We all know its coming, that
one night, out of the ordinary where you can look and feel a million dollars, be it a
prom night, award show or
cinderella's ball. Its round the corner and now its time to start
planning, finding that perfect dress, planning the perfect make up and hair. Despite the
excitement it can be some what overwhelming and stressful (
don't worry it'll be perfect in the end), so here's me offering a few tips and
guidelines to help you out with that planning. As a bridal stylist for the last year, I can shed a bit of light on the subject and share with you my
experiences.
So where to begin...
The dress
obviously! So where to buy from? who can you
trust? is it safe to order from
abroad?
In my opinion and from others horrible
experiences never order from a
Chinese wholesaler, if it seems too good to be true then chances are
it is. Order from people with legit
certificates and are legitimate retailers of for instance;
Jovani,
Sherri Hill or
Tony Bowls. Shop around for the best prices,
compare the quality and customer
reviews.
Every girl has a
certain body shape which suits certain and specific styles of dresses, something that will
enhance what
God gave you. On a weekly basis, at work, I am expected to know which dresses will suit a girls figure, height and weight (
its a tricky job), but when done right leaves a girl feeling
$1 million. So what kind of
figure do you have?
Triangle : The Triangle shape is defined as shoulders and torso that are narrower than the hips.
Inverted Triangle :This is characterised by having wider shoulders than hips, and wearing a larger size on your top half than on your bottom half. Little definition between waist and hips, the lack of curves at bottom.
Rectangle :Little definition on the waist, your hips and your bust are roughly the same size and there is a small difference between your bust and waist is little.
Hourglass: The bust and hips are well balanced and you have a beautifully defined waist, likely posses a rounded bottom and rounded shoulders which align with hips.
Diamond: The hips are broader than your bust and shoulders, the waist is undefined and the widest part of the frame and lower legs are shapely.
Rounded: The waistline lacks or has no waist definition, hips and bottom may be wide and full along with waist creating a rounder look. (
also knows as an Apple body shape)
Pear: The waist is well defined, bust and shoulders proportionally narrower than the hip-line and the thighs and bottoms are full and rounded.
So now you've
identified which body shape you are, what kind of dresses should you check out and
where?
Start of by looking for
legitimate sellers (
even if its all the way in NY), shopping round your
city to see what kind of dress you can find. However some of us girls don't have that
luxury of being able to get the
designers labels and styles we want, so we resort to
online shopping. The
horror stories from ordering online are
endlesssssss, from
wholesale disaster, international
sizing and it not suiting you as it did on that slender 5"8 model. So here are a few of
my tips and (
from personal experience) tricks on how to have a
stress free prom, as far as
humanly possible...
- Go online initially, see what kinds of things you are liking, make a note of the style number or screenshot all details on your Ipad, Iphone or tablet. Are you a lace kind of girl? a glitter girl ? or couture chic? you need to know what you love, like and hate.
- Go shopping around some bridal boutiques, special occasions shops and even go check out some bridesmaids dresses. Try anything on, you need to know what suits your figure personally, try column, soft and floaty, mermaid, fishtail, princess... you name it just try it on!!
- From that shopping trip you'll recognise what kind of things suited you, what details, colours and embellishments.. you never know maybe you've already found your dress! But for us indecisive hard to please girls, you've now chopped your online list in half... you better get shopping..
- So way at the beginning you should have set that budget for the dress, taking into accounts things like make up, hair, shoes and accessories... trust me this end is pretty much endless. You have to be reasonable when picking that dress, for you, your mum and her poor bank account. So there's more of those $1,000 dresses of the list.
- Here's the hard part.. picking one! Taking into account everything you have to choose that one dress and its as simple as "which one would suit me better?" , "which can I afford?" and "which one do I remember the most?"
- Hopefully you've chosen the dress, so now to get your size and where to buy from? go on the official retailer website and see where they sell their dresses, most retailers have a list you can view of their suppliers to prevent any fraudulent activity. But since I'm so kind, here are a few I highly recommend: New York Dress, Mack Tak Mart (where I got my Jovani 3008 eek) and Misses Dressy.
- You're ready to order so how do you know your size? well basically, you're going to have to reform back into the good old, original, method of using a measuring tape. Never order a dress guessing your measurements you need to be specific and accurate, I mean its coming from another part of the world, who's to say their returns policy is as lenient as a high street store.
- Wait... ITS HERE. Take it to get some alterations done, plan your hair, bag, shoes and nails all in accordance with that dress. Just double check you have an order number, parcel number and an estimated delivery time.
I hope these tips are
appreciated and help you when buying your
fabulous dresses online, It would be awesome if you could
share some of you
views, experiences, tips and tricks with me. I hope you
all look
stunning, now I'm away to
hunt for my dress for our Italian/Scottish Awards, god how fun!
Seriously though, expect me ranting about all the cool websites I've found, not to mention
make up, just warning you. Ahh the joys of
blogging.
Love Naomi xox
Email: haute.bothered@gmail.com
Twitter: HauteBothered_
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