Just wanted to vent, and I know this is a friendly place of people who can relate!
I'm an Italian-American living in Italy, and went into Rome over the weekend to look for a dress. I had made an appointment at an atelier that carries Enzoani dresses, as well as their own label. When I made the appointment, the secretary asked me to send her the names of the Enzoani models I was interested in, which I did.
Guess how many I got to try on? None. Because the owner of the shop kept trying to push dresses from her own design label on me. She started off by informing me that she is the official attache' for high fashion in Italy, and that foreigners (like me) don't know how to dress, so it's up to Italians to teach us because we have no idea what looks good!
The first dress she brought out was the EXACT opposite of my style - I'm looking for something super clean, sophisticated, and modern (think Bianca Jagger; Olivia Palermo, designer Sarah Seven) and she brought something fit for a 1980s Vegas showgirl. I hated it, of course, but she seemed so proud of it that I humored her and tried it on. She pointed out that I have small breasts and big thighs, so she'd have to 'let it out' below the waist, but once I 'lose an inch' off my thighs 'it could work.' I gritted my teeth, gave her some compliments on the dress ("I can tell a lot of work went into all this beading") and asked if she had something "less elaborate."
She comes back. This time, she's got a ball gown with a transparent bodice, white bra cups, and a rhinestone-encrusted cathedral-length train (I'm 4'11", 45Kg, and 39 years old). By that point, I realized that I wasn't going to get anywhere with her, so I tried it on, too, while scanning the room and noticing that none of the dresses in there were the Enzoani dresses I'd asked to try on. I asked, a bit more assertively: "Do you have anything without lace, macrame, glitter, rhinestones, beads, or trains?" She came back with a halfway decent white mikado dress that had a giant lace applique. I asked again, "Do you have anything without lace?" she said, "Oh, but this is so refined." She said she could make the mikado dress to my liking, but when I asked if it could be made with a deep ballet neckline (like a Le Spose di Gio dress I tried on, adored, but can't afford) she said, no, because that would look bad on me. She said would make it with a super deep V that came down to my waist. I like a deep V, but not THAT low. She also said she would add some glitter to the back, or some rhinestones, and seemed horrified when I said, "I don't wear things that sparkle." Then she said she would make me a "matching stole" to wear with the dress, because at night it would get chilly and i HAVE to have a stole. I was sort of just laughing about the whole experience by this point so I said, "sure, let's see what you have in mind," and, yup, she came back with the same stiff organza stole that my friends and I wore in the 90s with our homecoming dresses.
I'd lost my patience by this point, and asked, "Would it be possible for me to see the Enzoani dresses that I came to try on?" She said she didn't have them!!!!! That was it for me - I made up an excuse about the time and got dressed. She went to her office to write up an estimate of the 'custom made' gown she had 'designed' and said, "I hope you understand where you are. This is the seat of all high Italian wedding fashion. I hope you appreciate the importance of this design." I had to fight not to roll my eyes. She said that brides have 15 days to make up their minds on the dress - I had made up my mind in 15 seconds.
I left the atelier laughing because the whole situation was so ridiculous, but now that I've had some time to reflect I'm pretty annoyed. I'm just so glad that this wasn't my first time trying on dresses - I've already been 3 times and had really great experiences. I was also glad that I'm at an age where I don't let people bully me into doing things I don't want to do, and further glad that I wasn't all that sprung on the Enzoani dresses to begin with, so not being able to try them on didn't break my heart. If it had been my first time trying on dresses, though, I think I would have been really upset and completely put off wedding dress shopping, and if I'd been in love with the designer, I would have been crushed not to get to try them on. The insults about my nationality and body were just the icing on the cake.
I still don't get how they could ask me for designs that I liked and bring me the exact opposite.
Anyway, thanks for listening!
