection I wouldn't even consider because it's not going to be right for me personally. Now I'm praying that with the quick turnaround time I've experienced so far, this will be a non issue or at least a few and far between type of occurrence. And furthermore, the last thing I want to say is that once you rent, you're locked in. You can't swap those pieces out if you don't like them, so there's always a chance that you won't be able to fully utilize all six of your monthly rentals. If the quality is really poor on an item or if the color is inaccurate, you're stuck with it. And you really do need to plan ahead, which can be kind of tricky if you don't know what the weather is going to be like for that event. You have three weeks from now. Like I said, when I was picking out the dress I wanted to rent for Easter, I had to kind of guesstimate what the weather was going to be like. So what is next for me? I have decided that I'm going to keep renting with Nuuly. All in all, it has been a really great experience. I've definitely enjoyed getting new items without the long term commitment and keeping my wardrobe feeling fresh and exciting without doing major damage to my wallet. Now that said, I truly believe this is the last step you should take on your style journey. If I didn't know which styles suit my body, what colors look best on me, or what was going to work with my real life and my personal tastes, I think that this would be a completely overwhelming process and a huge waste of time and money. You really need to be a confident and strategic shopper in order to take full advantage of a month to month clothing rental service. Once you're crystal clear on what you like and what works well for you, you're going to be able to filter through all of the choices in a very intentional way. There is, as I said, a limited fraction of items that I actually want to rent from the bigger picture of what they offer. And if you have no idea what you like or what you need right now, then I would love to help you with this. Doors are open to my 90 day group coaching program, Her Style Collective. You are welcome to join us anytime. We have an amazing group of women inside this community at all different phases of the journey so you are right on time to join us inside this program. We're gonna get clear on what works for you in this season of your life. You will learn all the style foundations you need to dress more confidently for the rest of your life through the physical changes, the lifestyle transitions. No matter your budget, your personal taste or where you're starting from, this is a personalized approach to discovering what works for you and how to build a wardrobe you love. You can get all the details and jump in with us right now@herstylellc.com collective and of course I will share all of my tips to finding the perfect pieces for your wardrobe. Whether it's from a rental service like Nuuly, finding your ideal brands and stores in person or online or within the walls of your own closet, you might have a ton of hidden gems just waiting to be uncovered and styled in new and better ways. So friend, I would love to team up with you inside Her Style Collective and we can get you all sorted out with your purchases, rentals, whatever it is that you need for your wardrobe this season. I hope it was helpful for you to hear about my renting experience with Nuuly. If you have had an experience with them, I would love to hear about it as well. Or if there are other clothing rental services that you know and love, please share them with me too. You're welcome to send me a DM over on Instagram at heatherriggsstyle and we can certainly keep the conversation going.
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Thank you for listening to today's episode. If you want to stop copying everyone else's style and start dialing in your own swoon worthy signature look, head over to take my free 5 minute personal style quiz which you can find at the link in the show notes. If you've enjoyed our time together, please be sure to rate, review and subscribe to Her Style podcast so you never miss an episode. Finally, I invite you to make this.
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A two way conversation and send me.
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A DM over on Instagram etherrigstyle to let me know how I can best support you on your style journey. I'm always here for you in style and service. Until next time.