Pregnancy is a very special time for any woman and her family. However, it is also a time when women are faced with a lot of fashion challenges.
With a changing body and growing belly, the question of what to wear especially on special occasions have vexed a lot of pregnant women everywhere. When you are 34 weeks large and need a special outfit to attend a wedding, your choice is to either buy a new outfit that you will never wear again post-pregnancy, or borrow a dress however ill-fitting it may be. Special event outfits are expensive, and tend not to have a lot of mileage in terms of usage after the event – and even more for the maternity versions. How much do you really want to spend for a dress that you’ll only wear for a few hours?
Marcelle Costello struggled with this question when she was pregnant. As she recalls,
When I was pregnant with my twins and needed a dress for a party, it was hard to spend a lot of money on a maternity dress to “make do for now” – especially since I’d probably wear it once, and really for only a few hours.
Realizing that other pregnant women may be in her situation, Costello started RentMaternityWear.com http://www.rentmaternitywear.com . This new ecommerce venture allows pregnant women to rent special occasion clothes and dresses – such as baby showers, cocktail parties, weddings, even date nights – without breaking the bank. The new site solves the maternity wardrobe challenge by making social and special occasion wear available on an as-needed basis, saving the mom-to-be the high cost of investing in these occasion clothes.
The downside of course is that this is a rental outfit, and there’s something a little iffy about wearing an outfit that 30 people may have worn before. Plus, the styles are quite limited, and you don’t get to keep the dress. Even with free return shipping, there’s the hassle of returning the items especially if you find that the fit is not right for you. At $85 a pop per week, the price can be more expensive than some maternity clothes that you can buy from department stores.
Do you think maternity clothes rental store is a good idea? If you are pregnant, will you rent or will you buy special occasion clothes?