Fashion trends come and go quickly, but the clothing you buy usually stays in your closet for at least a year. How do you indulge in temporary trends without overspending and cluttering up your closet? Lots of people are turning to clothing rentals as the answer. Nuuly offers monthly clothing rentals from trendy brands to help you stay fashionable and try out new styles. At the end of each month, you can return your clothes and try something new. If you find something you love, you can buy it at a discount.
Nuuly’s rental services allow you to borrow 6 pieces of clothing per month for $88. This service offers clothing from trendy brands like Free People, Anthropologie, ModCloth, and more. Nuuly is best as a supplement to your usual wardrobe for statement pieces. Their selection is perfect for experimenting with style and showing off at social events.
Nuuly Overview
Nuuly’s rental service has lots of youthful, trendy styles. There are also a lot of statement pieces, which are perfect for women looking for ways to supplement their wardrobes. There are big, furry coats for nights out, metallic pants, western shirts, and more.
Nuuly also has some more conventional pieces, like work-ready pants and wrap shirts. I think the main draw is the unique pieces that are fun to wear, even if you don’t want to keep them in your closet.
Pros:
- Choose your own rental items
- Current, trendy clothes
- Enough size options to fit almost anyone
Nuuly lets you choose your own items for each rental. A lot of clothing rentals ask you to add a certain number of items to your closet, and then they choose pieces to send to you according to availability. Nuuly’s approach gives you more control over your rentals, and isn’t that what you’re paying for?
Another great thing about Nuuly is the kind of clothes they carry. I love when rental services have a lot of outlandish, loud pieces most people wouldn’t wear on a daily basis. Instead, you can rent them and have fun wearing a wild outfit a few times before returning it. There are wearable pieces from Nuuly, but they also carry oversized lime green fur coats and ruffled tops.
Nuuly carries sizes 00 to 40W, along with petite sizes up to 16P. There are clothes available in every size, even the largest, although options decrease significantly for sizes over 26W. If you’re pregnant, you can also check the maternity section for loose, flowing clothes.
Cons:
- Only 6 items per month
- Some items are worn out
- You might not be able to find your size for every item
Nuuly only lets you choose 6 rentals a month for the flat $88 cost. You can add two more items, but they’ll cost $18 each, which isn’t cheap. Most other services let you exchange your rentals at least once, including Nuuly’s competitor, Haverdash.
Like any rental service, there’s always the possibility of getting an item on its last legs. Maybe the previous user was rough on it, or maybe it has been worn dozens of times already. Either way, worn-out clothes are always a disappointment.
Nuuly has an impressive range of sizes, but the available selection varies by size. For example, that faux fur jacket might not be available in size Large, but maybe Large is the only size left in the corduroy jacket. The best way to avoid heartbreak is to shop by size.
How does Nuuly work?
Nuuly is a clothing rental service that lets you borrow 6 items per month. It’s a flat rate of $88, unless you add items on or buy anything.
The great thing about this service is that you can choose the specific items you want to rent. A lot of other rental services involve the company choosing 6 items randomly from pieces you’ve added to your virtual closet. With Nuuly, you have complete control over what you receive. If you find that 6 rentals just isn’t enough, you can add up to 2 extra rentals each month. It’s $18 for each additional rental, though.
When you add items to your closet, they aren’t added to your Nuuly rentals. Your closet is just a place to keep track of clothes you like so you can rent them when you’re ready.
Nuuly has reusable bags they use for sending and returning items. They also skip out on wrapping the rental clothes in plastic. I love this choice! It cuts down hugely on packaging waste, and I think more subscription services should consider using it. Rental services in particular are perfect for reusable packaging, since the clothes are a temporary loan and you’ll send them back anyway.
Nuuly handles all the cleaning, and doesn’t charge any fees for normal wear and tear, from stains to small rips. That means you can skip laundry day, and that you don’t have to deal with any stains you create! Their experts will clean the clothes and keep them in great shape for the next person who wants to rent them.
If you keep your rental longer than a month, you’ll still need to return your items from last month to get a new set of rentals.
How do you return items to Nuuly?
