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ooo, jealous. my dress is anne barge - i love her designs!
Have fun! I went about 2 months ago and bought my dress! I had a wonderful experience and really didn't feel any pressure to try on anything that was above my price range (which for Kleinfeld's was low). So anything negative you have heard from the show is definitely exaggerated for TV. If it is a sample sale day it might be crazy, but it is a Monday so you have that going for you!!! It is a really large place, but I still felt very attended to and the center of attention. Hope this helps! Hope you find your wedding dress!
i didn't buy my dress there but i had a good experience. i worked with debbie (and randy too) and they were so nice. i'm not sure they really got what i was going for and i wished i could've stayed a little longer and tried on a few more. it seemed that once dresses i liked were starting to come out, the appointment was almost over. but, they didn't pressure me, they were patient and they were super nice to the 9 people i had with me (i don't recommend having 9 people with you by the way). bring LOTS of pics of dresses you like with you and be willing to try on what they recommend even if you don't think you will like it. there was dress that i almost got that randy pulled for me. hated it on the hanger and loved it on...family and friends didn't love it though but point is... it doesn't hurt to try.
Awesome thank for all the advice... anyone else out there???
I hope I get to meet Randy!!!
Hi! I've shared this on other boards, but I had an amazing experience at Kfeld. My consultant actually wasn't good, I would not recommend her (Barbara), but Randy was amazing! I think he knew Barbara was lazy and unmotivated to help me so he went out of his way to bring me a bunch of dresses, I got 'veiled' every time and he made me feel like a princess! This was the only dress appointment that I allowed others to attend as dress shopping is sooo much easier alone. It was more for the experience. Randy was spot-on with his selections, but at the end of the day Kfeld didn't even carry the dress I ended up getting, a custom Priscilla of Boston dress.
I had a great experience at Kleinfeld. I don't know what the trunk show scene is like - I'm guessing slightly insane - but my regular appointment was great. I worked with Renee. I knew pretty much exactly what I wanted and brought a bunch of pictures of essentially the same dress. We stuck to my price range (no pressure to go higher) and while I ended up with a dress slightly higher than what I said the max was, I also had said that the max number could be upped a few hundred for the perfect dress and she also gave me a little bit of a discount. She took me and my mom into the stock room and we pulled dresses together, but the one I ended up falling in love with is one she found for me. They know their stuff there! She was also really honest about how the sash I tried on with the dress was overpriced because it was a Lhuillier sash, which surprised me. The only bad part of the whole thing was that I didn't get any Randy time. I saw him while I was there, though.
I was very reluctant to go to Kleinfeld's, but I had and continue to have a wonderful experience with them. I bought my dress there (Henry Roth, check out his line!) and worked with a really great consultant - Erika. She was attentive and sensitive and really helpful. Also, I know it's their job, but EVERYONE who works there came by when I was in my dress and told me I looked amazing - it was an ego booster if nothing else - have the best time!
I've also shared on other boards, but my experience was great. I went in and met with Keasha who was totally lovely - she made all my bridesmaids feel very comfortable. I was unsure if I wanted lace or satin at that point so I tried on lots of both kinds of dresses. Also, she didn't pressure me at all. If she got one dress on me and I hated it, that was it, done, off it came. Randy was a hoot - he told me I looked beautiful in everything! My mother and I had very different opinions about the dress, so though I didn't find my dress on the first visit they booked me a second visit within 2 days.
On that next trip we were even able to go into the stockroom (which my maids loved!) and she encouraged us to pull anything we thought would work. They even had us up in front of the webcam so I could show my mom the dress at home. All in all they were totally lovely, and gave me a trunk show discount on the dress! Oh - definitely check the trunk show schedules - I knew Amsale was having a trunk show that same weekend so they gave me the trunk show discount (15%) on my dress.
@ eriqua--my dress is a henry roth too!! although actually i think it may be from his sister Michelle's line, but not sure since i have never seen it anywhere online. i went to Kleinfeld's and it was a Henry/Michelle Roth trunk show (which i didnt know before i arrived). i worked with Keasha and Randy and they were wonderful. I only had my mother and one friend with me so it was not chaotic. Overall it was lovely and organized and I got my dress!!!
