dress strategy?

[pannini]

hey everyone,

i''m aiming for a monique lhuiller dress, but after going to their flagship store and their prices, i was a bit discouraged. is there another designer of equal aesthetic but less $$? melissa sweet perhaps?

my favorites i tried on were a dress called the normandie, and another called evangeline. they were both over 4500! if anyone has an image link to evangeline that would be great. been having trouble locating one online.

how does it work to get a discount off the dress? i heard some places reduce dress prices if they are bringing a new season in. did some investigating and the dresses i liked were from over a year ago! prices did not look like they were reduced at all. is it because it''s a flagship?

how does the whole wedding dress retail industry work in terms of getting discounted designer dresses?

is it okay to ask the salesperson how i can take advantage?

 

[LabRatPhD]

Date: 2/27/2010 4:50:18 PM
Author:pannini
hey everyone,


i''m aiming for a monique lhuiller dress, but after going to their flagship store and their prices, i was a bit discouraged. is there another designer of equal aesthetic but less $$? melissa sweet perhaps?


my favorites i tried on were a dress called the normandie, and another called evangeline. they were both over 4500! if anyone has an image link to evangeline that would be great. been having trouble locating one online.


how does it work to get a discount off the dress? i heard some places reduce dress prices if they are bringing a new season in. did some investigating and the dresses i liked were from over a year ago! prices did not look like they were reduced at all. is it because it''s a flagship?


how does the whole wedding dress retail industry work in terms of getting discounted designer dresses?


is it okay to ask the salesperson how i can take advantage?

My dress is not Monique Lhuillier - it''s Carolina Herrera which I purchased from the CH boutique. I bought during a trunk show which saved me 10% and they threw in $500 worth of alterations for free because the dress was at the top of the budget I had set for myself. At boutiques, the only time I have seen dresses discounted is during sample sales and trunk shows.

Good luck! ML dresses are fabulous!

 

[shertz1981]

I got my dress (Lazaro) at Kleinfeld -- they usually give a 12.5% discount (I learned this from SYTTD) ... so that''s a way to get a discount

 

[farfrompro]

If you are ok with online purches and possible preowned dresses you can try a few websites where people sell their items. Most of the time stores will actually post dresses that they :have in stock on there or people will sell there "second" dress If you can find your dress it would be A LOT cheaper. Some great sites are preownedweddingdresses.com, recycledbride.com, bravobride.com and weddingbee.com. The last site is actually a forum like this one as well so you can post the dresses that you are looking for and people can respond if they have it or have seen it somewhere for a good price. Good luck!

 

[marlie]

i was going to suggest kleinfeld too. i tried on a monique there that i really liked and i didn''t even mention that it was too pricey or anything and they brought up the discount. plus they said that they could get me even more off the dress because of where i work (a television network). i think they are pretty negotiable there even though their reputation is the opposite.

 

[pannini]

Date: 2/28/2010 7:11:03 AM
Author: farfrompro
If you are ok with online purches and possible preowned dresses you can try a few websites where people sell their items. Most of the time stores will actually post dresses that they :have in stock on there or people will sell there ''second'' dress If you can find your dress it would be A LOT cheaper. Some great sites are preownedweddingdresses.com, recycledbride.com, bravobride.com and weddingbee.com. The last site is actually a forum like this one as well so you can post the dresses that you are looking for and people can respond if they have it or have seen it somewhere for a good price. Good luck!

Thanks everyone!
I am aware of the used dresses sites, but am worried about sizing. When I went to Monique they didn''t tell me any size range that I fell in. Maybe my fault. So if I went and bought a dress that did not fit me perfectly from one of these used dresses sites, will I be making a huge mistake? Are alterations able to fit dresses that don''t fit me cause they were tailored to someone else''s body?

As for all the other feedback. I was curious about how to take advantage of strategies to get the dress when they discount them. Do shops discount dresses from older seasons or are they always the original price? Monique''s dresses seemed full price even though they were from older seasons!

Just wanted to hear some expertise on that.

Thanks again.