At the beginning of the month, I stopped into a charity bridal shop on a whim. It's about and hour away and the proceedes go to support domestic violence survior programs, transitional housing for women, mentoring programs for girls and other programs along those lines.
The place gets sampe gowns from designers and salons (Kleinfeld is their biggest donor) and they sell the dresses for $300-700 (with the $14,000+ Pnina Tornai dresses selling for $700 or so).
I realized that they could use a little help, so I took some vacation time and spent four days there photographing many of their dresses and getting a blog started for them. Some things I learned:
1. Sample gowns are treated pretty harshly, even by high end bridal salons. Some of the dresses came in pretty dirty, stuffed in boxes that were too small for them. If you buy a sample gown, automatically add a couple hundred to the price for cleaning.
2. Vanity sizing has crept into bridal, though mostly in the lower end lines. Sizing is all over the map.
3. The weight of a dress isn't felt until you've been holding it up for about five minutes. Spend plenty of time on the pedestal when you think you've found "the one." It's going to feel fabulous for the first few minutes, but if it's heavy, you'll start to feel it after a while.
4. Many people are pretty clueless about fabric and don't notice construction. It was kind of sad to see people pass up amazing Romona Kevezas or Alita Grahams for dresses of lower quality.
5. I could not hack it in a bridal salon full time.
It was a lot of fun, but I'm exhausted! Hauling gowns is hard work!