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Categories: Sewing & Alterations, Bridal
Neighborhoods: Streeterville, Near North SideChicago (Red)
Mon-Tue., Thu-Sat. 10:00 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.
"I bought my wife's engagement ring at Dimend Scaasi and I couldn't have been happier. At first I was intimidated by the security, but once…" read more »
My wedding dress alterations were absurdly expensive, but the dress looked perfect. Everything about the fit was ideal, right down to tiny details. Sohelia is a nice person, and obviously very talented. Her attention to detail was fabulous.
But going here was a strange experience for me. I grew up in a super shitty small town in upstate New York and cut my own hair until I was 23. So a high-end, luxury place like this doesn't exactly make me feel like I'm in my element. I have a feeling that half the women who get their dresses altered here are prone to starvation diets and incessant bridey freakouts. At one of my fittings, my dress was a bit too tight and one employee actually advised me soothingly that I shouldn't start making myself throw up. Ummm. There was never any possibility of that happening, but thanks? I think?
Anyway, I will probably never again have a garment important enough to take here. It's just way too pricey. But if you've got a once-in-a-lifetime dress, this is the place to go with it.
I'd love to give the Dress Doctor 5 stars, because I really enjoyed working with them, but I don't feel like I can because of the final product. Here's the deal:
I needed an expert tailor for my wedding dress. If I was going to spend that much money on a dress, it was going to have to fit perfectly. Also, I had a pretty long train on my dress and didn't want a huge poof on my butt once it was bustled, so I needed someone who could give me what I wanted. I went the Dress Doctor and things were great from the start.
We scheduled 3 or 4 fittings. On my first fitting, they asked me how much "poof" I wanted in the bustle. I said "As little as possible" and voila-they had my dress pinned so it looked like it didn't have a train at all. It was perfect and completely complimented the design on the back of my dress. They secured it with about 14 different snaps (instead of hooks), which had tiny pieces of fabric with numbers written on them so my maid of honor could bustle me without a problem. I was so excited to get to wear my dress all day and more excited to have it bustled. It was really one of my favorite parts of the dress and their customer service throughout the process was great. I also bought my bra and my veil from them. One-stop-shopping.
When I left my final fitting 2 weeks before my wedding, my dress looked amazing and fit perfectly. I did end up losing some weight in those last 2 weeks and the dress was a little loose on the day of the wedding (which had nothing to do with Dress Doctor, so it was not taken into account when writing this review), so I recommend scheduling your final fitting for as close to the wedding day as possible leaving yourself just enough time for the dress to be cleaned and pressed.
The reason I can't give DD 5 stars is because my bustle didn't hold. We lasted about 25 minutes into the reception when the main snaps came undone. We went into the brides room and my maid of honor discovered that the numbers had come off of the snaps, so we had to figure out which snap went where. We got the dress resnapped, and I went back out to the reception. 10 minutes later, my bustle came undone again. Back to the brides room. This happened 4 or 5 times before I finally gave up and just carried the train for the rest of the night. There was nothing else to be done at that point.
In hindsight, I'm really disappointed. I think it comes down to the fact that the snaps were not strong enough to the hold the weight of the fabric. The alterations were so expensive (about 1/4 the cost of the Reem Acra dress itself) and I felt like for that kind of money there should not have been any problems whatsoever. It wasn't enough of an issue for me not to recommend them, but if your dress is silk taffeta and has a long train, make sure those bustle snaps are secure (or maybe ask for hooks instead).
I LOVE these people. Pricey. Absolutely pricey and worth every penny. My dress fit wonderfully. They did such an amazing job; especially when they delivered my dress to my hotel along with a hand written note expressing their gratitude and thanks (and request for pictures) along with a very sweet gift of 4 Elsie bridal color nail polishes. I also brought my moms dress in here and again very pricey but they practically took that entire dress apart and remade the whole thing! Hands down she was the most beautiful MOB because of them.
