Runway Version

New Reality Show!


The Wedding Dress Detective

Recently I have met with several brides who wanted copies of expensive, designer wedding gowns. In one such case, the bride was in love with a dress that cost about $7,500 according to the designer's website, and she referred me to photos of the dress on that site. She told me that she had tried on "the dress" at two bridal shops, one in New York and one in Chicago, and that "the dress" cost between $2,000-3,000, which she thought was the "discounted price." Of course, these samples did not fit her at all. She surreptitiously snapped photos and even took video of each of these dresses when the salesperson wasn't looking.

Bridal Shop Version

As I examined the designer's website images and the bride's snapshots, I found significant differences in the designs. The dress on the designer's website had numerous lace appliques sewn on so that they looked 3-dimensional on the bodice cups, and the lower skirt back was very, very full at the hem, a look that because of standard fabric widths, could only have been achieved by using circular shaped pieces for the lower skirt that were seamed to the upper skirt.

On the two dresses the bride tried on, the satin fabric looked different from the original, and each of the dresses that she tired on had a slightly different looking lace. The bride said there was a waist stay on one bodice but not on the other. The appliques on the bodice cups both looked different from the designer dress, flat rather than 3-dimensional, and they looked different on each of the try-on dresses. Even the shape of the cups looked different on all three dresses. Most importantly, the lower hem of the skirts was far less full and the pleating less deep up the side seams on each dress that she tried on as compared to the designer's runway dress.

At first, and this is what I told her during our consultation, I thought that maybe when the dress went into factory production it was modified to enhance profits: less labor on the appliques, maybe a cheaper lace, and less fabric and labor for the skirt. This often happens, thus the expression "runway look," meaning a design that is more exaggerated than the version sold as ready-to-wear.

Then later, Barbara the Wedding Dress Detective thought about these three dresses a bit more, and I realized that the two dresses that the bride tried on were probably knock offs! No wonder they didn't look as nice and were far cheaper!

Unfortunately, the bride thought they were all the same dress. She wanted an estimate from me,  probably not because she wanted quality workmanship and custom fit, but because she thought she could get "the dress" cheaper. The problem is, she was looking not at "the dress," but three different dresses. She was comparing an apple and an orange and maybe a banana.

Barbara Deckert Couture Version

Silk Duchesse Satin Skirt with Attached Crinoline,
Chantilly Lace Bustier with Hand Sewn 3-D floral Appliques,
and Chantilly Lace Shrug with 3-D Floral Appliques and Hand Appliqued Scalloped Edges

So, does Miss Barbara also sew "knock offs?" Yes, and no.

No:

The word "knockoff" usually refers to a cheap, poorly made copy of a dress. For example, if you Google a particular designer gown by style number you can easily find Chinese websites that illegally steal the designer's runway and website photos of very expensive dresses in order to market "copies" that cost about $300. On these numerous sites, there are no images of their actual products, which I am sure would look like white plastic trash bags. They would probably not even vaguely resemble the original, would be made with cheap materials and shoddy construction, and would not fit. These are factory made dresses. You get what you pay for.

Also, it is a dirty little industry secret that sometimes even brick and mortar bridal shops in this country often show brides a designer sample, or they even show them a knock off in the store as the sample when the bride shows them a photo of the runway dress. Then the bride orders the dress, and the bridal shop hires a workroom overseas to knock off a cheaper copy. The dress is sold with no labels or fake labels, the shop enhances its profits, and the bride doesn't know any different. This is not what I do!

Yes:

I often make copies of garments, but they are "after the fashion of," and I never pretend that the resulting garment is of someone else's making. My labels go on all my work, not someone else's fake label or no label. My workmanship is the same as that of a designer's workroom.

I always ask that customers bring me visuals of what they like, as a way of communicating clearly. Even when a customer requests a line for line copy, I explain that when we use different fabrics and trims, different colors, and different construction techniques, the resulting garment will look similar to but not exactly the same as the picture.

Matching Bubble Skirt for the Reception!

Copying garments is completely legal in the U.S., since garment designs are not proprietary, that is, they are not protected by copyrights or patent laws. A sleeve is a sleeve is a sleeve, and there are a finite number of ways to wrap fabric around an arm. Really, there are no new designs under the sun: it has all been done before, and all designers copy and build upon the work of other designers who have gone before them.