One bit of advice: I was living in DC before my wedding, so I opted not to get my alterations done at Kleinfeld's. I felt VERY pressured to have them done there (they definitely tried to terrify me into thinking no one else was capable of doing alterations). But I think if you live in an area where you can find an independent seamstress, I think you will do much better price-wise. (At Kleinfeld's they charge a flat fee for alterations, regardless of whether you re-make the whole dress or just have it hemmed...almost $1000 i think!). Because I lived in DC I knew I would be able to find a god capable seamstress to handle my dress, so I didnt go back to Kleinfelds for alterations, which was a great decision.
i'm so happy to see this topic! i'm going next friday (pnina trunk show will still be on!), and i'm REALLY nervous because i have no intention of buying that day. however, i am almost certain that i will end up getting my dress at kleinfeld. i've been swooning over a certain pnina dress for the past six months and nothing has made it budge from the top of my top dresses list. most of my other top choices can be found only at kleinfeld in the US/northeast as well, so it's not like i'm coming in to play dress-up. i'm genuinely interested in buying, i just have to figure out what works best onto me (and get my mother, who'll write the check, to come with to be won over by the dress...). ugh. i am so nervous about this. i know how they hate "missed sales" and appointments with people who don't want to buy that day. i hope their frustration and disdain for such customers is at least slightly exaggerated on the show.
my wedding is still a year and a half away, so it's still a bit early for me to buy, but i'm almost certain that i will not change my mind about this dress. i'm going mostly because i want the opportunity to meet pnina and beg her not to discontinue the style!!!!
this is awesome! thank you for all the feedback! SO EXCITED! I'm now on the hunt for a 25% coupon that was apparently sent out for Monday's sale! If you find it can you please shoot it my way!?!?!
THANK YOU!
@Habibah14- Dancy posted about this and said to email her for the coupon! Here is a link to her post!
http://boards.weddingbee.com/topic/kleinfeld-sale-on-mlk-day-anyone-going
I want to go sooo badly. It's one of those things where my wedding is going to be small and low-key, so I could either blow all my money on a dress, or just get a cheap dress and keep everything low key. I'm sure you can tell what I'd love to do! But alas, I don't know if I could justify such spending. I will live vicariously through you girls!
@veganglam - I ordered my dress about a year and a half out too - the only negative is that you miss your dress and have to watch everyone finding theirs! But I was happy to have it behind me and they were happy to let me come in to try it again recently
my kleinfelds experience was pleasant, it looks alot larger on tv, i didnt find the selection to be anything extraordinary, i was nervous after my first dress experience which was horrific! horrible! i'm 5'9 and a size 12, i was afraid i'd feel like a giant at kleinfelds but they made me feel good, i specifically said to the lady if it doesnt fit dont force it!!!!!!!!! gosh i hate that...i ended up getting my dress closer to home but i wish i was more prepared, i gave up on my dress search after the first experience so i have no pictures no nothing when i went to kleinfelds i wish i had done more research but i found my perfect dress at priscilla of boston, i love that place!
kleinfelds is a hit and miss. very very aggressive staff, EXCEPT FOR TIFFANY Helbig! she helped me with the sample sale and i bought a beautiful lace dress. went back in and got jackie and felt like i was in a factory... was awful with her! they charge more than neccessary if you need a larger size or rush order and are very very aggressive, but tiffany was fabulous!
I wasn't going to post about my Kleinfeld's experience but I saw this threat revived and I am moved to post.
I went this past Sunday and it was totally awful. My consultant did not listen to me and was completely impatient and rude and I only got to try on 4-5 dresses before I was basically shooed out of the room.
I came home and wrote a four-page letter about my experience and I'm not sure if I want to send it. What good will it do?
Haven't gone for myself, but flew up with a friend and it was great! I don't remember who her consultant was, but she was wonderful. My friend ended up with a Claire Pettibone which was perfect for her! Good luck on your search!!
I've gone twice now--once for my sister, and again for my cousin. We all had a great experience, and they both were able to find beautiful dresses in their price range. My appointment is in October, and I'm really excited to be looking for my dress there.
@arousa1979nyc: Tiffany helped me too! I went to the Blowout Sale in April and bought an Alita Grahm Kleinfeld's Kollection Dress. I love my dress and now I want to wear it again!
@thefuturemcbride
wow me too! which alita graham did you get? i got the lace one with beads:http://www.kleinfeldkollection.com/alita-graham-detail.cfm?pid=52&item_id=11935&rowid=34&page=6
@arousa1979nyc: I haven't uploaded any good pictures of me in my dress, so I'm going to use the one of the model. Honestly, I don't like the way it looks on her.
yeah mine has the same model. i dont think they chose the right one for the dresses! but congrats!!
That is the same model. How funny! I do love your dress though for the same reason I love mine: different, but only slightly and still classy.