Seis (not Seth) is hilarious and always willing to swap sarcastic comments while you are waiting. Giselle has an eye for detail she caught every little thing out of place. 3 sessions of tucking and pulling and she still was asking "how's this?" "what do you think about this?" "How does this feel?" And she just couldn't be any sweeter. Mom Sohelia not my favorite, very good but I preferred to work with Giselle.
My whole experience with them and the work they did on my dress (you would never know what they did it was done so well) and my moms was astounding. Many thanks to the Dress Doctor.
I think they did a good job on my dress, however this is one place that I wish I would have maybe looked around a bit more because they are so damn expensive. I went with them due to convenience and that fact that Belle Vie has a partnership with them.
The staff at the Dress Doctor was really friendly and I do feel that my dress looked great (especially since they had to let it out at my ribcage then had to take other parts in the week before the wedding because I ended up losing some weight due to stress) so I would recommend them based on their service.
I don't mind paying for services I truly think that are worth it, but I just personally think they are just ridiculously high. Also, I wanted to get my dress pressed before the wedding (of course), but there is only one cleaner they recommend/will send their dresses too. Well, pressing my dress at this cleaners cost $300!!! If I had realized this prior to 5 days before my wedding I would have taken my dress elsewhere but at that point I didn't have time and just sucked it up.
Expensive, but pretty good job. I looked good in my bridesmaid dress. I would go back for my own wedding dress, but probably not for another bridesmaid dress because it was not cheap. They were very professional though.
Expensive, but worth every cent!
I had a lovely Jason Wu gown that I needed altered for a black tie event. With only a week to the event, the Dress Doctor was able to complete a running list of alterations on the dress.
Turned out beautiful! Like the gown was specifically made for me :)
Hands down, the best thing I did for my wedding.
Very professional, they tell you up front how much it will be, how many sessions it will take.
At each session, someone(an assistant level person) comes in to help you zip up, or whatever you need to get the dress on. Then Giselle(daughter) or Sohelia(mom) come in, they pull and tuck and pin. Anything you say and wish for, just bring it up in the first session and they will tell you how they could or could not do it.
Also, I lost about 15 pounds over 3 months, and with each fitting, they adjusted the dress to fit me. I would highly recommend scheduling your fittings on a weekday morning, Saturday is a little nuts.
As a Chicago bride, I relied heavily on Yelp to help me find the best vendors for my upcoming wedding. I've seen some unkind reviews about the Dress Doctor. For other brides considering using the Dress Doctor, here is my entire, wonderful, amazing experience.
I purchased my dress at Weddings 826, which sells deeply discounted off-the-rack designs without labels (the good: you could end up with a Vera Wang gown from two seasons ago for less than $1K; the bad: none of the gowns have designer tags, so you'll never know).
The body and structure of my dress is extremely elegant, with a trumpet skirt and amazing little buttons and rhinestones from the top of the back all the way down the train. It looks like something a 1920's movie star would wear to the Oscars (only... you know, white). The only thing we didn't love about it was the straight-across, folded neckline. I barely have a chest, so it wasn't doing me any favors. But I figured I could get a skilled tailor to alter it into a sweetheart neckline, so we bought the gown for an amazing price.
I reached out to a number of tailors, and Ces (the man who coordinates all office stuff for the Dress Doctor) was the person who reached back and answered every question I had. He scheduled an appointment, and I took my dress in. Dress Doctor is located in the offices of Water Tower Plaza (not the mall part, but take the elevator near the newsstand up to the 9th floor).
When I arrived, Ces was as warm and friendly and funny in person as he'd been via e-mail. Sohelia (the Dress Doctor) and her daughter (Giselle) led me into a fitting room and helped me into my dress. They took notes on not only what I wanted done to the neckline, but where things didn't fit quite right, whether I planned to lose weight and how much, what my budget was. I told them I had saved enough on the dress itself to spend around $400 on alterations.
Since dropping off my dress in November, I've had about six other appointments. I have a job where I'm on my feet all day running around, so I have been losing weight, and every time I came in and the dress needed to be tightened, no one complained... they just congratulated me on looking and feeling healthy.