In addition, I frequently suggest design variations to enhance the look of the garment and make it truly unique. Some design changes are mandatory. For example, I don't embroider, but lace or embroidered sheer overlays give a similar visual effect as embroidered fabrics, and that substitution changes the design. Or, an unusual looking lace on an original may not be available, but another lace would be just as beautiful and would make the design uniquely yours.

So, if I copy an expensive dress design for you will you "save money?" Not always, but you will get a better dress: better fabrics, better construction, and better fit.

On the other hand, a custom made dress does cut out the middlemen who all get a slice of the profit pie. Normally, I can make a copy of an expensive dress for far less than the designer price. However, it is unlikely that I can copy an inexpensive, factory dress made with cheap overseas labor for less than the retail price. Until we meet for a consultation and work out all the details, I can't really know for sure, so let's meet and I will plug in the numbers and then you can make an informed decision.

Snoop Shopping for Wedding Gowns With My Daughter

My daughter, who is also a bride, and I recently went "snoop shopping" at a local upscale bridal boutique. Among the many, many hundreds of gowns ranging in price up to $8,000, not one had any labels inside them. No designer labels, no fiber content labels, and no cleaning labels. Now, federal laws require all textiles to be labeled with fiber content by percentage and country of origin; I guess bridal shops didn't get the memo. Apparently, no labels in wedding gowns is the norm in bridal shops in this country. Also, although we asked to only see dresses made of silk, each and every one of the dresses we were shown were silk on the outside and all synthetics in the many inner layers.

Also, in this shop, the designer dresses carried the name of the dress, such as "Magical," on the store's hangtags, but they did NOT specify the name of the designer, such as "Monique L'Hullier." Now, why is that? If they were really selling a designer's dress, why wouldn't they want their customers to know it? People who have nothing to hide, hide nothing.


Notes on Famous Labels from an Alterationist:

A dressmaker friend recently altered a Vera Wang  gown purchased at Filene's Basement's annual "Running of the Brides" sale. First, the supposedly $5,500 dress was filthy and showed obvious signs of wear. The label stated that the lace was 100% cotton, which was probably correct. Also, the label stated that the organza was made of silk. However, there was no organza in the dress, at all! There were five layers of fabric, and she worked on every one of those layers, but there was not a scrap of organza anywhere! The fabric underneath the lace was polyester duchesse satin, two layers, and there was a lining and slip layer, both also polyester. The label did not specify the fiber content of these four layers underneath the lace. Completely contrary to what the famous label claimed, there was not a fiber of silk in the gown at all!

Brides, beware!

Even when wedding gowns have labels, they may be misleading or contain outright lies!

More on labels, from the Federal Trade Commission:

The FTC specifies that all wedding gowns, including samples have either sewn in or hangtag labels with the following information: (1) the identity of any one business in the distribution channel, such as the manufacturer, retail store, or distributor; (2) The garment's fiber content by percentages of weight; (3) The country of origin; gowns can be labeled "Made in the USA" only if the materials are also made in the US; otherwise, the label must say "Made in the US of Imported Materials;" (4) care instructions. If a shop removes a tag, it must replace it according to the laws stated above, and it must keep records for 3 years regarding the removal. Violations can result in a $16,000 fine PER VIOLATION! If these laws were enforced, that's $16 grand X a ba-jillion unlabeled wedding gowns in this country = a tidy chunk of revenue for our country!

So, every unlabeled dress in this shop that my daughter and I visited could have been a knock-off, and no bride would be the wiser.

Note that designer dresses in the $7,000 - 10,000 range are usually made in workrooms, by a team of 5-10 highly skilled sewing professionals who use high end, labor intensive, construction techniques with lots of hand work. Most dresses costing $5,000 and less are  made in a factory by less skilled machine operators using ready-to-wear construction techniques with little or no hand work.

My advice to brides: when you comparison shop, be wary of comparing prices on dresses because you may not be comparing the same dresses! Be a Wedding Dress Detective, too! Educate yourself as much as you can regarding fit, fabrics and construction techniques, which is what you actually drag down the aisle and what everyone sees, not the two inch square designer label, which could be fake.