When living in a city, your lifestyle often costs more than your job earns, and yet everybody else seems to manage to go to the best restaurants, see the best plays – and wear the best clothes. Designer dresses seem to leap effortlessly from the pages of Vogue onto the women of the city regardless of their jobs or bank accounts. Jealous? There is a secret behind the star dressers, and in most cases it is likely to be the dresses are rented. For very reasonable prices you can square up to the fashion elite. Order online for a mere fraction of the dress’ original price and then send it back when you are done. Simple.

Various websites cater for different needs. Girl Meets Dress is the place to go for formal dresses for those special events. The dresses are red carpet worthy, stunning garments and can be rented for tiny prices, ranging from around £40 – £100. There are sections for weddings, important functions and even girls’ nights out! My Celebrity Dress is similar, but focuses on the dresses worn by the rich and famous. Search your favourite celebrity and find many of the dresses they have worn available for you to rent, favourites including Cheryl Cole, Kate Moss and Rihanna. Other easy and buzzing websites include thebudgetbabe.com and walk-in-wardobe.co.uk.

The way it works is simple. You can choose any dress you want (the number of dresses rented at one time varies with site), and choose how long to you want to rent it for.  Pay online just as you would with a purchase and the dress is delivered to your door. When you are done with the garment, most sites supply a pre-paid package to return to them, it is that easy! Plus, each site comes with their own individual perks, for example Girl Meets Dress allows you to try on dresses before committing to a rental, which is very useful, particularly if you are unsure about sizes or trying out a new trend.

If vintage is more your thing, try www.just-pleats.co.uk. Lily Allen’s vintage rental store Lucy in Disguise’s services will be online in April also, with a similar process to those above. Visit www.lucyindisguiselondon.com for more information.

By Kate Vine