I went this past tuesday to the annual Blowout Sample Sale at Kleinfelds in NYC, and I wanted to tell other brides- DON'T waste your time! It was organized but the dresses were filthy and torn and zippers were broken. I could not believe that people actually bought these dresses since it must cost a fortune to repair and clean them!
The sale started at 3 and I went around 12 to get a number. I was number 100. They told us to come back around 2:30 since they start calling numbers around that time. We went and got lunch and killed some time. At 3:00 my number was called and I was let inside only to wait on a long line in the lobby for another 45 minutes to 1 hour. They were filming say yes to the dress so there were camera crews and extra people creating some chaois. When I was allowed into the area were the gowns were I was dissapoiinted to see very few dresses. I would guess there were about 200-300 gowns and there were easily 300+ girls waiting to get inside! Of course the gowns were sample sale so they were mostly size 8 and 10. They had a plus size rack too (maybe 50 gowns).
You were only allowed 3 dresses to a fitting room. An attendant assisted you and one other bride. So yes you had to cram into the tiny dressing rooms with multiple people! The woman who was helping us- barbara i think was her name- was no where to be found. I had to take the dress out of the garment bag myself (with the help of my sister) and stuff it back in when I was finished. I also wound up taking my dresses that did not work back out and grabbing more. I think I spent an hour trying on gowns and I saw the lady who was supposed to be helping me once say, "omg! you look beautiful!"- the dress had an obviously huge tear in the lace right on my waist!! obviously they were trying to just make sales- so dissapointing!!!
So I just wanted to let everyone know that if you plan on takin goff work (like I did) and making a big deal about visiting one of these "GREAT" Kleinfeld sales- do not waste your time. You are so much better off going to a boutique and being treated like a real bride not a herd of animals.
Good luck !!