Yesterday was my final fitting, and I cannot believe it's the same dress. The fit is perfect, as if the gown was custom-made for my body (it was way too big in the bust and way to small in the waist when I had purchased it). They cut the neckline into a gorgeous heart-shaped sweetheart neckline, and even sewed an old strand of costume pearls of my mom's into the dress as a halter neckline (which I had seen in a magazine and showed them).
Not only did they ensure my dress fit like a glove, but they also helped me find a bustier to tighten up my insecure area and give me the appearance of a little tasteful cleavage. They actually keep dozens of support garments right in the shop.
And the best part??? THEY KEPT THE WHOLE THING UNDER MY BUDGET.
I worked very closely with Giselle (Sohelia's daughter) for the majority of the process. She is quite the Dress Doctor herself! She's got an eye for design that just blows me away.
Overall, the Dress Doctor took my elegant but imperfect dress and turned it out to beyond its fullest potential. I feel so beautiful and confident in it, and can't wait for my husband-to-be to see it for the first time. Then I plan to show him all the pictures of how it originally looked. None of my friends can believe it's even the same dress!
Brides-to-be, if you are dealing with an imperfect dress that you know has the potential to become the gown of your dreams, the Dress Doctor can help you take it there. Recommend as highly as I possibly can.
Because I got a great deal on my dress I figured I could splurge a little on alterations. Everyone at The Dress Doctor was very nice and accomodating. I work with both Sohelia and Giselle and found them both to be excellent in the craft. I fell in love with my dress all over again after I saw what they did with it! My bustle stayed on all night as I danced and danced the night away.
One note is I do not recommend having your fitting on a Saturday. My last fitting was on a Saturday and not only I had to wait 30 minutes after my original appointment time, I felt rushed.
As far as their craft I highly recommend and would use them again.
The staff at the Dress Doctor are no doubt experienced and excellent tailors. It tends to get crazy in there during the summer, so I had to wait about an hour a couple times for my fittings, but that's to be expected in high wedding season.
I would have given the Dress Doctor 4 stars if they hadn't taken my wedding dress in too far by almost TWO inches. As experienced as they are, I can't understand why they don't take your actual measurements in addition to pinning the dress up while you're in it. The problem was that my wedding dress had an extremely thick and structured bodice, so they only pinned up one side of the dress and then proceeded to take the same amount in on the other side. They obviously took too much in on the one side. When I realized this at my third fitting to my horror, they acted like it was no big deal, and that they could fix it up in a jiffy. When I came back for my fourth and final fitting, the dress fit, but there were visible marks where they had torn the seams out of the side of the dress. There were also visible pin marks on the front of my dress. My dress was silk satin, so the fabric shows EVERY snag. Again they said they could brush this out, and they tried, but I could still see the marks...thank god they don't show in pictures. For the price and preferred tailor for Vera Wang gowns, I expected better.
I had to get my bridesmaid dress for my friend's wedding taken in and up. It was a long, satin, elegant Vera Wang black dress. The service was very helpful and nice, while I was actually being fitted. I called after they had the dress 2-3 weeks, and they said it was all done and ready for pick-up. So I did.
PROBLEM: when I brought it to Vegas for her actual wedding, much to our surprise on the day of the wedding, the bottom was cut, but NOT hemmed. So, the dress was unraveling and leaving long, ugly strings hanging from it all over the place all night.
Granted, when I tried it on in the shop before taking it home, I should have noticed there was no hem. In my defense, I was between two finals in law school and my head was somewhere else. It's their job to check that out, and make sure they finish their alterations before they tell you it's done and send you away with it. They had over two weeks to hem the dress, and they did not do that.
Besides this, the other alterations they did were great, and they were nice and accommodating. But failing to hem such a formal bridesmaid dress is non-forgivable in my book, and I will not go back.
MAKE SURE YOU CHECK YOUR STUFF OUT BEFORE TAKING IT HOME.