I feel compelled to post my story here since it seems like everyone but myself had a good experience at Kleinfelds. Being born and raised in NY I am equipped with the ability to deal with a large amount of bullsh*t but this experience sent me over the edge. When we got to the store we were seen almost immediately which was great. I didn't have a very large group so we were brough to the side area (not like you see on TV), also fine. We sat with the consultant (I believe her name was Rosemarie) and I had pictures of the dresses I was interested in and a very specific style I was looking for. When she asked my mother what the budget was she literally rolled her eyes and sighed and walked out of the room (the budget was 2500-3000). When she returned, she came with 5 dresses that were literally all plus size dresses that weren't even nice plus sized dresses, they were all frumpy. I am literally a street size 12 and 5'8", completely in proprortion including my chest. No reason for plus size gowns. So to humor her I put some on, they literally were swimming on me and totally unflattering to my shape. I kindly asked her if she could bring some dresses that were closer to my size and also to the style I was looking for. Again with a sigh she left. When she returned she had a beautiful lace dress with her. It was literally a street size 0. I told her that the lace dress was more toward the direction I was looking for and then she proceeded to tell me that I wouldn't be able to get my thighs in the dress let alone zip it up (now she was definitely right about this but you just don't say that!!). I asked her if she had something similar in a larger size something like a street size 10/12 that I could put on and she told me that if she had the dress in my size she would have brought it out. UM EXCUSE ME? She then suggested that my sister (who is 5'2 and a size 2) try it on for me. That was it for me. She wound up bringing out a beautiful Lazaro dress, which I wound up buying elsewhere. We left almost immediately after that. This woman had absolutely no tact whatsoever I would never have given her the sale.
I went to Kleinfelds to get that special wedding experience but left pretty pissed off. What a waste of an hour.
hey there dance, actually all dresses above a "bridal 10/street6" are considered plus size, so dont take it personally. it's hard to swallow at first but after a while it doesnt bother you. if you try on dresses enough, you will be able to tell which looks good and which doesnt. pronovias in nyc has quite a few dresses for those size 10-12 street.
I went to Kleinfelds in March and my experience there was just ok. My consultant listened to me and generally understood what I was looking for but I had two main issues with my experience. 1. It was a madhouse in there. I was almost run into while walking to and from my dressing room several times, the staff seemed really young/distracted/unprofessional. Other dress shops I went to gave me champagne and were hushed/relaxing. 2. I really felt they were trying to get me to go over my budget. My consultant asked if I was ok with going a little over my stated budget (2500) and I said yes. The only dress I really liked was a 3200 Lazaro. That is almost 30% over my budget, not what I would consider "a little". I tried on a plain lace dress and they suggested I try a belt on with it. They brought over a gorgeous belt...pricetag 1000. If my budget is 2500 and the dress is 2400 I don't consider buying a 1000 belt to complete the look as staying within my budget. I went shopping with 3 of my bridesmaids and they were so relieved when we left.
I actually had a great experience there, both with the purchasing process and the fitting process (2nd sitting on Saturday!). I was a little intimidated given that I didn't have the most extravagant of budgets and had heard that Kleinfeld can "look down" on those with less money to burn. My experience was nothing like that! I had Sarah as my consultant and she was incredible. She knew exactly what I was looking for before I did. It was the third dress I tried on, but she let me try 4 or 5 others just so I felt sure about it. I guess I had a different measuring experience, too. Nicole and Sarah did my fitting and it was one of the classiest I've ever had. They never actually told me what size I was ordering. They just said "2 sizes down from the sample." All in all, I'm quite a fan of Kleinfeld.
Hi arousa1979nyc! I know that bridal sizes run small and the "plus sizes" hit pretty early on in the street size numbers but these dresses were literally plus size. Dress size 24 for example, for someone say street size 18. The Lazaro gown that I wound up buying, that size was much larger than my street size, which I didn't even care about, I'm not really a "tag" girl where I freak over the size on the tag. What I was pissed about was she was bringing me dresses that weren't even close to being on target. Kleinfelds was not my first dress shopping experience so I knew that were was a huge amount of dresses to fit girls size 10/12 and that having to trying on dresses that were size 24 was just unnecessary. It seemed to be amateur to me and that's what I didn't like. I definitely think that the consultant you have can make or break the experience. I assumed that going to such a well known bridal store, all employees would be on the same level and I sadly don't think that is the case there. I watch Say Yes to the Dress all of the time and the consultants on the show seem so fantastic. I wish I would have had one of them instead!
