Hire Expectations

The number of times I have pulled a questionable dress out of a stuffed wardrobe and turned to find my client sat on the end of her bed, head in hands confessing “I needed a dress for a wedding and I had left it really late and it was the only one I could find which fitted.”  Said dress is swiftly put on eBay and sold. Buying a dress for a specific event can throw up a whole host of nightmares:  firstly, you can never find one when you need one. Secondly, if you are lucky enough to find a dress, they never have the one you want in your size. Now add into this heady mix a body changing daily with pregnancy or a body feeling the after effects of pregnancy and a new born baby. Then let’s move onto nightmare number three: the cost. No woman who is pregnant or has just given birth wants to spend (read ‘waste’) over £150 on a dress which, realistically she is only going to wear once.

Enter Hire Expectations. The brain child of two sisters, Hire Expectations is a rental company dealing in sumptuous event gowns for pregnant and breastfeeding ladies in sizes 6 – 18. When I chatted to Robyn she animatedly described how many pregnant friends she had seen at events wearing dresses that were not ‘them’ or that they were blatantly uncomfortable in, and how many times she had heard the phrase ‘I’ll wear it if I have to.’

“We just felt that women shouldn’t have to make that compromise or feel that way at an event so we thought it made sense to offer an alternative.”

A very astute man once proclaimed “Fashion Fades, Style is Eternal.” That well-known man was Yves St Laurent and didn’t he hit that fashion nail on the head? Wisely, the clever ladies at Hire Expectations have taken this fashion moniker to heart and worked their whole business plan around it. Simple to use (they even send you a back-up dress if you are unsure what size you are) and with stunning photography to inspire, this gap in the dress market has well and truly been filled in amazing style with brands such as Peaks and Butter by Nadia. 

With trans-seasonal garments, there is not a whiff of fast fashion about the site but just pure, unadulterated glamour. You can read more about them in this month’s Pregnancy and Birth magazine and be sure to head by their Facebook page and point your thumbs skyward!