Nuuly sends items in a reusable bag, and they include a prepaid shipping label to use for your returns. There’s a pocket for your shipping label on the outside of the bag. Put your clothes back in the bag, add the shipping label, and then drop it off at a UPS location.
How much does Nuuly cost?
Nuuly has a straightforward pricing system. It’s $88 per month to subscribe to their rental service. Each month, you can rent 6 items, with no returns. That works out to about $14.66 per rented item.
If you want more rentals, you can pay $18 each for up to two additional items.
Nuuly also lets you buy items you’ve rented. You can buy things by visiting the At Home section of your account. You’ll see the option to buy the different items you’ve rented, usually for a discount. Items are more steeply discounted depending on how long they’ve been in rotation. You probably won’t get a large discount on newly added clothing.
How do you sign up for Nuuly?
To sign up for Nuuly, you need to create an account and add your billing information. After you create an account and the company bills you, you can start browsing their clothes.
Add your favorite items to your closet or the “My Nuuly” section. They can ship your order once you add 6 items to the “My Nuuly” section. You only get one set of rentals each month, so choose carefully!
What brands does Nuuly send?
Nuuly specializes in trendy brands like Anthropologie, Urban Outfitters, Free People, and more. You can find a variety of styles, from casual athleisure and slouchy sweaters to fitted blazers and slinky dresses. A quick browse through their selection showed me gold velvet joggers, a Budweiser tee, and a ruffled blue blouse with a sophisticated print of prowling cheetahs.
This service is unique because it has true vintage options that were worn decades ago. This is a really cool option for rentals that I haven’t seen before. When I checked it, they had worn-in denim, 90s overalls, a gorgeous striped 60s dress, and more. Their vintage section only has a few dozen pieces, but it’s nice to have the option.
Nuuly also has a huge variety of sizing options. They offer petites from 0 to 16, and sizes 00 to 40W. If you wear size 18 or smaller, you’ll have a decent selection in each category. Their jeans selection seemed a little sparse for plus sizes.
There are limited options once you start looking at sizes larger than 26W, however. Most of these pieces are from the brand Universal Standard. There were 5-7 dresses available in size 28W to 40W, depending on the exact size I selected. Nuuly had 17 size 40W tops available when I checked. Still, most fashion subscription services stop at 24W or 32W at the highest.
They have a maternity section, and it’s mostly items with free-flowing waists and oversized fits. Most of them aren’t specifically designed with pregnancy in mind.
Final Thoughts
Nuuly is a fun way to add statement pieces to your daily wear or experiment with new styles. The selection is more youthful and bolder than most clothing rental services. There are lots of quality brands available and plenty of styles, from bohemian to rocker chic.
Each clothing rental comes out to about $14.66, which is a decent price to pay for clothes that range in price from around $50 to more than $800. Nuuly can help you save money on clothes you’d only wear a handful of times. There’s also an environmental advantage to buying fewer clothes and renting them instead, especially with Nuuly’s reusable bag and plastic-free packaging.
I recommend this service to anyone who wants to wear exciting new clothes on a regular basis without having to buy all of them.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you cancel Nuuly?
Nuuly allows you to cancel online just by logging in and clicking a “Cancel Subscription” button. Your cancellation only goes into effect after UPS scans your return label, though.
It’s important to send back your rentals at least 2-3 days before your next billing date, to make sure your account gets cancelled on time. Otherwise, the service will just bill you as usual.
Can I see what’s in my Nuuly order before it arrives?
Yes! Nuuly is one of the clothing rental services that allows you to make your own rental selections, so you should know exactly what to expect. You can also check the “At Home” section of your account if you want a reminder of what items you’re currently renting from them.
Who are Nuuly’s competitors?
Haverdash is another rental service with similar brands and styles. Both of these are catered toward a more youthful style. They have a lot of eye-catching options like bright faux fur coats, balloon sleeve sweaters, and wide-legged pants. Haverdash offers unlimited rentals 3 items at a time, and it’s significantly cheaper at $59 per month.
Rent the Runway operates the same way Nuuly does: you choose your own rental items and the company sends them to you in a reusable bag. However, the pieces available through Rent the Runway are all designer, and you can end up renting over $1000 retail value with just 4 items.
