When it starts getting cooler, when people start digging out their sweaters and coats and gloves and scarves go back on display, it means one thing – party season is officially on! I get a little giddy walking through among the shop windows, surrounded by shiny red taffetas and little black velvet numbers, blue brocades and sparkly everything you can imagine. I ooh, and ahh, and make mental wish lists, and pray to the Fashion Gods through the intervention of Saints Klum and Gunn that maybe, just maybe, I will find that delicious dress that will magically fit around both the unequal circumferences of my hips and my chest, settle snugly on my shoulders and still allow me to breathe. And, I add, if that miracle should happen, that it should be compounded by the equally unlikely blessing of my being able to afford it.
Sigh. Well, there’s always Target…
Which, by the way, I can usually count on to have decent party dresses courtesy of Isaac Mizrahi. But I can also usually count on at least two other people wearing the same thing once I get to the party.
So what’s a girl with fashion ideals and a difficult figure to do?
Two words: design online.
I had never ventured into the world of design-your-own dresses, so armed with curiosity, creativity and a burning desire to come away with THE dress, I dove into online design one website at a time.
My first stop was Studio28 Couture (www.studio28couture.com). According to the site, this highly professional company was founded by college junior Andrea Marron in February 2007. Since then she’s been named one of Business Week’s top 25 entrepreneurs under 25.
So far sounds like my kind of girl.
The dress gallery offers three pages of possible dress patterns. I clicked on the Design tab and was presented with an interactive dress menu. Step 1: Choose a bodice out of nine possible. I went with the ‘Samantha’ top, a sweetheart neckline with straps that widen out at the shoulders. Step 2: skirt. Picnic in the Park’ looked good, a nice pencil skirt. Step 3 was the fun part: fabric. I counted 132 fabric options, all cotton and washable, ranging from geometric to flowered to paisley to solid to polka dot. Step 4: choose trim fabric. My final choice was Nickel Primrose, a green paisley, with Willow green trim. Adorable? Absolutely. I liked the options, and the site was easily navigable.
My total for the dress came to $200. A little steep for a college girl’s budget, but on the upside shipping is only $8 for a dress that it said will take 3 weeks to reach me. And on top of that, I could spend that much at a department store and be stuck with the same old ‘off-the-peg’ dilemma. I wanted to design, so I think that’s not too unreasonable to pay for it.
But what other dress havens awaited me? I continued searching and landed this time at www.polyvore.com, a site that invited me to “Mix and match images from anywhere on the web, to create outfits, interior designs, or any kind of collage.” This site is more for creating ensembles, complete with purses, accessories, boots or shoes. It has a metro, night out on the town feel. I must admit it’s pretty awesome. In the dress section I was presented with photos of about thirty dresses, which I could click and drag to create an ensemble with other pieces. The ability to enlarge, flip and zoom in on items is a big plus.
Next I stumbled across www.dressbydesign.com, where I found six basic dress styles. I went with Christine, a belted, short sleeved A-line dress. I adjusted it to have a low V-neck, no sleeves and a mid-length hem, and then I hit the part I liked. Dress by Design allowed me to select my fabric based on category. The categories were divided up by the type of function: i.e., wedding, lunch date, cocktails, cruising, working girl, fall fancy, little black dress. And each category had one to three dollar signs giving me a hint as to how much I’ll be spending. Under Working Girl ($$) I found a divine sage plaid silk georgette. Even better, I could also mix and match the sizing and still end with a $249 tag. Considering that I got more options and, in my opinion, better styles, I’m could live with that. Under the sizing, I could customize each section – bust, waist, hips – by inches along with the hem and sleeve length. I could choose to have side pockets or a close fitting dress. And hey! There was a list of free add-ons, awesome stuff like: skirt ruffle, contrasting waistband, sleeve ruffle, hemline trim, ruffled neckline, sexier sleeveless, low back, A-line mini marikate, deep scoop neckline, flounce, sexy sleeveless back or soft satin belt. Switching fabric from Working Girl ($$) to a Lunch Date ($) category only dropped the price by $30, which confirms my suspicions that the average cost for designing a dress holds steady about $200. I’ve got a special event coming up, and you know, it just might be worth it. And even that cheaper fabric was a gorgeous red paisley that I could totally rock with some red stilettos. Hmm…
My biggest disappointment was that I couldn’t access www.styleshake.com, a website I’d seen some positive buzz about. I tried to load it over and over, but inevitably got turned away by that grumpy “This page cannot be displayed” e-bouncer.
If I decided that I wanted a really fancy dress, www.promgirl.com invited me to send in a photo, image or sketch (up to four), my size, price range, any comments, the date of the event I need the dress for and the name of what the event is: prom, wedding, bridesmaid, etc. In return they’ll send me a form to fill out more info so that they can generate a dress ideally for me. Not bad at all, and again it looks like the average cost range is going start around $245.
So thanks, Ann Taylor and Banana Republic, but I just might pass. You’ve got some pretty dresses in those display windows, and I like looking at them as I walk to work. But when it comes to my special upcoming events, I want to stand out in the crowd. And if for the same price I can design a custom-fit tailored dress that will be one of a kind? Well, then the only problem I’ve got left is shoes and a handbag.
A handbag. 1154 Lill Studio’s custom bags? (http://www.1154lill.com/custombags/) It’s enough to give a girl ideas.
