Scarlett's Closet Bridal 4-1-1 Has Moved

Scarlett's Closet Bridal 4-1-1 has a new web address. Please visit us at our new digs:


http://scarletts-bridal-4-1-1.blogspot.com


I know. It's a small change. But even small change is better than no change at all! 

Scarlett's Closet Gets A Review

See more reviews of Scarlett's Closet on Project Wedding.

Semi Annual Dirt Cheap Clearance Sale in Scarlett's Closet

On sale now, first quality designer samples by Lazaro, Watters & Watters, Jordan Fashions, Montage, Mon Cheri Evening, Cameron Blake and others, dirt cheap. If you're even thinking of a wedding this summer, now's the time to buy. Don't dawdle. Sale ends August 1 2010.

Evening Dresses by Watters & Watters, Lazaro, Jordan Fashions, Mori Lee  - just $25!

Tea length and knee length party dresses by famous name designers - just $25!

Special occasions dresses by Jade, Montage, Cameron Blake and other top designers - just $50. 

Go to Scarlett's Closet

Summer Wedding Guest: Sassy

Summer often moves weddings into the garden. This is tricky for high heels; terrific for party dresses. Think sandals. Think short. Think color. Think Scarlett's Closet where there's always a designer sample on sale perfect for any affair.

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Jovani Prom: Tropical Heat Wave

Need we say more?

Take me there

Size Guidelines: Help Me Help You!

In the movie, Jerry Maguire, it's hilarious when Jerry expresses his frustration with Rod. "Help me! Help me help you." Today, I'm not laughing. I am beseeching online buyers looking for a beautiful gown at a bargain price, "help me help you!" In order to be happy with the wedding gown or evening dress you purchase online, know the style and color that flatters you and know your measurements.

A week ago, I chatted with a mother of the bride whose wear date was fast approaching. The dress she originally ordered had not come. She needed another one pronto. Size 10.

After eight years selling bridal and formal dresses online, I know all too well there is no standard sizing in women's apparel.

Bridal and formalwear generally, but not always, runs smaller than sportswear. Every designer cuts to a slightly different standard. A Vera Wang size 10 will fit more like a size 6 in some sportswear. Jade by Jasmine size 10 is a full three inches larger than Vera Wang.

What's more, all size 10 bodies come in different shapes. Bean pole, apple, pear, hourglass are the most common. There are even finer variables within these.

If you lined every size 8 women up, side by side, around the world, you would see variables that make each and every one of us unique. It is no sin. There is no shame in this game. That's how God made us.

Finally, every designer cuts to a standard shape, usually a triangle that is narrow in the bust and wider in the hips. Few women are shaped like this. This "cookie cutter" standard is for economies of scale and profit margin, not perfect fit. This is why God made tailors.

I automatically ask this mother of the bride her measurements.

Yes, she is 38-30-44.

The size chart in the listing states Size 10 Bust 38 Waist 29.5 Hips 41.

It's too small for her hips, so I tactfully say, "You have to fit your largest part."

Somehow she pretends not to know what that is and takes the dress. Four days later, she returns the dress, it's too small, the zipper is pulling apart.

Well du-uh. Zippers pull apart when you try to force a size 10 dress over size 12 hips. I diplomatically do not say this. And authorize her to send a return.

She is frustrated. I am frustrated. In fact, I'm frustrated by an order of magnitude. She is buying one gown. I am getting back one gown a week because women are stuck in their vanity about the size they wear. How can we avoid this frustration?

If we were engineers, we'd be objective. It's just numbers. Dimensions and variables. That's it. So why is it so difficult for adult women to own our true dimensions and variables? The numbers that define us are loaded.

We are not buying a dress; we are buying sex appeal. We will go to ridiculous extremes to have sex appeal. And we have been conditioned to believe that sex appeal only looks one way. This pretty much ensures that a very large percentage of women walk around deeply dissatisfied with the very fiber of our being - body shape, dimensions and the variables that make us unique.

May I tell you a small, little acknowledged truth? There is nothing sexier and more appealing than a woman who is comfortable in her own skin.

So please, help me help you.

Know your dimensions. Love your variables. And get the name of a good tailor. We'll all be much happier.

Mother of the Bride: Smokin' Hot!

Today's mother of the bride or mother of the groom has a wide variety of designer styles from which to choose. Polished. Glamorous. Youthful. Frankly sexy. She doesn't want to out do the bride, but face it. Dresses for mother of the bride, mother of the groom and best dressed guests "of a certain age" are dowdy no more.

Mother of the bride, mother of the groom sample dresses by Jade by Jasmine, Montage, Siri San Francisco, Sarah Danielle, Val Stefani and many others, on sale now in Scarlett's Closet.

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