Formal & Evening
Dress Hire in Sydney
Hire a formal or evening dress for four days, from $100. Try it on in our Monterey showroom before you book — and if you fall for it, you can buy the same dress instead.
Pickup or delivery across Sydney · Fittings by appointment · Professional cleaning included
Four days, yours
Collect or receive it the day before your event. Back by 5pm on day four.
Cleaning included
Send it back as it is. The dry cleaning is on us.
Try before you book
See it on in our Monterey showroom, by appointment, before you commit.
Or buy it instead
Every dress here is also for sale. Change your mind at any point.
Hiring a dress, start to finish
Find your dress
Browse the dresses below. Each one shows the hire price and the price to buy, so you can see exactly what you’re choosing between.
Pick your date
Open the dress you want and choose your pickup or delivery date on the calendar — usually the day before your event. Your four days start then.
Wear it
Collect it from the showroom in Monterey or have it delivered across Sydney. There is nothing to do to it before you go out.
Send it back
Return it by 5pm on day four, in person or by post. Don’t clean it, don’t press it — we take care of all of that.
Dresses available to hire
Hire from $100 for four days. Every dress on this page can also be bought outright.
Try it on before you hire
A dress you’re hiring can’t be taken in or let out, so the fit has to be right the first time. That’s what the showroom is for. Save the dresses you want to see to your Fitting Room, book a 45-minute appointment in Monterey, and they’ll be ready when you arrive — along with a few you didn’t think to try. Decide there whether to hire it, buy it, or keep looking.
The showroom is by appointment only. We see one client at a time, so the room, the mirror and the stylist are yours for the hour.
43a Hollywood Street, Monterey NSW 2217
By appointment: Monday to Friday, 10am – 5pm · Saturday on request
Ten minutes from Rockdale, Brighton-Le-Sands, Sans Souci and Kogarah, and an easy drive from the Sutherland Shire.
What's included, and what to know
What's included
- Four-day hire, from the day you collect or receive it
- Professional dry cleaning, always
- Free pickup and return at the showroom in Monterey
- A fitting before you book, if you want one
- $100 of accidental damage cover, at no charge
Good to know
- The full hire price is paid when you book. There is no bond.
- If a repair costs more than $100, we’ll ask you to cover the difference.
- If a dress is lost or can’t be repaired, it’s charged at the retail price shown on its page.
- Late returns are $30 a day. If day four lands on a Sunday or public holiday, the next business day is fine.
- Cancel seven or more days before pickup for a full refund; after that, store credit valid for twelve months.
- Hire dresses aren’t altered — that’s why we’d rather you tried it on first.
Hire it or buy it?
Every dress on this page can be done either way. The hire price sits at roughly half the purchase price, so the question is really how often you will wear it.
For one night
Best forOne event
PriceFrom $100 for four days
TypicallyAbout half the purchase price
CleaningIncluded
AlterationsNot available
Yours to keepNo
To keep
Best forA dress you’ll wear again
PriceFrom $199
TypicallyFull price
CleaningYours to arrange
AlterationsYes, in house
Yours to keepYes
A rough rule: wear it twice and buying works out cheaper. For one night, hire it and put the difference into shoes.
Collect it, or we bring it to you
Hire is a Sydney service. Four days is a short window, and posting a gown interstate and back eats most of it — so we keep hire close to home rather than promise a date we cannot hold. Most people collect from Monterey: it is free, it takes two minutes, and you can check the fit before you leave. If that is awkward, we deliver and collect anywhere in Sydney.
Outside Sydney? You can still buy any of these dresses and we will ship it to you. Pickup and delivery dates are set when you book — choose the day before your event, as that is when your four days start. Dresses can be reserved up to six months ahead, and for October to December we would do exactly that.
Pickup and return, MontereyFree
Delivery and collection, Sydney$20
From an Australian 6 to a 20
The hire range runs from a 6 to a 20, and 8 to 14 is the deepest part of it. Sizing varies between cuts — a 12 in one gown is not a 12 in the next — so if you are between sizes, book a fitting and try both rather than guessing. That is what the appointment is for.
