Rent-a-Dress
Better than a one-night stand: Thanks to New for the Night, designer-wear can beyours for a fraction of the cost of retail
With a full season of galas and luncheons ahead, we’re grateful to native Texan Brittany Sakowitz, founder of New for the Night, who understands a girl needs to have more than just one little black dress in her closet come party time.
Sakowitz’s website makes designer gowns and cocktail dresses accessible and affordable by renting them to members for three to 10 days at a time. It’s the equivalent of rifling through the virtual closet of your most fashionable girlfriend. The idea stems from Sakowitz’s desire never to wear the same outfit twice to events and special occasions during her college years at Louisiana State Univeristy. She knew that if women could borrow something beautiful for any occasion, they would wear something new all the time. And, even if a lady’s prone to spills, NFTN has expert dry cleaners to remedy that.
New for the Night is the equivalent of rifling through the virtual closet of your most fashionable girlfriend.
Sakowitz came to Dallas recently to celebrate the birth of her burgeoning enterprise at Sfuzzi. Dallas is one of her biggest markets, as evidenced by the crowd of Southern belles that included Merritt Beck, Lauren Clark, Krystal Schlegel, Courtney Kerr, Hillary Litman, Lisa Steiner, Molly Miller and Sally Miller. Girls arrived on the scene outfitted in fashions from NFTN, which they rented online before the party. During the stylish fete, bubblies and pizza sated the palates of 75 chic guests, such as Kelly Unger, Michael Mellon, Lara Malnory, Shireen Hadi, Brian Rutt and Jodi Pulman.
Sakowitz is no stranger to retail. If the name doesn’t ring a bell, it certainly should; her family founded the famous Texas-based Sakowitz department store, which closed its last door in 1990. These days she lives in two different worlds, balancing her practice as a corporate attorney in Houston and actively overseeing NFTN.
Since the launch in Houston in February, the website has attracted more than 5,000 members who shop for dresses for all occasions, from such designers as Cynthia Rowley, Nicole Miller, Rebecca Taylor and Shoshanna, as well as accessories from the likes of Kendra Scott and the Jewelry Bar.
“When I see my life in five years, both pursuits [law and NFTN] are very much still in the picture,” says Sakowitz, who intends to expand the inventory of dresses and designers. Party frocks and accessories can be shipped anywhere in the United States.
Frontiers of Flight Museum store Thomas Garza