TAKE a tip from Sunday’s Oscar nominees: When you’re going glam, don’t buy – rent.
Celebrities aren’t the only ones who can be loaned or leased thousands of dollars worth of dresses, bags and shoes. Women who are not boldface names can score a temporary piece of bling from Web sites like bagborroworsteal.com and designer services here in New York.
And a number of lucky-but-notfamous also occasionally score free one-night outfits if they attend the right events.
Alison Minton, a New York party and hospitality planner, started wearing borrowed designer gowns worth thousands of dollars five years ago when she was planning an event at the Waldorf.
Before long, Minton was being regularly offered designer wares to pose in.
“And as my picture started appearing in Quest and Avenue magazines, they think there’s an opportunity to get the merchandise seen. It’s a relationship built up over time.”
Now she’s in a position to ask Cartier if she can borrow jewelry, just like an actress. She donned $128,000 worth for the Museum of the City of New York benefit two weeks ago. For the Frick museum Young Fellows event on March 9, she asked Judith Ripka to loan her white gold and diamond earrings that retail for $12,450 and a diamond cuff bracelet worth a cool $15,600. As for who they will lend to, Judith Ripka is strictly VIP, “The fact is we do not make a practice of loaning,” says company president Janice Winter. “I’m wearing a dress that I own from Badgley Mischka that I bought at a sample sale,” says Minton.
Melissa Berkelhammer, a 28-yearold philanthropist, has some weeks where she’s going to three events, and as fashion houses now sponsor events, they tend to offer to dress the committees. “If people know you’ve done it before, they ask you again.”
Being a sample size helps. And Melissa is, standing just under 5-foot-9. “I was at Escada, and I was trying on these gowns, and some of them are so long, they must be made for runway models. What other 6-foot, size 2 girls are there out there?”
She has worn Valentino, Carlos Miele and Zac Posen. For a cocktail party at Lever House for the Young Living Landmarks, the publicists sent out an e-mail to a select few with an offer from four designers to dress them – Alvin Valley, Carolina Herrera, Hollywould and Lela Rose. “I’ve never really seen that before,” said Berkelhammer.
Minton says most of her nights out where she needs to go redcarpet are work-related. “A lot of times the parties have a theme, and I just can’t afford to buy, certainly not the jewelry, and I’m grateful for the opportunity because obviously the designers are trusting me.”
Designers will only loan clothes to someone who has a certain type of visibility, says New York designer Joanna Mastroianni. “If Jane Smith called me up to borrow for an event, the answer would be no.”
The women Mastroianni lends to go through a season having worn from 20 to 60 dresses. “They do a tremendous amount of charity work and have their favorite designers. This is a way of life for them. They really are New York celebrities. They’re out there and they’re raising money. And this is my contribution on some level.”
Alison Minton offers advice for those who aspire to borrow: Give back and get photographed doing it. “I think that if you establish that there could be some benefit to the designers and if you have a good relationship with people who work in the fashion industry, there’s a good chance,” she says.
And sometimes there’s an instant payoff. “I’ve seen where they borrowed it and fell in love with it, and decided to buy the garment. It is a form of advertising,” Mastroianni says.
