Online designer clothing rental business Rent the Runway is putting down some D.C. roots.
Rent the Runway, which rents out designer gowns and other items to customers for a fraction of their purchase price, will open a store at 3336 M St. NW in November, taking 4,354 square feet of space in Cady’s Alley that used to be home to the L’Eclat de Verre framing store.
It will be the retail rental’s first standalone store in Washington, D.C., although it has run successful pop-ups in the District in the past, including during President Obama’s 2009 inauguration. Rent the Runway is the brainchild of Harvard Business School classmates Jennifer Hyman and Jennifer Fleiss.
The store will cater to walk-ins as well as those who wish to make an appointment. For appointments, $25 gets clients access to a stylist that can help pick out a gown or other item for an event and then complete the overall look with accessories and other items.
The Georgetown location will be just the second standalone Rent the Runway store; the first opened in the Flatiron district in New York City earlier this year. Other locations include one at RTR’s corporate headquarters in SoHo and in the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Las Vegas.