My visit to Kleinfeld’s
In my ongoing quest to find the perfect dress I felt a pilgrimage to that altar of TV consumerism, Kleinfeld Bridal, was called for. So we made an appointment, and off we went. For 3:30 on a Thursday afternoon, the place was pretty busy, and after watching some of the familiar faces from TV schmoozing with family in the waiting area, we met our bridal consultant, Ingrid, and off we went.
Ingrid’s room was significantly smaller than the ones you see on TV, but there was enough space for MM and I to talk to her and try on dresses. I made it perfectly clear what I wanted; form-fitting, show off my figure, no A-Line, and most importantly; something that I could actually try on, not “examples” of dresses that might look good on me.
Ingrid pointed out that her samples were mainly size 10’s, and that despite my being an 18 she was sure that with my narrow waist I could fit into that in some fashion. My waist is only narrow in comparison to my bust, and I told her that as a 16-18 in street clothes my chances of fitting into a 10 were non-existent. She then, of course, asked the magic question; what was our budget for the dress?
MM told her $10,000, but that I was considering a separate dress for our welcome party event the night before the wedding, too. Ingrid then asked if the budget was firm, as she had a couple of ideas that she thought would look great on me, but were a little pricier.
MM told her that he was flexible, but when I reminded her that I was only interested in dresses that had samples I could try on, she dissembled a bit, and then admitted that there were no larger sizes to sample in those pricier dresses. I guess they don’t expect a plus size woman to spend more than $10,000.
After a bit more discussion, Ingrid went to pull some dresses. She came back with three dresses, all Pnina Tornai. The first one I tried was a beautiful beaded crystal fabric in a mermaid design (at $8400), that looked good, but simply had the wrong neckline and couldn’t be modified due to the beaded fabric (straight across necklines in strapless give me the giant “uniboob” look I hate).
The next dress, also a Pnina, just didn’t look as good, and the third was in far too small a size. Ingrid then took us to a small storeroom and told us to pull some dresses that we thought would work. There were about 40 plus size dress in this space, which I presume was the higher-end plus size closet. Note: all these dresses were labeled BG- which I think meant big girl- jeez- couldn’t they think of something else?
We pulled our selections and went back to the changing room. This dress was the best of the bunch http://digitalperf.com/albums/userpics/10001/normal_P1.jpg It really did a good job of accentuating my figure and had excellent structure in the bodice of the dress, much better than any other dress I have tried on. It had two problems, however. First, for $7300, the Swarovski crystal appliqué at the neckline looked really cheesy. I was told it could be removed or replaced. The second problem was the appliqué and the location at which the skirt was gathered. Its location drew the eye directly, as I put it, to “the magic kingdom.” It also drew the skirt forward in a way that just wasn’t esthetically pleasing, putting a “clump” of fabric directly in front of my feet. But this dress fit extremely well, and that was a major plus. Note: For $7300 I expected a dress to be perfect in design and fit.
I tried on a few more dresses including a couple of Lazaro’s that didn’t look as nice as the Pnina (the difference in structure in the bodice was really noticeable) and, a Maggie, that was brought in under Ingrid’s protests (she didn’t want to show me a $1000 gown) that was just ugly. Other than the Maggie, Ingrid didn't bring in any dresses under ~$6K or so; it seems that she was going for the big sale or nothing at all.
Ingrid then brought in her last offering, another Pnina that was brand new to the collection and I was the first to try it on. It was definitely the silliest looking dress I had tried yet. http://digitalperf.com/albums/userpics/10001/normal_p2.jpg I have no idea what Pnina was thinking when she mixed the two designs together but the dress looks significantly worse in real life than it does in the picture.
It was clear to Ingrid that she couldn’t find the right combination for me and she didn’t even ask the famous Randy to help us out.
When we were leaving I spent a little time watching the girls in the main salon- the one they show on TV. There, Sarah, Joan, Randy, Keesha were helping out younger, thinner brides.
All in all the experience can be summed up by a paraphrase by the Cathy Bates character in Friend Green Tomatoes—“Honey, Im older than you, have more money than you, and know what I want” and it wasn’t at Kleinfelds.
http://digitalperf.com/albums/userpics/10001/normal_P1.jpg
better link to dress that I would describe as mummy attacked by mini-blinds
I loved reading your experience at Kleinfelds !! THank you for sharing and being so honest. I love your wit !!
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Hey Bees! I'm going on Monday at 11am!!!!! :)
I wanna to hear EVERYTHING about your experience!!!
BTW it's a Pnina and Anne Barge truck show and also I've heard a sample sale day!