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Regal for rent
Mackenzie, photographed at the Cellar Bar in the Bryant Park Hotel, is wearing:
DRESS: * Printed yellow and white silk chiffon, one-shoulder goddess gown with hand-embroidered waist belt by Joanna Mastroianni $6,300
BAG: * Baguette Lame by Dolce & Gabbana $1,695
JEWELRY: * Garland cuff, 18kt white gold and 1.56 carats of white diamonds, by Judith Ripka $12,950
* Pave Lola ring, 18kt gold, canary crystal center stone and 1 carat of white diamonds, by Judith Ripka $4,000
* Pave Capri earrings, 18kt white gold and 2.06 carats of white diamonds, by Judith Ripka $5,900
MAKEUP: * Romero Jennings, senior artist for M.A.C. Cosmetics
HAIR: * Ken Cranford for Stephen Knoll New York
What it would cost to buy: $30,845
To rent, it’s: $900
Turn the page for details
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Four ways to rent one night of glamour
Designer duds to go
Albright Inc. is New York City’s fashion library – the only place in the country that rents current designer fashion worldwide. “We just serviced the Chinese Academy Awards,” says Patricia Black, showroom director. Irene Albright, a stylist and former menswear editor at the New York Times, founded her showroom, formerly called Imelda’s Closet, based on her own collection in 1993. “The in-crowd comes in with a recommendation from a stylist, an editor, a publicist or if you’re a celebrity’s mom,” says Black. The company focuses on very high-end fashion – from Chloe, Yves Saint Laurent, Michael Kors, Oscar de la Renta, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Alberta Ferretti to Narciso Rodriguez, Balenciaga, Prada, Christian Louboutin and Manolo Blahnik. The sizing runs from 2 to 6, but she has some 8s and 10s. But dressing in up-to-the-minute luxury duds doesn’t come cheap, even if you’re just renting. “It starts at $500, which gets you an amazing dress, a handbag, a shoe and a wrap.” By appointment only. And if you break it, you own it. http://www.albrightnyc.com
Mind the bag, it’s a loaner
Bag, Borrow or Steal ( http://www.bagborroworsteal.com) is a Seattlebased web site that is the Netflix for designer handbags. They offer diverse levels of membership or access to “closets”: The Trendsetter is $19.95 a month, and gets you bags by Cynthia Rowley, Nine West and Moschino. The Princess, $49.95, gets you bags by Kate Spade, Cole Haan and Dooney & Burke. The Diva, at $99.95, gets you bags by Hermes, Louis Vuitton and Burberry. Deluxe level allows you to borrow two bags at once, and Couture memberships allow Diva members to borrow the latest high-end bags by Gucci, Fendi, YSL and Jimmy Choo for an additional premium. You can keep the bags for as
long as you want, but on average people borrow the bags for a month to a month and a half. They tend to keep day bags longer than evening bags. It generally takes a few days for a bag to arrive at somebody’s house, but they will do their best to accommodate a member with a bag emergency (and isn’t it always?). There’s also an option to lease to own – or buy off the site’s store. And if the possibility of liability for damage to the rental is a stressfactor, you can buy insurance for a nominal fee. “I’ve always said that it’s a way to feel like a million bucks without spending it,” says creative director Brenda Kaufman. “Why not allow everyone to feel like a celebrity? Celebrities have had these things – gowns, bags, jewels – at their disposal for years.”
And here’s the next rental frontier: The site will soon begin to offer fine jewelry and currently has samples up for testing demand.
“We will allow people to get that amazing necklace, bracelet or earring to complete the look for them,” says Kaufman. “David Yurman, Judith Ripka, Cathy Waterman – we’re making sure we have an offering that reaches out to a lot of people.” Stay tuned for launch.
Kaufman doesn’t want to think there is anything they couldn’t lend. Shoe rental makes us squeamish, but hey, if there’s market. “We’ve had guys come up to us and shriek, ‘Golf clubs! We want to borrow golf clubs!’ The sky’s the limit on this one.”
Best face forward
The best tactic for some free makeup application is to ask a sales associate if they could demonstrate something on the eyes. (If you can get that right, the rest of the face is easy.) The M.A.C. counters in the department stores are faster than M.A.C.’s freestanding stores. M.A.C. stores take appointments for makeup application lessons, which can cost from $40 (they throw in a free mascara) or $90 for the deluxe version (you also get 20 percent off your purchase of makeup) so they would be less likely to make up eyes as a demo. But at the M.A.C. counters in department stores, if you buy $40 worth of makeup, you get a free full-face application.
A ‘do for only a few
At Stephen Knoll, student nights are every other Wednesday and are strictly for cuts ($30) and color (highlights, $40). The salon assistants are supervised by the stylists. A blow out by a stylist at the salon costs from $60 to $80, which is the average cost of a blow out at a high-end salon. An up-do costs more. However, if you get lucky and get an appointment for the students’ “style class” every other month, that includes blow outs. Stephen Knoll Salon, 625 Madison Ave., (212) 421-0100.
