When Michelle Taylor started Get Dressed Dress Hire in April, her idea for the home-based designer dress hire business in Shellharbour was to fill a need.
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Taylor started small because she did not know how much demand there would be. She soon discovered demand was high. And now she is increasing the range of garments and accessories.
Get Dressed Dress Hire was established as a dress hire service for women looking for something different to wear out to an event or function.
Taylor said her philosophy was: "Why spend a fortune on a dress you know you'll only wear once?"
Her objective was to give women the chance to find dresses they liked at affordable prices.
Her service is so popular she is even finding herself posting dresses to customers in other states.
For those looking for dresses in the Illawarra, she invites them to visit her home studio for a free styling session, during which they can try on different dresses.
In many cases they hire one and then come back later to hire another they had liked.
"The inspiration came from interstate services that do the same thing," Taylor said.
"They are very popular.
"I noticed there was nothing like that, that I had heard of, here.
"We just try and offer nice dresses that people don't want to pay top dollar for. And they can afford to wear something different each time they go out."
Mrs Taylor said the reason she got into fashion was that she loved clothes and she loved to dress well.
And it comes as no surprise to those who know her that she loves the process of shopping for the business and building up the range of dresses in sizes from 6 to 14.
Taylor said many of her clients were in their 20s and 30s.
"I even had one girl wearing my dress at the Darwin Cup last weekend," she said.
"And I have someone in Perth wearing one to a business lunch and another won was worn in Melbourne last week to a wedding."
Mrs Taylor recently spoke to a Sydney designer who has agreed to let her stock some of her current season dresses.
"And we will be launching a range of fascinators at the end of the month too," she said.
"They are made locally by Kera Bruton, of Kera Millinery. She is making fascinators to match some of the dresses so we can hire out a whole outfit for the races."
Taylor has been getting the message out successfully at networking groups, such as Business in Heels at Addy's in Shellharbour where there will be a fashion parade featuring her range on September 30.
A website is presently being developed.
In the meantime, the facebook.com/getdresseddresshire page is the quickest way to see the range and make inquiries.
Taylor is the mother of two young children and works in client services at Finance Control.
She runs her dress hire business outside work hours.