Disclaimer: This post IS NOT aimed at any of my wonderful friends who have ever borrowed a dress of mine – you all just keep doing what you are doing 🙂

BUT, have you ever leant someone a dress for a special occasion only to have to beg, scrape and steal to get it back in a somewhat wearable state, sometime before the next century? (I never have – all my friends are wonderful and as previously mentioned in the disclaimer, can just keep doing what they are doing).

I HAVE heard about a friend of a friend of mine though – she leant a friend of hers several frocks (some of which she hadn’t actually worn herself yet). She had to practically stalk the girl to get her frocks back, and to top it off, the girl she leant them to had put her heel through the dress, didn’t tell her, and then lost the belt!

Now I’m the kinda girl that LOOOOOOVES lending my friends frocks when they need them (after all, I do have a pretty awesome collection of frocks if I may say so myself) and my philosophy is that I can only wear one outfit at a time anyway so I may as well share the love. However, not everyone is as easy-going as me, and after hearing that story from a friend of a friend of mine, I decided it’s time to discuss the rules of borrowing and lending clothes!

If you are the chick-a-dee who is doing the BORROWING:

1. Always ASK, never assume you can borrow something – even if it’s your sister

2. Never expect to borrow something that is brand new! (Some people are fine lending clothes they haven’t worn yet, but have some respect for your friend if they don’t want to lend you their brand new Lisa Ho silk maxi – she bought it!)

3. Offer to dry-clean, or wash the clothes after you borrow them

4. If you damage the dress, be honest! Tell you friend straight away, take it to a seamstress or dry-cleaner and see if you can get it fixed, and if you can’t offer to replace the dress.

 

5. THIS IS THE IMPORTANT ONE: Return what you borrowed in a timely manner! This usually is a week or two after the event.

6. Give a little thank you gift – saying that, I never expect my friends to do so, BUT one of my gorge friends did give me a box of choccies once after borrowing a frock and it was the sweetest thing!

 Now, for the lovely ladies who are doing the LENDING:

1. Don’t be afraid to say no! I know it’s hard to say no to a friend when they ask for something, but if they are asking to borrow something that is a) new, b) sentimental or c) really expensive – it is ok to say no!

 2. Set time limits. Don’t be scared to tell your friend that you will need the garment back by a certain time, even if it’s just to make sure that you get it back!

3. If your friend accidentally damages the dress that she borrowed, try and be understanding. You made the decision to lend it to her, you knew that there was a chance that it would get damaged so try and be graceful (even if you are screaming inside because it was the last Willow dress left in the sample sale and you fought off seven other girls to get it….)

4. Don’t be scared to chase your dress! If your darling friend is lagging and hasn’t returned what she borrowed after a long time, ask for it back!! Sometimes people have it sitting in their house ready to give back to you, but just keep forgetting about it (I do that with DVD’s – they sit at my front door for weeks!)

 

So that is my two cents worth for the sake of all playing nicely in the wardrobe! If you stick to these simple etiquettes, you should have no problems borrowing and lending clothes to your girlfriends!

 

Have you ever lent a friend a frock where it ended in disaster? Tell us what happened!!