L’Mode Bridal Alterations Specialist Reviews
Reviews
We're all about trust. Our community relies on honest reviews to help you make those big decisions with ease.
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![christina]()
Christina Sent on 05/27/2009Dorie Kong is my super hero! She made my dream wedding dress come true. Not only is she darling and a pleasure to work with, she is incredibly talented. She has the gift to visually perceive the way a garmet will best accentuate your body~ complimenting you most fashionably!
she is working around the clock. Answers phone calls 24 hrs. a day~ She is flexable and accomodating. reliable, professional, and most reasonable. Soft spoken, she listens, and pays 100% attention to what she is doing.
I first had the pleasure of meeting her, discovering her great services: a year ago, summer of 2008 when she custom made a bridesmaid dress, for me to wear in my best friends wedding. With 7 of us in the bridal party, All turned out to be stunning.
The night before by friends wedding, she was with Dorie~ who was fixing her gown, from another seamstresses "bad alteration" I couldn't believe her ease, working with a frantic bride. She worked some true magic with in minutes. Accepting the job most gracefully!
So when i purchased my wedding gown, off the rack SAMPLE and had the lady at the bridal shop (won't mention where i bought it) begin alterations~ I quickly returned to pick it up...She was butchering it!
It should have gone first to Dori!
She found time to re-create my gown, 1 week before my big day! My dress was more beautiful than i could have ever imagined! It was not cheap, but it WAS reasonable. Considering the amount of work and the time frame~ the outcome was priceless! She did EVERYTHING under the sun to perfect it! My dress and I were stunning!!!
Not only is she the BEST seamstress around, Ive been to many...Nobody, compares to her quality! She also gave me great advise for the type of heals i should be wearing. My vail, under-slip, jewlery, hair etc. without trying to sell my anything. She just had my best interest in mind. This is rare, and i believe it's hard to find.
I'll back up my story with photos, just contact me! If I could I would write her name in the sky, and refer her to Every body. Any one needing an alteration, or custom wedding gown, DORIE KONG IS THE ONE! -
![Kim L]()
Kim Sent on 09/29/2025I had a great experience overall with Dorie.
I had a great experience overall with Dorie and Chi! They were both kind, professional, and really dedicated to getting everything just right. I'll admit I was a little nervous at first when she cut quite a bit for the shoulder flap adjustment, but she went back and kept making small tweaks until I was completely happy with how it looked. In the end, the dress turned out beautiful and fit perfectly. I really appreciated her patience and commitment to making sure I loved the final result. For those who might be wondering, she works out of her home studio, which i wasn't expecting but it was a sweet personable experience. -
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![Ashley]()
Ashley Sent on 09/22/2019I had a great experience with Dorie. She is so kind.
Dorie is amazing!!! I called her a week before my wedding to get the alterations done on my dress and she made it happen. I'm so appreciative for her hard work and dedication. I HIGHLY recommend her to anyone that needs alterations. Thank you so much Dorie. -
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![keely]()
Keely Sent on 11/09/2011Dorie is a true pleasure to work with. She listens, is patient, gives recommedations...but lets you make the decisions. She does absolutely beautiful work. Her work is a mix of creativity and precision. I felt truly amazing on my wedding day! I will not hesitate to use Dorie again. -
![Adena]()
Adena Sent on 07/02/2011I bought my wedding dress at a sample sale, so it needed to be altered quite a bit. Dorie Kong, the owner, did a superb job of basically re-constructing the bottom 1/3 of my dress and creating a bustle and sash. The end product looked flawless, and I could not have been happier with my wedding day look. -
![Stephanie]()
Stephanie Sent on 10/30/2010Dori was amazing! I'm so glad I found her on this website. I have already referred many of my friends; and my mom got her dress altered here as well. I couldn't have been happier with the service. My dress looked amazing! I received so many compliments on my dress. Thank you so much! -
![Megan]()
Megan Sent on 09/08/2010I took my dress to Dorie to alter before the wedding after finding her review on Wedding Wire. At first I was a little shocked/disappointed/annoyed that it cost so much for a simple bust alteration, bustle and steam ($489) but after she finished the dress and I went to pick it up I could not BELIEVE how amazing she made my already perfect dress. I was sure my dress needed no alterations and the fact that she made it fit even better than before was a very pleasant surprise. The dress fit perfectly and the bustle was in line with the rest of the dress. It was ready to go on time and looked amazing on me. I would go back to Dorie in a second no matter what the price. She really does work miracles. -
![angelswalk]()
Angela Sent on 05/02/2010I had a dress purchased by family that was custom made but when it got to me, the top would not stay up and the bustle was not done well. It was a little too big too. I found L'mode on a google search. The website said that Dorie likes a challenge and that she could fix any dress and makes them too. Dorie made me comfortable almost immediately. She performed alterations on the dress that made it fit better and the dress looked great on our wedding day. Dorie got the wedding gown done in time and it was so much better than when I took it to her. Her prices for alterations were fair. Her work was professional and efficient. -
![sasa]()
Esa Sent on 11/22/2008My wedding gown was originally altered at a big bridal store that I purchased from. It was a nightmare. While I was shopping for another wedding gown at Los Angeles, I met an acquaintance in the bridal store, she referred me to L'MODE. I am very thankful to this stranger.
Dorie had saved my life. She had my wedding gown revamped and miraculously finally adjusted to fit me. Best of all, with her magic touch, it made me look flattering and as if I had lost 10 lbs instantly. What a life saver Dorie was.
