Colorful Herve Leger, Erin Fetherston and Badgley Mischka frocks turned Ursa’s Cafe into a designer boutique on Monday night when Rent the Runway put on its first large-scale event at Washington University.

Rent the Runway, a web-based startup founded by two Harvard Business School graduates in 2009, markets itself toward college students by forming alliances with universities, sponsoring and planning events, and tailoring its website to include a special “college” section, complete with dresses sorted into categories such as back-to-school, homecoming and even “crush party.” One of the ways Rent the Runway has aligned itself with Wash. U. has been by appointing “campus representatives,” undergraduate students who put on events promoting the company such as Monday night’s trunk show that allowed girls the chance to try on and rent designer dresses at discounted rates.

“Our sole purpose is to get the Rent the Runway name and image out,” sophomore and campus representative Casey Merber said. “We offer tons of promotions and discounts. It’s mostly about brand recognition.”

One of the main advantages of the site is that it enables members to get designer labels without the designer price tag. The rental aspect helps girls avoid repeating their outfits while still saving closet space. The prices that the dresses rent for are extremely marked down; rentals range from about $40 to $450 for dresses that have retail prices ranging well into the thousands. Each dress order comes with an optional free second size, and if truly in a pinch, members can order a second dress style at a reduced price as well.

“People very often don’t understand the concept until they actually get a dress and are nervous about how it’s going to fit,” Merber said. “The dresses are of such high quality, and it’s so much fun. People don’t understand until they do it, and then once they do it, they fall in love.”

According to junior and campus representative Elizabeth Garai, the site also has a great return policy.

“I’ve rented for semiformal, formal and Linus,” she said. “I had one experience for athlete formal when I rented a dress and neither two styles that I rented or two sizes worked, so I called the company and they gave me a refund and a $95 credit.”

In the hopes of increasing the effectiveness of its events, Rent the Runway strategically hosts them before key Wash. U. social activities, such as Linus. The corporation controls most of the event by printing out flyers and sending dresses that are a full range of sizes.

“This was our first major event, and we had more of a turnout than we expected—not optimal yet but really, really good,” Merber said.

Despite recognition of the corporate name, few students have previously used the site.

“I’ve online-shopped many times on [Rent the Runway], but I’ve never actually ordered something,” freshman Clara Auvray-Stiritz, who attended the event, said. “I definitely think that seeing them around campus has made me more aware of them, and now I would consider renting something because I think it’s a useful service.”