Ordering a dress
Ordering a dress can take as long as 5 months to arrive in store. This is fairly standard in the dress industry, especially when most dresses are cut to order–the dress is not cut in the size and colour until the order is placed.
This timeline also depends on stock levels in the warehouse and where the warehouse is located. If the size and colour of a dress you are looking to order is in stock in a local warehouse, it can take as little as 2 to 6 weeks to arrive.
Grad/prom season
In the industry, the grad and prom season starts in August, but the entire selection of dress samples are not fully in store until November or December. Stores often are not able to buy the new season of dresses until June, at the earliest, to late August, and the samples often take 3 to 6 months from this date to arrive in store.
Trunk shows
We recommend looking out for advertised trunk shows. A trunk show is a collection of designer dresses that are loaned to the store for customers to try on and order from. This collection often offers a variety of styles and colours that the host store may not have initially ordered for their own retail stock, and gives an early sample to shoppers of what they can expect to see this coming season.
When to shop
For our store, we recommend shopping in or around the month of November. Our dresses start arriving in September and continue arriving into the new year. The majority of our dresses usually arrive by late fall, around November, offering a sizable selection of dresses to choose from while still having enough time to order.
Be on the lookout for advertised trunk shows, too. This is an excellent time to shop as you have even more selection available to you, but know that trunk shows are only in store for a short period of time; once they’re gone, they’re gone.
If you don’t find what you’re looking for, we recommend coming back in a month or two as we will likely have more dresses that have arrived in store.