This past weekend I needed a dress for a gala in MN on Sunday morning. Sure enough on Sat at 6pm the zipper broke. After stopping at 5 different cleaners that were closed and calling all around, my brother came across the listing for The Dress Doctors.
My brother brought my dress in to the Dress Doctors and they were life savers! The staff was wonderful and extremely helpful. They were very polite and their work was amazing. They fixed the dress quickly and the repairs were flawless. The Dress Doctors were also very reasonably priced. I cannot recommend their services enough.
knowing how to rate this place was difficult for me. on the one hand, they were very professional and friendly (especially considering the circumstances... i'll explain) but their prices are ridiculously expensive. i realize that if people are willing to pay for it, they can charge it. but i wanted to write this review so people looking for wedding dress alterations can be informed prior to visiting.
i got my wedding dress from belle vie and they only recommend the dress doctor, so naturally, this is where i went. my dress is not complex, no beading or lace... fairly straightforward a-line with a bit of pin-tucking. i went in for my first fitting and they said it was going to be $590. i thought it seemed really high but i also didn't think there was an alternative so i paid the deposit. after having a minor breakdown when i got home and doing some extensive internet research, i found that $300-$400 was considered high for alterations, so the dress doctor price was exorbitant. i also realized that i didn't really understand what the $590 was for. they had recommended a bustier... was that included? they also said that it may or may not need work to the skirt part depending on how the torso alterations went... so would i have to pay more if there was work done to the skirt? none of this was explained to me. i called them and they said it would be $590 whether or not they had to do alterations to the skirt or the length of the dress... it was a flat fee. but the bustier they recommended would be on top of this price. so the alterations were going to be more like $660. they also do not press the dress, so i would have to get it pressed elsewhere and pay for it (an add'l $350). during this conversation with the dress doctor, i started to panic, but the man i spoke with was very professional and said i could pick up my dress and get the deposit back. when i picked up my dress, he said he understood that weddings are expensive, which helped make it slightly less awkward.
i ended up taking it to a place in my hometown where my wedding will be and a very experienced wedding dress seamstress is charging me less than $100 for alterations and pressing. it's a small town, so i know that you can't compare to chicago pricing and i'm sure dress doctor does a great job, but those prices are out of this world and you can get great alterations done for so much less.
The ONLY place to take your special event gowns. Vera Wang recommended The Dress Doctor to me for my wedding dress, and they made it impeccable. When my dress came in I thought it fit very well, but what do I know. They turned a gorgeous gown into a truly amazing piece. My mother also had her dress altered here, and they did amazing work. My favorite part was meeting Sohaila's daughter, Giselle, who adorably calls herself "The Dress Nurse." Giselle is available to help you dress the day of your wedding, help with the bustle, and basically be a "lady in waiting" of sorts. My Matron of Honor and I had some great laughs with her before we headed down the aisle. She's adorable, her Mom's ridiculously talented, I loved working with them.
I was very happy with my experience at The Dress Doctor. I had had an unpleasant experience at Davis Imperial (so bad, in fact that I left the store with my dress after my first appointment with them) so I turned to The Dress Doctor after seeing some wonderful reviews on the knot boards. Sohelia and her daughter were wonderful to work with - they had amazing, creative solutions to small problems that Davis Imperial had not come up with and I felt that the quality and service were top-notch. Sohelia also did my mom's dress and my mom was very pleased with the result. Plus, it was wonderful to have my alterations in the city as I could go at lunchtime during the week and they were honest with my (i.e., when I told them I wasn't planning on wearing spanx underneath, she told me polietly it might be a good idea to do so :)) The Dress Doctor is a bit pricey, but worth every penny in my opinion.
