Lots of holiday parties & events in the coming weeks.  How can you splurge, guilt free, for something new & fabulous?  What if you want your INVESTMENT pieces to be financial and not sartorial?

Consider renting.

Several websites offer the option to rent your gown and/or bag for a set, short time period.  Current styles, rarely, hardly worn.  The prices are usually about 10% off the full price of the item.  Ordering and return are really carefree since these folks are in the business of making it easy & fun for you to have something new to wear, whenever you want it.

Scoop’s favorites?  RENT THE RUNWAY.com and SWAPHANDBAGS.com.

Rent The Runway has gotten lots of press lately, deservedly.  The site offers great prices on a range of designer DRESSES (just dresses for now), mostly for special occasions - which make the most sense to rent.   The big drawback?  Mostly/Only in sizes 0 through 8, so that’s a bit limiting, especially since a designer size 6 and a Gap / JCrew size 6 have little in common.  Still, if you fit the bill, the options are fantastic.  You can have the PERFECT office party or N.Y. Eve dress for well under $200 and literally look like a million bucks.  Well, at least $2,275 bucks.  Check it out at www.renttherunway.com.

SwapHandbags.com is owned & operated by a Charlottean who wants to make it easy for you to carry new designer bags without having to make “the investment bag” commitment.  This idea of bag rental has been slow to catch on in the conservative south, but sites like this have been rockin’ major East/West coast cities for years.  Swaphandbags.com owner Kari Kahlgren has selected the most accessible designer bags in terms of style and price and offers lots of discount plans/frequency rental plans. ALL less than $100 a week.  And ALL would hundreds, thousands, to buy.

The week of Dec 3-6th, get 60% off any monthly bag rental, just for scoop readers.  read about that deal here.

Rent any Holiday Party Bag at www.swaphandbags.com for only $35/week.  Click here to check out the 27 bags to choose from, including these:

Just be sure you go to the Holiday Party Bags page / link and that you click to the weekly rental.  The special $35 price is already programmed in!