Help! I need this dress!

Why . . . why did you have to post that site . . . By which I mean, THANK YOU! Someday I will be back to working full time again, and then I think some new clothes are in order. I’ve never heard of that site and it is amazing.

2 Likes

Oh it is a dangerous site. You might see an Oscar de la Renta for $350 and slowly convince yourself that hey, if it is less than a third of the original price, it is totally worth it and start trying to justify the a $5,000 Valentino (down from $15K though… so clearly a deal :)).

Whatever you do, stay away from the bags. Just, don’t look.

Edit: Argh I looked since I couldn’t help myself. The most adorable Hermès Sac Roulis. $13K. Oh and sooo many Jean Paul Gaultier Birkins and Kellys. Oh and my favorite Goyard, the Saigon.

5 Likes

I went through that phase with Gilt.

Right this second every piece of clothing I’m wearing came from Target.

4 Likes

I own so many things from the Target clearance racks :smile: I’m not too fussed about brand names (except I will talk about my one particular favorite brand of shoes all day), but I would be willing to shell out for some quality pieces, since I know I’m going to keep them for years and years.

2 Likes

You are aware I hope that Satin can ruin your life.

6 Likes

Honestly, it would probably be better and faster to just have the seamstress MAKE that dress from scratch to the daughter’s measurements.

1 Like

I lucked out this year: my senior daughter (who is a total clothes horse and seems to magically find the most expensive items when she walks into a store) wanted to bring her younger sister, and the school said no. She fired off a polite but pointed email stating she wouldn’t go to the prom at all if the school’s family values were so shallow, and I’m quite a bit freer and richer for the situation!

She’s on the prom committee, BTW. It would be funny if it weren’t so seriously messed up. As she pointed out in her email, she personally knows of three over-21-year-olds whom the school HAS allowed to get a ticket as the guest of a senior, which seems to be much more fraught with potential age-difference issues (alcohol, sexual manipulation, etc.) than bringing a sibling who’s 3 1/2 years younger.

6 Likes

Without scrolling up, I knew immediately who the poster had to be!

4 Likes

I. Have. Opinions!

6 Likes

Sorry for not replying here guys, I was out all day yesterday volunteering for a museum event. My daughter says “Thank you BoingBoing, for trying to find me a dress.” We’re on our way to what is apparently the local dress boutique today to try things on.

11 Likes

Speaking as someone who has recently spent hours sitting outside various dressing rooms in order to give my opinion (fortunately, despite my utter lack of interest in fashion, my daughter recognizes that I do in fact know what I’m talking about in terms of what looks good on her), I empathize and sympathize and offer you a nice glass (or bottle) of wine to enjoy tonight when you get home and put your feet up. :wine_glass:

(In our case, it was to buy modest clothing for a Muslim country…she inherited my small rib cage + large cup size, which means even normal clothing looks provocative on her.)

7 Likes

It’s morroco, right?

Morocco, yup! She’s there right now, re-inventing her project because it turns out there’s too much Berber in Moroccan Arabic to be able to compare and contrast at all; they’re more like different languages than different dialects. Which she knew going in, but she still thought her linguistic skills would carry her through. Hah!

3 Likes

The best laid plans, amirite? :smile:
It’ll be the experience of a lifetime. I need to get more stamps on my passport, this new one looks awfully light.

4 Likes

The local dress boutique was great for personal service, but we still didn’t find anything. The one dress she really liked required a prohibitive amount of alteration to make it wearable. Now getting quotes from local seamstresses.

6 Likes

I am boggled a knockoff wasn’t easy to find. We aren’t talking about a Victorian gown or a crazy piece worn by Gaga. This is why I don’t gamble, cause I thought it would have been a slam dunk.

2 Likes

I think part of the problem is that we don’t have much leeway with size. My kid is tiny. We’ve had several dresses that fit fine from the ribcage down, but don’t fit at all in the bust. Because she doesn’t have a bust.

So we’re really limited to sizes 0-2. And there’s just not a lot in those sizes because the average 18-year-old isn’t that small. If you’re, say, a size 10, you might fit into 12, or 8, or even a generous 6 (I wear 10-12 and I have a dress labeled size 4 that fits!), and a 14 can still be cut down. But we can’t go DOWN any sizes because there’s nowhere to go, and a dress in her size already needs alteration so going up sizes just makes that worse.

7 Likes

I feelz your feelz (if that makes any sense). Good luck, and if the bbs can help, we will do our darndest.

4 Likes

Go to high end stores then. Seriously: you can get amazing clothes for dirt cheap when there are sales (and this is after most proms so you should get lucky) and the clothes are sized for anorexics. My daughter is 5’8" (at least) and just over 100 pounds (she’s only 14) and wears a size 6 at those stores. They’ll have size 0 and size 00. It’s crazy.

3 Likes

I didn’t know whether to ask - I don’t know any Arabic, but I do know people who do who say that Classical Arabic and the various modern dialects are mutually unintelligible. Hope she’s able to get some good data anyway and that she’s having fun over there!