Dress by Design was founded in 2005 by Marilyn Kilroy along with her two daughters. The company is one of the few who truly value care, respect and customer satisfaction. The brand is being run by a family who has a mission – to empower women of all kinds to feel good about themselves through the clothes they wear. Although Marilyn Kilroy is now already in her 80s, she still has a strong sense in fashion and is considered to be an indispensable part of their team.
The company caters to real women who needs dresses that fit them right. They offer standard women’s dresses that can be used both for formal or casual affairs. You start with a basic dress style silhouette and then start customizing parts like neckline, hem length, sleeve style, skirt, length and other add-on options like ruffles, pockets or belts.
Currently, they have 6 customizable dresses and one customizable skirt. The styles for the dresses are named Marikate, Amy, Christine, Grace, Kathleen and Marilyn. The styles range from classic pleated dresses to empire waists. Of course, you can also choose the kind of fabric to be used in the dress. As they update their inventory with new fabric styles monthly, there are countless of fabric options to choose from. Some examples include jersey, cotton, rayon, chiffon, silk, tweed, satin and a lot more. You can choose from a range of prints (paisley, houndstooth, florals) to textured fabrics and simple plain colors. Prices of the customized dresses start at around $200 for the cotton fabrics and go up to $450 for those made of more luxurious materials like designer silk.
Their website is pretty simple and it is easy to navigate around. The style and design options are all provided in one page. Because there are not a whole lot of style silhouettes to choose from, it is not hard to select from the options. The fabric chooser provides several options and it can easily be filtered by style as well as price. After designing the dress, you would be able to choose whether you want it in a standard size or custom size. For the latter, you are required to provide your custom measurements.
They make use of USPS for shipping, with a charge of $11.95. International orders start at $24.95. Standard sized dresses can be returned for refunds within 7 days. However, custom sized dresses can’t be returned for refunds.
Overall, Dress by Design is pretty impressive in their view of creating custom dresses for women. However, the style options can be pretty limited and it might be hard to create something edgier and more unique than standard dresses. Additionally, because the product image is displayed in 2D, it does not portray a clear and accurate representation of the dress or the fabric chosen.