Dress Dilemnas

Yes - flashes please!

Sorry in advance for giant pictures!

The first four images are the inspiration for the second designer.

I honestly can't find any nice images of the first designer's dress! It looks like this but even this photo doesn't make it look very nice. Making me a little worried incase it was really horrible!!

One of the reasons I am tempted to go with the first designer I met was I didn't try anything on of hers that made me feel *** - whereas every bridal boutique I've been in before and since left me feeling decidedly porky :'(

If it was me, second designer. Although, I didn't know what dress I wanted until I tried some on.

x

I'm not sure why one would be keen to go down the route of having a bespoke dress made abroad by an actual dress designer/maker? I mean when it's to be a couture dress from Germany, rather than (for example) a copy of an expensive dress via eBay China. The latter is obviously understandable, as you're getting a massive discount.

Surely one of the main draws to having a couture dress is that you physically go into the place, get measured up, get to feel the fabrics and then choose what you want.... Then put on a muslin 'mock' dress and see if you're happy with the shape, the look of it etc..... Then put on the real dress and have it tweaked to be just how you'd like it.

If you didn't have all of that (I assume you wouldn't go to Germany), would you take it somewhere for alterations if you weren't happy with it, or it didn't quite fit?

I had a bespoke dress made, which included lace. Interestingly one of the things that also put me off doing so initially was that it would be fairly plain, highly structured - but no sparkles, just like you commented. I had also started to get accustomed to the sparkle bits you get on many dresses in bridal shops, and did think my dress would be too plain without them. Your average bridal shop dress is actually made in a factory in China, where they can get sparkley bits hand-sewn on at a pittance, whereas from a bespoke dress-maker, this would have cost me another £500-1000 for the extra hand-sewing, which I didn't want to pay (I did actually check the price of this). I went with the 'plain' bespoke dress in the end, as the cut of the dress ended up being more important to me than the sparkliness.

You say you know what the answer 'should be'? What is it? It does sound to me like you're saying you prefer the designs of the German dress maker and may not end up quite so happy with the London one's dress. Kinda like it's a 'safe' option?

FWIW. you have sent pictures of very different dresses to Germany. Are you able to have a computerised visual mock-up of a potential dress before they start making it? Seeing those pictures, I would have no idea what the designers would produce after looking at them all. Are you able to actually agree a design in pictorial form before they start?

I had a smiliar dilemma in that I couldn't find an off the peg dress that was perfect. I did find several American designers whose designs I loved, but I was just scared that I'd somehow get my measurements wrong and the dress wouldn't fit and it would be too late to do anything about it. In the end I've gone with a dressmaker in Scotland, so even though I can't go in person for fittings, she can easily send me samples and a mock-up so I can be sure it'll be right. So yeah, I think I'd probably go with the London one for peace of mind.

I might be completely missing the point as I've never spoken to a designer in my life, but can't you ask the london designer to design you a dress from the 4 inspiration pictures? Isn't that what designers do...?