How to find a specific, slightly old designer dress?

May 30, 2014 12:56 PM

Found a weird, cool dress I'd maybe like to get married in. No idea how to get my hands on it. It's look 40 from the Donna Karan Resort 2012 collection. I don't know how "designer" things work. Help.

here's the dress. here's kerry washington and a super hot model wearing it in 2011. i have no idea how to find this dress to try it on, and absolutely no idea how much it could cost. 2k? 20k? no clue. finally, i'm 5'3 and somewhat curvy (32 FF), so it would have to get brought up in length and modified at the bust.

am i totally crazy? can you help me? it's the only dress of the millions i've looked at that seems interesting.

posted by anthropomorphic to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (9 answers total)

You can go directly to Donna Karan site and contact them. They can try to source the dress for you. (Click the hypertext that says, Don't See Your Size, Let Us Try To Find It For You.)

The official name is Ivory Expansion Fantasy Dress, style number A41D018J67.

It looks like ready to wear, so it may be hundreds, not thousands, but two seasons ago...might be hard to find. I say, let them see what they can do.)

Here's a page, and if I'm reading it correctly...it's $18,000?????
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 1:06 PM on May 30, 2014

I'd try setting up an alert on eBay. Lots of people realize they're never going to wear that dress again, so they keep the photos and sell the dress.
posted by feral_goldfish at 1:16 PM on May 30, 2014

Also check secondhand sites like The RealReal and maybe even Rent the Runway. They may have it or something similar.
posted by bedhead at 1:25 PM on May 30, 2014

Just chiming in to say I hope you find it,and I don't think that dress is "weird." It would be a stellar dress to get married in.

You should also try high end department stores, particularly NYC. Bergdorf, SAKs, etc. They stock these looks from designers like Donna Karan. For all you know, it may be in a storage room or on a clearing rack somewhere in there... Now that Ruthless Bunny has a style number for you, you know what to ask for when you call the department store's couture/runway department.

I'd be nervous about getting 32FF measurements into that slim top without a lot of, um, cleavage. Even with alterations. But I love the dress.
posted by slateyness at 5:10 PM on May 30, 2014 [1 favorite]

It's gorgeous! If you really can't find it, in the end, you could consider trying to get a professional dressmaker to build you a copy. It'll be expensive, but not $18k expensive.
posted by you're a kitty! at 5:46 PM on May 30, 2014

Could you get a modified version of that dress made by a seamstress? I do love the overall look but echo slateyness above about the viability of wearing this if you're not fairly flat-chested. (I'm about a 34 DD, and I think this dress on me would look, uh, distracting. Not in a good way.)
posted by sfkiddo at 5:47 PM on May 30, 2014 [4 favorites]

I think this dress is AWESOME. You should totally get married in it. But get a custom one! I really wouldn't recommend trying to have this altered. The fabric type and the way it drapes are going to make it very hard to get a fit that flatters you without the stripes looking really weird. I used to do a lot of custom tailoring, and I think I would have wanted to get a few yards of the fabric and redo the whole top half instead of fudging it with what's there.

I guarantee you can have this dress custom made for yourself for way less than $18k. AND it will fit perfectly.

Good luck!
posted by ananci at 11:13 AM on May 31, 2014

Hello!!I am a new member and I live in Greece.I am looking for the same dress and I haven't found it anywhere.I am getting married on an island and I believe this dress will be perfect.Did you have any luck on your research????
posted by apierri75 at 6:40 AM on June 13, 2014

Response by poster: i have had no luck in finding it. i am looking into having a copy made, but i have no idea how to choose a seamstress.
posted by anthropomorphic at 9:08 AM on July 2, 2014