How to Get the Most Out of Nuuly, According to Nuulyologists
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If you’re a frequent shopper who can’t resist a new arrivals rack, is trying to cut down on the amount of clothes you buy, struggles with limited closet space, or has just attended a lot of weddings this year, then you’ve probably heard of Nuuly. For $98 a month (and $70 for first timers with a code), the clothing-rental service lets you borrow six items from brands like Free People, Hill House, Anthropologie, Farm Rio, Damson Madder, and Lisa Says Gah. You can pick everything from dresses, coats, and jeans to T-shirts and sweatshirts to wear and return ahead of your next billing date, when you unlock your next six items. The rental service offers one membership built around six items, but you can customize on a monthly basis by adding bonus items for $22. If you fall in love with an item (or multiple) from your bag, the service also gives you the option to purchase the item at a discount or buy it directly from the Nuuly Thrift Shop and it add to your monthly order.
As a Nuuly user of nearly two years, my favorite things about the service — besides the fact that I don’t have to be responsible for washing the items I rent — have been the opportunity to play around with my personal style and to save money and space in my closet by renting bigger items such as formalwear, coats, and jackets. But making the most of my subscription and finding the best picks every month can feel overwhelming, especially when the items need to be available in my size and belikely to actually fit. With this in mind, I spoke to four longtime Nuuly users around the city to get their best advice for renting clothes on the platform.
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How to build your Closet
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Start by “window-shopping” — then add items to your Closet
Choosing what to rent from Nuuly starts with building a Closet, a wish-list-adjacent feature where users can save items in one place and start planning selections for each month. Temi Omilabu, a New York lawyer who’s been using Nuuly for two years, recommends scrolling through Nuuly’s “Just For You” page — a personalized section of the site that recommends items based on your browsing history and saved items — if you don’t know where to start.
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If you want to rent something less worn, search new arrivals
Nuuly adds new clothing to the site on a rolling basis and does not have a public calendar revealing when new items are dropping. While this is somewhat of an equalizer — no shopper is at an advantage or disadvantage based on their billing date or schedule — it can also prevent you from feeling totally in control of your monthly order. Kelsey Horowitz, a Brooklyn-based therapist who has been using Nuuly for about two years, recommends filtering for the newest items and browsing on a weekly basis to stay on top of the site’s offerings. As with any rental site, newer items will be less worn. “The trade-off is that if you want to buy anything, it’s not as discounted,” says McCormick.
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Organize your closet into Lists
After adding items to a Closet, users can organize further using Lists, which allow you to sort your Closet into categories. Ivy Peterson, a brand-strategy manager based in Manhattan who’s been using Nuuly for five years, saves items in her closet, then makes her actual lists based on what’s in her calendar for the next few weeks. “I look at my entire month and see what I have coming up — maybe I have a wedding, a date night, or just a lot of work stuff,” Peterson says. “I get the lay of the land and write down in my Notes app ‘One formal dress, two pairs of pants, three fun tops,’ just to give myself something to start with.” You can also use Lists to pin seasonal items, vacation outfits, and special-event outfit ideas in groups for later so you avoid scrambling when it comes time to plan your bag.
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Save backups in case items you like are out of stock
No matter how much time you spend preparing, there’s a chance the items you save will be out of stock when you need them most. Nuuly does not alert you when an item you’ve saved comes back in stock, but it does offer alternatives. “That has happened to me a handful of times, and it’s heartbreaking, so just save backups,” Omilabu says. “Nuuly’s algorithm is pretty good at pointing you in a different direction.” When you’re actually picking out your items, you can filter your Closet using the “Available Now” button so you’re only seeing options that are ready to rent.
How to choose your six items
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Test-drive hard-to-shop-for items and unfamiliar brands
Nuuly is a great way to try pieces that are otherwise hit or miss for sizing. McCormick started using Nuuly to learn about brands that cater to plus sizes. “I love Fashion Brand Company,” says McCormick. “I got a T-shirt from them because it had fun embroidered cigarettes on it, and it was so soft.” Since then, she’s rented more pieces from the brand, including a Bikini Bod T-Shirt Dress. Longtime Nuuly users agree that jeans are particularly worth trying on the app. Peterson has only bought three things in her five years on Nuuly, and they were all jeans. “Jeans are really hard for me,” Peterson explains. “I think I rented each of them four or five times, then I was like, All right, these are mine.” In that moment, she decided to purchase them from the site.
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Use Nuuly for statement coats
“Coats and outerwear are one of my favorite types of apparel, but I don’t have a coat closet,” says McCormick. “If I had my way, I would have a massive walk-in closet filled with beautiful coats. So I try to replicate the feeling by getting different stuff throughout the winter seasons or colder seasons through Nuuly.” Peterson, who skis in the winter but has nowhere in her apartment to store bulky clothing, hasn’t bought a coat in five years but has rented many. Some of her favorites include the Barogodo Ski Jacket from Farm Rio, the Cropped ’90s Ski Puffer from Champion, and the Nightfall Quilted Puffer from Sadie & Sage.
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The reviews are genuinely helpful
Similar to traditional online shopping, it can be hard to tell the quality of an item before ordering. The Nuuly reviews — which are uniquely photo heavy and typically include notes on quality or fit — can really help. “Sizing for women’s clothing in general is bananas, but for plus-size women in particular, it’s so wildly inconsistent,” explains McCormick. “I specifically look for people [in the reviews] who are my size, who look like me, and who carry weight like I do because even with brands you trust, every garment is different.” The reviews also help flag clothing-rental-specific issues, like if certain items show more noticeable wear (fabric piling, color fading, etc.). If an item in your order arrives in poor condition, the Nuuly customer-service team is usually helpful and will generally offer a bonus item or a discount on your next order.
How to make the most of what you get
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Keep items past your billing date
The most structured way to use Nuuly is to rent six items every month and return them ahead of your next billing date to unlock your next bag. You can, however, technically keep your items past the billing date, then return when you’re actually ready for your next bag — even if that’s two weeks into your next month. You’ll still be charged monthly for your membership, but that membership entitles you to keep items longer, postpone your UPS Store run, and return items late if your billing date doesn’t line up perfectly with your special-events calendar.
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If you like it, buy it
Whether you’re using Nuuly specifically to try items before you buy them or to never have to purchase another item again, it’s important to know that buying is an option. Anything you rent on Nuuly is available for purchase and everything is discounted, sometimes up to 75 percent off the retail price. (Discounts are offered on an item-by-item basis using factors Nuuly doesn’t disclose.) The service also frequently offers discount codes that provide $10 or $20 off a purchase, which can be used in addition to the existing discount.
Final-sale Nuuly items are also available for purchase on Nuuly’s Thrift Shop, which is only available to subscribers. Purchases from the Thrift Shop are shipped alongside monthly rentals at no additional shipping cost and do not count against the six items unlocked with a subscription. Many of the stores Nuuly partners with, including Anthropologie, Free People, and Urban Outfitters, also sell retired rentals from Nuuly directly on their websites.
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