Today we’d like to introduce you to Nikoleta and Vicky Lirantonakis.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Nikoleta and Vicky. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
We’re sisters that grew up in Salem MA and have shared a love of fashion for as long as we can remember. Our mother had us dressing up for everything: school, doctor’s appointments, and even to play at the park with our friends. Our love of dressing up stayed with us throughout our teenage years, during which we both won “Best Dressed” in high school.
At the time the idea for Best Dressed came about, Nikoleta was working as a buyer for a boutique in Nantucket and Vicky as an IT Project Manager at Hill Holliday. Our friend used an online rental service and didn’t have a great experience. We thought, “Boston really needs a brick and mortar dress rental boutique”. Three months later, we signed a lease and three months after that we opened our first store in Charlestown in March of 2015.
After styling over 1,000 women in our first year, we realized the demand was out there, so we opened our second location in South Boston in October of 2016.
Has it been a smooth road?
Of course, there have been challenges!
One of our biggest challenges is hiring the right people, delegating to them and making sure that they share our vision and passion for Best Dressed. In our business, our clients feed off of the energy of our stylists. Hiring someone that we can trust to make our clients look and feel beautiful, and keep them wanting to come back for every event, is the most important thing to us.
As founders, we wear so many hats and it’s hard to admit that you aren’t strong in every aspect of the business and realize that it holds you back. We’ve realized that we have to hire people with strengths in the areas that we don’t excel in (which is a huge challenge, in and of itself) and something we are still working on.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Best Dressed – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Best Dressed is a designer dress rentals boutique in South Boston (we recently closed our Charlestown location and are already looking for a new spot). We rent out designer dresses and provide styling advice, jewelry and accessories to elevate your style, and help you look and feel your best for all of your events. We make getting dressed up affordable, you won’t ever have to wear the same dress twice to all the events you have. We believe that you can rent your dress and own your style!
We are most proud of the feedback we get from clients – anything from how easy the experience was, to how beautiful and confident we helped make them feel. We love knowing that our service has helped make dressing up more affordable and easier for women in the Boston area.
As of now, we are the only place in the city where you can rent a dress. What sets us apart is our free styling advice and that we stock a variety of designers and styles across sizes 0-14, in order to provide our clients with hundreds of options to choose from. Being able to try on the dresses prior to reserving them, saves our clients the stress of ordering something online.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
What we love about Boston and owning a business here, are the people in the communities we’re in. Whether they’re clients, other entrepreneurs/business owners, or neighbors, we’ve built so many relationships that we rely on to continue doing what we love.
We grew up here and like many others, would love to complain about the weather, the traffic, and the T, but we’re keeping it positive in 2018, but its only January so ask us again next month!
Pricing:
- Dress rentals range anywhere from $40-$150, average is $70 (includes dry cleaning)
- Jewelry is all under $40 (to buy, not rent)
Contact Info:
- Address: 489 East Broadway South Boston
- Website: www.rentbestdressed.com
- Phone: 617-765-8661
- Email: hello@rentbestdressed
- Instagram: @rentbestdressed
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rentbestdressed
- Twitter: @rentbestdressed
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/best-dressed-boston-2
Getting in touch: BostonVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
