The festive season is here, bringing with it expensive shopping lists, day-long parties, choked roads and more. But when the world lives by the click of a mouse, you don’t have an excuse to look anything but your best when you step out the door. A Prada bag? Check. Sonam Kapoor’s draped sari look? Check. And no, we don’t mean buy them — not when rental services like Wrapd, Candid Knots and Rent a Closet offer you luxury wear at the fraction of the price tag. With weddings and celebrations taking over your calendar, three leading rental outfits share their show-stopping options.
Stage3
This Delhi-based rental and styling platform is one of the most popular players. Here, looks can be rented for three or six days, and are delivered as per your size requirements. “Our business goes up by 600-700% in the wedding and festive season,” says co-founder Sabena Puri, who is organising pop-ups to make the most of the demand.
Stage3 stocks a whole range of designer wedding and festive wear, including outfits by Shantanu & Nikhil, Manish Malhotra and upcoming stars like Astha Narang and Bhaavya Bhatnagar. “Draped saris, sari lehengas , dhoti saris — basically all the contemporary variations — are popular,” Puri says, adding that for men, bandhgalas and tuxedos are trending.
Season’s pick: Bhaavya Bhatnagar’s draped saris will flatter every form.
Details: From ₹700 to ₹7,000 (for three to six days), on Stage3.
Rent It Bae
It’s not often that you see a Prada handbag going for ₹6,999. Rent It Bae has brands — like Tom Ford (clutches), Anita Dongre (dhoti sets) and Tarun Tahiliani (jewellery) — that many of us would give an arm and a leg to sport for an evening. The Delhi-based outfit, co-founded by lawyer Aanchal Saini last August, includes western labels, ethnic lines and accessories, all available at 10-20% of the retail price. Keeping in mind the demands of this busy season, Saini says that customers can book their favourite outfits three to four months in advance. They’ve also introduced an unlimited Fashion Subscription Model (for ₹3,999 a month), which “allows you to wear a new outfit every day”.
Season’s pick: A hot pink Prada hand bag — like the Saffiano Lux Large Double-Zip Tote — pictured above. Paired with a jacket-and- lehenga ensemble, you can never go wrong with this one.
Details: From ₹2,000 to ₹15,000 (for four days), on rentitbae.com.
Flyrobe
One of the largest players in this space, Flyrobe has something for everyone. Co-founded by IIT-B graduates Shreya Mishra, Pranay Surana and Tushar Saxena in 2015, they have 120 sellers on the platform (soon to be ramped up to 170), a catalogue with over 4,000 styles, and presence in eight cities (including Chennai). “Our most popular designers this season are Divya Reddy, Prathyusha Garimella and Ritu Kumar,” says Mishra, adding that while lehengas and tuxedos are their biggest revenue generators, they have been noticing a growing demand for fusion wear. The company — who recently got VC funding to the tune of $7 million — launched their Wedding Show this month. Featuring a complete wedding line, they travelled to five cities and “dressed close to 200 brides and grooms”.
Season’s pick: Give traditional blouses a miss this season and choose a cold-shoulder or off-shoulder design. Like Malvika Talwar’s black cold-shoulder with her lehenga .
Details: From ₹900 to ₹30,000 (for four days), on flyrobe.com.
