April 20, 2018 |
Spring/ Summer 19 Bridal Week has just wrapped in NYC, which had me thinking about the time in my life when I sold wedding gowns. Bridal fashion and the world of weddings is a beast. Anyone who knows me is not surprised when I tell them I sold wedding dresses. Because I am a bit extra. OK, a lot extra, and can chat shit till the cows come home. It was something I sort of fell into- a friend of a friend knew I was looking to make some money before moving to London. We sold high end luxury bridal fashion darlings. Oscar, Marchesa, Elie Saab you name it we had it. So a certain level of wealthy customer was what I was dealing with. It was one of those bridal salons where it was appointment only, with champagne and macarons on china plates ( I was the only person who ate them).
My favourite phrase was “Oh, I don’t have a budget” which either meant “I actually don’t have a budget, sell me literally anything and I’ll buy it”, or “I’m here just to try on dresses and waste your damn time”. Those were easy to pick out. Typically the mom carried a fake designer bag. Selling dresses that someone ideally will only ever buy and wear once is half special, half horrifying. The moms were always the worst saying things like, “Well, will you really lose 20 lbs before the big day or should you order a size up?” or often something like, “ Well this wasn’t what I had had in mind for you”. Yes we all know you are paying, but babe, it’s not your damn wedding. Sometimes though, you would have a lovely bride and couldn’t help but shed a tear when she found the dress that was just for her. This job was short lived though, one day the shop’s AC had a problem and caught fire. You can imagine the scene. Three foot flames jetting out of the unit and my boss/owner of the Salon SCREAMING at us to please carry all the brides dresses out of a burning building. No dresses were lost and everyone made it out safely but I decided to quit shortly after weeks of dreams about burning alive in a wedding dress. Worst part was, it was a mermaid cut gown I dreamt of. So not flattering on my figure.