Everything worth knowing before you book
Hiring a formal dress in Sydney
Hiring a dress used to mean choosing from photographs and hoping. You would pick a size, wait for a satchel to arrive, and find out on the day whether the straps sat right. Everything about that process was designed around a warehouse, because the businesses doing it were warehouses.
We are a boutique in Monterey with the dresses on racks. Ours is the same offer with the guesswork taken out: hire the dress for four days, or come and try it on first and then decide. A large part of our range can be hired, the list grows as new styles land, and every hire dress can also be bought outright if you would rather keep it.
What it costs to hire
Hire prices start at $100 and most sit between $200 and $400, with the typical dress at $300 for four days. As a rule that works out to about half the purchase price of the same dress — a gown that sells for $650 hires for somewhere near $300.
That ratio is the useful part. Because we sell the same dresses we hire, you can see both numbers side by side on every product page, rather than comparing our hire price against somebody else’s recommended retail. There is no bond, no membership and no joining fee; you pay the hire price when you book, and dry cleaning is included in it.
Hire or buy?
The honest answer depends on one thing: whether the dress has a second outing in it.
A school formal, a single wedding, a thirtieth — one night, one set of photographs, and the dress then sits in a wardrobe for a decade. That is what hiring is for. A mother-of-the-bride gown, on the other hand, tends to get worn again at the next family event, and if you will wear something twice you have already spent more on hiring than buying it would have cost.
There is also a practical difference. A dress you buy can be altered — we do alterations in house, and most gowns need at least the hem taken up for the shoes you have chosen. A hire dress goes back the way it came, so it has to fit as it is.
Trying dresses on in Monterey
Our showroom is at 43a Hollywood Street, Monterey, ten minutes from Rockdale and Brighton-Le-Sands and just off the Princes Highway. We work by appointment only, so book before you come and we will have the dresses from your Fitting Room ready and waiting.
Most appointments run about forty-five minutes, which is enough for six dresses without rushing. People usually arrive with three or four saved online and leave having chosen something they had not considered — that is normal, and it is why we would rather you came in than gambled on a photograph.
What we hire for
The biggest part of the hire range is evening and formal gowns, followed by mother-of-the-bride, wedding guest and school formal. Sizes run from an Australian 6 to a 20, and plus size is a real part of the range rather than an afterthought.
If you are after something for a Year 12 formal, book early — September through November is when the range thins out, and the popular gowns go first. Everything else is easier: a fortnight’s notice is usually plenty, and you can reserve a dress up to six months ahead.
Hire questions, answered
How long is the hire period?
Four days. Day one is the day you collect the dress or it is delivered, and it needs to be back with us by 5pm on day four. If that falls on a Sunday or a public holiday, the next business day is fine.
Do I need to clean the dress before I return it?
No. Professional dry cleaning is included in the hire price, and we would actually prefer you did not attempt it — some of these fabrics do not forgive a home steam.
Can I try the dress on before I hire it?
Yes, and we recommend it. The showroom is by appointment only — book a time, and your saved dresses will be ready when you arrive.
What if the dress does not fit when it arrives?
Tell us within 24 hours and send it back unworn with the tags attached, and we will swap the size if we have it or issue store credit. This is why we would rather you tried it on first — a hire dress cannot be altered.
What happens if I damage the dress?
Small things happen and we expect them. The first $100 of any repair is covered at no charge; above that, we would ask you to cover the difference. If a dress cannot be repaired, it is charged at the retail price listed on its page.
How far ahead should I book?
You can reserve a dress up to six months in advance. For Year 12 formals between September and November, book as early as you can — that is when the popular gowns are already taken.
Can I buy the dress instead?
Yes. Every dress on this page has a purchase price as well as a hire price, and you can switch to buying at any point, including after you have tried it on in the showroom.
Keep looking
Hiring a wedding dress? That is our sister boutique — Bridal Dress Hire in Bankstown.
