Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with dresses

Where can I find a inexpensive dress in Paris?

Vanna79 — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 14:58:14 -0800

I have just moved to Paris and am not at all familiar with the area. I am in need of a black dress for a wedding that I am in at the end of the month but can't find anything for a reasonable price. If anyone knows of a good place to find nice dress for 200EUR and under I would greatly appreciate the help.

Bridesmaid Dresses, Racket or Not?

Flying Squirrel — Tue, 20 May 2008 21:05:58 -0800

Bridesmaid dresses & alterations: legit or racket? I'm wondering if there is a legitimate reason for the amount of alterations that are routinely made on bridesmaid dresses.

I don't have an agenda, I'm just curious and haven't figured out a reason for this practice.

I've only been fitted once, it required a couple different alterations (it looked like it was ordered two sizes two big in the first place). My question at the time was, why can I go into a mall and find hundreds of dresses that fits me perfectly, yet need to be subject to alterations and multiple fittings as a bridesmaid?

Is it just a way for the dress shop to bring in extra money, or do these special tailored dresses really make a finer fit?

For the record, I'm about a size 4 or 5 and slim build. Any insight would be appreciated!

Beyond the wedding factory

otherwordlyglow — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 10:22:24 -0800

Help me escape the grasping tentacles of the billion dollar wedding industry: where does one view and inspect and maybe try on nontraditional wedding dresses? Looks like I'm getting married (yay!) but I don't want a poofy bedazzled lacy monstrosity of a dress. I'll probably have a dress made but I'd like to get some ideas for dresses and the websites I've looked at for ideas don't have nearly the specificity in searching that I'd like. They usually allow you to specify color, silhouette, and/or neckline but then I still end up with hundreds of ugly dresses to wade through. What I'd really love is a website that allows for excluding characteristics (for example, I don't want a strapless dress and I don't want a white dress through ivory is okay). And I don't want to have to tell the website anything about me since I don't want to get on any spam lists or mailing lists or receive any advances from the wedding industry. But I don't mind registering on a website as a totally fictitious person. I'd also like to go someplace to try on dresses but again, do not want to have to be hard sold on any aspect of wedding planning. I get the impression that once you're known as a prospective bride, the marketing campaign begins and I'd like to avoid all of that.

So, good websites to look at and search for interesting dress ideas and places to go in the San Francisco area that won't overwhelm me with wedding propaganda, please?

Help Me Help the Bride

messylissa — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 23:59:32 -0800

Good sites for affordable bridesmaid dresses? My friend is getting married this September (I'll be in the wedding), and we are having one heck of a time finding bridesmaids dresses. She found one she LOVED (shown here [in the smoky plum color]), but at $160, not all of the bridesmaids can afford the dress. I know that, realistically, that's really fairly inexpensive for a wedding party dress, but because the timeline is 6 months, it's important to respect everyone's financial constraints (at least if you're going to be a Not Insane bride), which means that we're looking at a $100 ceiling.

What are some good places to look? We've done David's Bridal, Nordstrom's, Macy's, etc., but maybe there's some great secret (or not so secret) places we don't know about? The dress needs to be knee length and on the casual side, as it's an outdoor wedding in late summer/early fall (if that's at all helpful).

Thanks in advance!

Wedding dress shops in the Bay Area

rorycberger — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 12:57:26 -0800

My fiance is looking for wedding dresses this weekend, and is wondering if anyone has recommendations for stores in the San Francisco Bay Area (esp. SF, Peninsula and San Jose areas). She is looking for places with a good selection of <$2000 dresses. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Are there dresses that will fit my girlfriend?

Anonymous — Wed, 03 May 2006 19:46:25 -0800

Are there dresses that will fit my girlfriend? My girlfriend is 5-2 and small. She wears a size 3/5 jeans, small tshirts. However, dress shopping is a problem. She has 36 DD breasts. She looks great in a tshirt, but she'd like to actually be able to dress up now and then.

Dresses that fit her everywhere else normally won't even go over her breasts. When she finds a dress that will, its so tight or small up top that her breasts seem about to jump out at anytime. Dresses that look normal on an average girl make her look like she's posing for playboy. She doesn't want the attention, she just wants to wear a dress.

Females (or males) of metafilter, other than a breast reduction, any tips? Type of dress she should look for? Particular store? I'd like to help her out. Seeing her get down on herself after a couple hours of dress shopping is not fun.

This is why I don't wear dresses.

Ugh — Sun, 13 Nov 2005 23:44:17 -0800

Ladies.. I haven't worn a dress since my father's wedding at age 3, but... I have a wedding coming up in December. Originally I was supposed to be a bridesmaid but one of the groomsmen dropped out so now i'm just attending. Now the wedding isn't super formal because it's a bit of a shotgun affair and I have a sneaking suspicion knowing the friends of both bride and groom that some people are definitely going to show up in their best jeans, however, the bride's dress is of the Cinderella type.

I'm expected to wear a dress, but after trying some on the other day I really don't know what style would be best for my body type. I'm very tall, 5'10, and very slender about 135 pounds. I'm small-chested, with narrow shoulders and good-sized hips, about 40". Most of the selection I saw was of the backless sort which tied like a halter top around the neck. These made me look TOTALLY flat chested with enormous hips. Any stylish people out there know what kind of dress would minimize my hips and make my chest seem more in porportion? Would wearing a cardigan over my shoulders help?

I'll probably end up with something from Dillards (it's a small town) so it would be helpful if you could point one of these out.. Thank You!