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A secondary school teacher who used to spend £100 a month on new clothes now rents a high-end work wardrobe -which includes brands worn by Kate Middleton- for half the price.
Laurie Matthews, 28, from Torbay, south Devon, receives a box of high-end clothes from brands such as Hobbs and LK Bennett, every month, some of which are worn by The Princess of Wales.
She started engaging with clothing rental content on social media out of curiosity and came across clothing rental company, The Devout.
Laurie got a half-price deal at £29.50 a month – averaging each item of high-end clothing at £5.90. However, now she will now pay the full price of £59, meaning that each item costs £11.80.
Kate Middleton recently rented her stunning green Earthshot Prize Awards ceremony dress, called The Sabrina frock, by Solace London. It costs £74 a night from HURR, when it retails for £350.
Laurie Matthews used to spend £100 a month on new clothes, but now she is renting a more high-end wardrobe for half the price. She is wearing the LK Bennett Lucia dress which retails for £329 which she took on holiday to Venice
Earthshot Prize Awards ceremony in Boston: The Princess of Wales paired the rental gown, which retails for around £350, with a choker which was previously owned by her late mother-in-law Princess Diana
The teacher now steps into work wearing clothing that have been worn by The Princess of Wales. Laurie is pictured here wearing the LK Bennett Phelia dress which retails for £249
Sometimes she even receives pieces with the tags on, meaning that they have never been worn before.
The price includes the cost of accidental damage- such as broken zips, lost buttons and stains- delivery and wet-cleaning.
Laurie told MailOnline: ‘I’d never be able to buy myself regular LK Bennett or Whistles clothing, but I think it’s so beautiful and elegant, so it’s just a really nice way to kind of wear it without having to commit to owning it.’
For Laurie, every penny is worth it. She said: ‘I still think at full price, if you’ve got the budget for it, it’s still good value, because you get five pieces. The quality of the items kind of makes it worth it, you couldn’t buy them for that cost.
‘When I was weighing up in my mind whether it was budget efficient for me for me to do it, I kind of thought well, how much do I usually spend on clothes? Probably at least £100 a month.
‘So it’s still more cost effective for me than buying things. I guess it’s a similar principle to people who lease their car on finance. It’s just I get to change change every month, as opposed to every few years.’
Each box contains on average around £500 worth of clothes from top brands that you can choose from.
Kate is wearing a Hobbs coat on Christmas Day in 2016, which is one of the brands the website offers
Stylish: The 28-year-old wanted to be mindful of the environment and be more sustainable in her approach to fashion. She is pictured here wearing the leopard plisse midi dress from Whistles which retails for £169
The secondary school history teacher wanted to be mindful of sustainability, but also wanted the feeling of buying and wearing something new, without having to commit to the wardrobe space.
She said: ‘I wanted that feeling of having something that I could wear a lot in a very short period of time because I loved it.
‘But then as I get to the point where I would usually be getting sick of an item, I just send it back and get new items.’
‘I wanted to reduce the amount of new clothes that I buy every month because I noticed that while I wouldn’t describe it as fast fashion in the sense of I don’t buy something wear it once and then get rid of it, I would often buy something and wear it a lot in a very short amount of time, and then kind of get sick of it because I’d worn it so much.’
Carrie Johnson is also a fan of rented fashion, as she wore a hired wedding dress when she married former Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, in May 2021.
Her Christos Costarellos wedding dress costs £2,870 new but she hired it from MyWardrobeHQ for £45 a day.
She also rented a 1960s-style houndstooth mini-dress from Eponine London to meet the Queen at Balmoral in 2019.
Carrie’s Christos Costarellos wedding dress costs £2,870 new but she hired it from MyWardrobeHQ for £45 a day
The 1960s-style houndstooth mini-dress from Eponine London Carrie wore to meet the Queen at Balmoral in 2019 (pictured)
Last year Kate recycled a Whistles blouse that she wore in photographs taken at St James’s Palace as she cuddled up to her then fiancé Prince William in 2010
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