Fashion Tomato is a small boutique with two locations just a few doors down from one another (they each sell different merchandise, so it’s like one big store divided in two) located right off of the CTA “El” stop at Belmont. I’ve passed by the windows of both locations frequently over the years and always saw really pretty dresses displayed on the mannequins, but for some reason I just never got around to going inside.
Last month I passed by one of the stores and saw a few vibrantly colored sun dresses inside the window display and decided that I had to go in. Inside I found the store to be a little smaller than I expected but it was still cute with hardwood floors, pastel colored walls, and soft lighting.
Even though Fashion Tomato was really small, I still found it difficult to find all of the dresses that were displayed in the windows which were what drew me into the store in the first place. So I did have to ask one of the sales associated for help on finding what I wanted and she was really friendly and got me everything I wanted. ]
Most of the dresses that I wanted were already sold out in my size, so I had to browse around to find other things that I wanted. It was at this point that I immediately realized that Fashion Tomato put out most of their best dresses in the window displays. And the majority of the rest of the merchandise left in the store was OK, or full out tacky.
I saw that a lot of the dresses and most of the tops at Fashion Tomato were made out of cheap synthetic fabrics, and I also noticed hanging threads from a few of them. Even though the quality of these clothes was bad like a store such as Forever 21, I noticed that the prices weren’t as cheap as Forever 21. The clothes ranged from $20 for t-shirts, to $70 or more for some dresses, even though that’s not expensive I thought that Fashion Tomato was definitely over charging for 70% of their clothes.
Even though I really didn’t see anything in Fashion Tomato as fabulous as the dresses on the mannequins, I decided that I was going to buy something since I’d come all that way. After searching around for about 10 minutes I did see a few cute sun dresses for day and sexier ones for clubs. I wound up buying two dresses and a t-shirt.
One of the dresses was a halter style sun dress made from cotton that had a really pretty pattern, the other was a flowy baby-doll style dress with a unique pattern. I really fell in love with the last one because it looked gorgeous on, but I did find it to be over-priced because at least 10 pieces of thread was hanging from the hemline and when I tried it on I noticed that the zipper wasn’t inserted as well as it should have been. I knew it was poorly made but I bought the dress anyway because it was so unique and pretty.
Overall I would recommend Fashion Tomato to women in Chicago who’re interested in finding fairly inexpensive (but still over priced) dresses that you won’t find anywhere else or on anyone else. Even though there’s a lot of poor quality and not so good looking clothes sold at Fashion Tomato you can still find really cute things if you look at both stores. It’s worth the trip, Fashion Tomato 3 out of 5 stars.
Location: 937 W Belmont Ave
Chicago, IL 60657
(773) 281-2921
