{"id":355718,"date":"2026-03-30T20:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T20:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/355718\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T20:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T20:30:10","slug":"dresses-for-rent-hawkes-bay-mother-builds-a-business-from-her-wardrobe-to-stay-home-with-her-baby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/355718\/","title":{"rendered":"Dresses for rent: Hawke\u2019s Bay mother builds a business from her wardrobe to stay home with her baby"},"content":{"rendered":"
She had been working as a teacher aide before going on maternity leave and started thinking about options while she was pregnant.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a few dresses in my wardrobe, and my friends would often borrow them for events,\u201d she told Hawke\u2019s Bay Today.<\/p>\n
Woodham said she realised Hawke\u2019s Bay was missing something like it, and decided to fill the gap.<\/p>\n
Starting with her own collection of about 10 dresses, she invested in more stock, built a website with help from a friend, and launched Dress NZ about a year ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen I made a bit of money and could invest in some more dresses,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The first to go out was a yellow satin dress for a Havelock North client.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was exciting … I was like \u2018that\u2019s happening\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n
Woodham holds the first piece she hired out, a yellow satin dress for a Havelock North client. Photo \/ Rafaella Melo<\/p>\n
Now, her collection has grown to about 60 dresses, all available for hire through her website.<\/p>\n
Customers across New Zealand can rent a dress for a flat rate of $60, and have it delivered.<\/p>\n
Woodham said most orders come from Hawke\u2019s Bay and the wider North Island, with a flow of rentals each week for events such as weddings, 21sts and race days.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the moment it\u2019s roughly six dresses a week,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m starting to get more traction now so I\u2019m hoping by next summer I\u2019ll be nice and busy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The dresses range in value from about $250 to $900, and while she admits having a few favourites, none are off-limits.<\/p>\n
Woodham has set up a space in a spare room at her home to display the dresses, where customers can come in and try them on. <\/p>\n
Woodham’s collection grew from 10 to 60 dresses, rented for $60 each across the country. Photo \/ Rafaella Melo<\/p>\n
Running the business from home has allowed Woodham to shape her days around Ruby.<\/p>\n
Mornings are spent together, while naps and evenings are used to create social media content, wash, steam and package dresses for delivery.<\/p>\n
\u201cWorking my own hours and being at home with Ruby. That was the dream,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Woodham hopes to grow the business further, expanding her range and reaching more customers across the country.<\/p>\n
For now, she says the most rewarding part has been creating a way to stay present in her daughter\u2019s early years while building something of her own.<\/p>\n
As for her close friends, they still get to borrow dresses, and have never had a better wardrobe to choose from. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"She had been working as a teacher aide before going on maternity leave and started thinking about options…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355719,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6794,1561,60780,138,55508,2082,71,1976,1364,1345,6178,111,43,139,69,16401,2069,61,51645,102],"class_list":["post-355718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-baby","tag-bay","tag-builds","tag-business","tag-dresses","tag-for","tag-from","tag-hawkes","tag-her","tag-home","tag-mother","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-rent","tag-stay","tag-to","tag-wardrobe","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}