About Us

In 2017 LOVE ME RENT ME was started by a Mum of 4 - Karen McCormack based in Dunedin, New Zealand. Her initial goal was to create a trusted online rental business that had an excellent range of options for sizes 6-16.

In 5 years she has one of the largest collection of dresses to rent in NZ with over 750 dresses in her collection. This range is thoughtfully chosen to cater for different fashion tastes and sizes and her business has grown very quickly into a successful Boutique Rental Business. This success of course comes down to customers wanting to rent our range. It is also in part because of the personal service they give.  This is reflected in valued return customers, new customers from word of mouth and growth every year ( even through Covid.)

LOVE ME RENT ME is now a mother and daughter team which is exciting. Ella is an important part of choosing stock and keeping Instagram away from non tech savvy Mum.

One of the most positive parts of LOVE ME RENT ME for Karen who covers the weekly local try on service is meeting the people that come to the dress room. She loves being part of the process to help this be a positive experience & to help the customer find the perfect dress for their occasion.

 

Are we a sustainable business?

We are trying to be.

As we travel our business journey we are very aware that people may question how sustainable is renting a dress?

There is much debate over this issue and it will continue to be for a long time until we learn to get the balance right. We aren’t perfect at this but we are trying and open to learning.

Our thoughts on our own business at this time is very simple.

“RENT ONLY WHEN YOU CAN’T WEAR SOMETHING LONG TERM”

This is quote to remember that I read recently.

Our main range of dresses that we stock are formal. We buy these dresses so that you don’t have to spend 100’s of dollars on a dress you may only wear once. This rental  is affordable and the hope is that it is worn and loved by many. We are not a business that wants to be trend based like some are. This kind of business contributes to feeding fast fashion habits and the impact of overproduction.  

We have this in mind when we look at buying in a new rental so that we try and get this balance right. We obviously want our pieces to be popular eg. rented, loved but also have quality piece’s that can cleaned easily, worn multiple times over the life of the hire, repaired when needed and then passed on at the end of being rented for more wear. They need to last.

We also acknowledge that some of our customers want the latest hire that they have seen on Instagram and that there is another who wants a dress that looks perfect on them and has no thought of the latest trend. We put a lot of thought into getting the balance right for both.  The customer that chooses a rental we purchased last year and has been worn by 15 others vs the customer that wants the new fav piece on Instagram that we saw too and purchased with hope may be one of the top hires for the season are the same. They are both helping with less fashion consumption ending up in our landfill.

If you  love it… rent it.
LOVE ME RENT ME