I believe in supporting designers and original content. (Here comes the But) But, $500 is a steep price for anyone to pay for a dress. $120 is typically the cap cost for me and I stick to it. For reference, my prom dress cost less than $10 and my wedding dress, you know the dress you wear on "the most important day of your life" was a handmade number that squeezed by at $100.
So, $500 is just so far beyond what my budget normally allows that I understand the temptation to purchase a knock-off and we'll cover that topic tomorrow. I feel a little guilty about buying knockoffs, but I would more likely spend over a decade looking for that dream dress at $100 or under than pay the original price. Which is why I'm still quietly searching for Eva Franco's Russian Doll dress. New, it was around $350 and used it still usually sells for $200.---Nope, can't do it. It's cotton for crying out loud and it's been worn by a stranger for like 8 years!
(Another "But" coming) But, I also know that when it comes to quality, Matoshi's dress is going to be the best. Knock-offs are never going to be as good as the original because they're a copy of someone else's genius and that copy is usually made by looking at a photo so it's missing the nuisances that really make it special. So, if this strawberry dress is your "forever dress," absolutely buy it. If you have a more liberal budget than I, please, please go to her website and checkout all Lirika Matoshi's beautiful ethereal designs and purchase as many as possible. You won't regret it; they really are stunning.
This dress has been the one exception to my long standing and very sound rule. I'm not going to lie about this: I bought the knock-off first. It was only $26 and is actually pretty cute. But, in the end it just wouldn't do. So, I decided to find a way to buy the dress that wouldn't break the bank. Here's how I did it: I stopped all spending and went through all my clothes and accessories and decided to reluctantly part with a few things to earn extra cash. Plus, I picked up a few extra hours at work to supplement my dress savings.
I managed to raise the money for the strawberry dress in two weeks! And I paid all my bills and no one in my home went without. I was so encouraged by my success that I've kept it up. Only spending when I have sold enough things to cover the cost or when I can pick up extra hours. In a way, buying this $500 dress has been the best thing for my budget, because it has helped me to focus, prioritize, and stop mindless stress shopping.
Ok, enough about all that. Let's talk about the dress! So, first and foremost. You need to know that in addition to the $490 price tag, you'll also have to pay tax and shipping which brings the total price to about $535. Then, since each dress is custom made, you can expect to wait 4-6 weeks for the dress to be ready. I ordered mine on October 9th and received shipping notification on November 5th. Once the dress shipped it arrived by DHL in five days.
There was no communication between myself and the seller during all that time. Now, admittedly it made me a little nervous to not hear from them on the progress. Maybe I'm naturally untrusting or maybe I've been burned enough times by orders that never arrived to put me on my guard. Thankfully Matoshi's company was true to their word and had the dress ready in the minimum amount of time specified.
The dress is just as gorgeous as you imagine and my daughters were awaiting the dress almost as eagerly as I. When I got the notification that the package had arrived, I raced down the driveway to retrieve it and then called my daughters to gather round so we could open it together. We hung it on the back of my door and just sat on the edge of my bed ooohing and ahhhing and going over every detail. I told them if they wanted to buy their own dress they could work to save up half the money as I had done and I would pay the other half from the money I set aside for their birthdays and Christmas. At present, they're mulling that offer over, but if they do take me up on it, I foresee a family photo in strawberry dresses!
This dress is everything I hoped it would be from fit to color to the sheer elegance of it. I should warn you that it does shed a lot of loose glitter and one thing you will notice is the deep v on the front of the dress. You may be wondering what kind of bra will work with a front like that. Well, most of the people I see wearing this dress aren't wearing a bra at all. And that's fine for some, but I have seen one or two people who are just well past the age of bralessness and the lack of support really ruined the way the dress looked on them.
Not to worry, there is a simple solution: Self adhesive strapless bra. They look like beige rabbit heads and they should do the trick just fine if you need a little lift, but due to the shape of the neckline you may have to arrange yourself so that you don't have much cleavage. Everything will be tucked away. But I say better tucked away than dejectedly oozing out.
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