I had a big snafu with my dress while we were taking pictures between the the ceremony and reception; I jumped on my husband for a cute pic and right as I did this, my dress split right along the side - the zipper gave way and my left side was completely exposed. This wasn't just a little split a couple inches long, this was a major hole, from my armpit to below my waist on my right side, it was something that pins or safety pins could not have helped. This was a complete and absolute fluke and Sohelia was able to help out BIG time in a jam when I was quite pannicky. My wedidng planner called her and she was able to take me right away. She took an hour out of her regularly scheduled appointments that night and sewed me up after my new husband and I dashed over to her in a cab. The dress looked impeccable and you could not tell at all that the zipper had given way earlier that evening. She even gave us a seamripper for my new husband to cut me out of the dress that night :)
*As a sidenote - I do not blame the incident with the dress on the seamstress at all. I truly feel it was one of those crazy flukes and that the work they did on the dress was wonderful and in no way contributed to the tear.
I paid $275 for alterations on a $100 bridesmaid dress... That kind of sucked. But the dress did look fantastic and they were incredibly meticulous and would do as many fittings as necessary until I was satisfied - it only took two for me. Very conveniently located, walk-in's are NOT recommended (CALL AHEAD) and reasonably fast. I'd just rather not pay so much.
So, I bought my dress from Saeyoung Vu Couture, and in the meantime they closed their store here and sent me a dress that was irregular. Basically, the chiffon layer that goes over the top was twisting funny and since it's cut on the bias it was hard to see how to fix it. With less than a month to go, I took it to Sohaila at the Dress Doctor here in Chicago and not only did she fix it, she made a couple small alterations to it and it looks amazing!! I could tell from working with her that she's a real professional - not to mention being extremely sweet. I highly recommend her for any Windy City brides or even for other complicated alterations you don't want to trust your dry cleaner with.
I took my Vera Wang wedding dress to get altered here. The customer service and location is great. They just charge way too much money for their alterations. My main problem was that my bust area was never properly fitted. We went back and forth about the fit a few times and could never get it right. It ended up being too big and I flashed the priest several times during our ceremony. I cringe when I look at pictures that show the upper part of my dress and how big it was. I just wish that I had taken my dress somewhere else.
I'll start with the positive. Convenient for any of you brides with downtown jobs, as well as very friendly and accommodating. However, they did such a sloppy job on my simple strapless dress that I can't quite understand how it took over a month and a half. I realize this is the busy season, but I truly regret taking my dress here. All I needed was a simple shortening of the hem and a slight take-in around the bust area. They forgot to finish off the lining, so it was all jagged, and even worse, the bust area is crooked. Yes, crooked - one side shorter than the other where the boobs go. Needless to say, I refuse to let them alter it any further, and have had to take it in somewhere else. What a mistake...and an expensive one, at that. Ladies, think twice before ruining your special dress!
They're great. I had to have a great number of fittings as there were a number of issues with my wedding gown, and I encountered nothing but patience and willingness to work with me until it all looked right. I received many compliments on my dress, and this would not have been the case had the alterations been any less professional. I should also say that everything was done very fast given some of the time constraints imposed on us by the late arrival of the dress at the (unrelated) boutique.
I'm giving this tailor 4 stars only because she charges an ARM and a LEG. This is not the kind of place you go to get your pants hemmed--save it for something complicated that has to be done exactly right. I had my wedding dress altered here. I had to come back 4 times, but that was only because the tailor was very meticulous about making sure that everything was perfect and exactly to my liking. The dress had a couple of problems, but she figured out some creative and simple solutions for them that I never would have thought of myself. The 4th time I went, I got an impromptu style consultation from this crazy fashion designer guy who popped in bearing some evening gowns he was having altered for a client, or was perhaps planning to wear himself, I don't know. I ended up getting draped in yards of toulle and fake pearls, and by the time he was done with me I'd bought a bunch of stuff I didn't even end up wearing at the wedding, but it was a hilarious experience. And the dress turned out gorgeous.
Neighborhood: Near North Side
Category: Sewing & Alterations
Neighborhood: DePaul
Category: Bridal
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Category: Sewing & Alterations
Neighborhood: Wicker Park
Category: Dry Cleaning & Laundry
Neighborhood: Near North Side
Category: Dry Cleaning & Laundry
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