I would recommend her service to brides who need minor or major alterations work done. Believe me, you may save hundreds and hundreds and could be thousands of dollars working with the right professional.
By the way, she custom made one-of-a-kind gowns too. She is an award winning designer as well. Dorie told me she enjoys doing wedding gown alterations for the final finishing touches than any other department. I had a great experience working with Dorie and her crew. -
![kourtneylux]()
Kourtney Sent on 03/06/2011I think that Dori is an amazing person. She knows her customers. She took a dress down for me that was about 8 sizes to big and made it look beautiful. My only concern is in the chest there was wrippling of the material and the price was a bit high (although to be expected in my situation) If you have money to spend this is a great place. She has an eye for design. -
![Sindy]()
Sindy Sent on 03/24/2009If you want a completely new dress made, you might have better luck here. The owner is undoubtedly very talented at designing. I could not find a fabric within their inventory so ended up going to them for alterations instead. I should have had my dress made there because it would have only cost $1200 including alterations.
I needed some minor alterations and paid ~750+ for 2 dresses (one bridal, one reception) after a 20% discount. This comprised of taking in the torso of one dress via the zipper, cutting off and hemming one train (2 layers), adding 2 sets of external bust pads, and reducing 2 seams around the hip area.
The dresses looked great and had nice fit by the time they were finished. But there were some problems. Instead of making the bust smaller, they added 2 more pads to the padded chest because it would take much more work to take apart the seams. I thought they were going to place the bust pads inside the lining but the padding was externally attached. One dress they made so tight I could not sit down. Luckily they fixed it , but there are small holes in the taffeta where the seams had to be taken apart again.
My final recs: Either get a new dress designed here, or come here for complicated problems that need creative fixes. -
![Nicole]()
Nicole Sent on 09/08/2024Do not trust this business with your dress
I took my pronovias dress to LaMode for alterations based on her reviews on yelp, google etc and her website claimed that she has been doing bridal alterations for several decades and has worked on the brand of dress I had purchased. After looking at the dress and already pinning the hem without much communication, the owner Dorie quoted me at $1300. I had gotten a slightly smaller quote from another shop, but I usually like to use privately owned businesses because of their attention to detail. I thought that was what I was getting with Dorie, but boy was I wrong.
She agreed to reduce the cost by 10%, to $1,170 and I left my dress with her after ensuring that she knew how to take off the lace that lined the bottom and move it up. I believed her because she had tons of other dresses hanging up that had the bottom lace done correctly and looked perfectly fine.
After several months I go back for my first fitting and the lace on the bottom was completely butchered (see picture 1). It looked like they just cut it on the hem line and slapped it on over the remaining lace to keep the scalloping. She also removed the loops on the back for my buttons along the zipper line so that the buttons could not be done up. There was a crease on the side of my bodice that I pointed out to her, and after a half-assed attempt, she just told me it wouldn’t go away.
I told her that the way the lace got cut in half was unacceptable and she needed to fix it with the scraps she still had. When she was looking at the work it looked like it was her first time even seeing my hem, which means someone else that she employs butchered it. After about a 10 minute stare down, she said she could fix it and lucky me she also said she wouldn’t charge extra.
I left that day in tears and went so far as the reach out to the bridal boutique I bought it from to see if there was any way I could get a new bolt of the lace they messed up. I was panicking because we were only about 1 month out from my wedding at this point.
Dorie originally asked me for 2 weeks to fix it, but I told her it was unacceptable as it was too close to my wedding and she agreed on 1 week instead. I asked for update photos and I got sent a blurry photo of my hem that hadn’t been altered yet with reassurance it would get done.
I go in for my second fitting with her and the lace on the bottom did get adjusted, but the pattern was still completely butchered. They didn’t take the time to put it back together, they literally just took the scraps and what was underneath and smushed it all together (see picture 2). Keep in mind the lace on my train was still intact, so the front of the dress still didn’t match seamlessly with the original pattern on the back.
At this point I concluded that they were not willing or able to fix it correctly. The side crease on the bodice wasn’t even fixed. I just took my dress home because I no longer trusted that they would take good care of it.
Dorie didn’t offer any type of refund, she just kept insisting that she wasn’t going to charge me extra for the lace to be fixed. The lace that SHE messed up in the first place.
At this point I was a little less that 3 weeks from my wedding and I couldn’t afford to take it to another shop to get the lace restored correctly (although my bridal shop deserves a shoutout because the owner reached out to me personally to find a shop in my area who could fix my dress). I got home that night and slept on it and finally decided the next day that I would try to fix the more horrendous sections of lace myself. I ended up taking the entire front lace off the dress and restored it myself over the next two weeks. I put all the butchered pieces back together like some sick jigsaw puzzle (it was well over 50 separate tiny pieces) and got to work hand stitching it. Bless my fiancé because he didn’t lose his mind when he came home that day to see my dress in pieces. (See picture 3).
I am by no means a seamstress. I have made quilts but never clothing, so I was just winging it and using YouTube as a crutch as I was going. I also fixed the bodice crease in all my amateur glory. It was by no means perfect, but even I was able to do a better job at fixing Dorie’s mistake than she did. At least now I could stomach wearing the dress she almost ruined, but I will never get the countless hours I spent fixing it back. (See image 4 of the original unaltered lace pattern and image 5 for final result of MY adjustments).
Moral of the story, do not trust LaMode or Dorie with anything you value because they will not give it the respect or care that you pay for. And if you do, be better than me and ask for a refund before you run away to cry in your car. -
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