Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Sisterhood of the Traveling Dress

Every now and then we get an email from a customer that reminds us WHY I do what I do. It's not so much the dress designing, but more the inspiration to have fun. Yesterday Genevieve (my right hand wom) received this email from a customer...

Subject: Thread
Hello Genevieve,
My name is Kirsten Durocher and my sisters and I are huge fans of your line. We have enjoyed watching your company grow from the cool bags and accessories to some really awesome clothes and more specifically some very unique dresses. Unfortunately my reasoning behind emailing you was that one of my very favorite dresses from your collection has had a bit of an accident. This is a dress that has gotten more compliments than I can even explain and has been borrowed by just about every one of my girlfriends from Boston to Los Angeles. Honestly, the dress has been a bit of a "sisterhood of the traveling pants" as cheesy as that is and when my friend recently wore it to Opening Day at Del Mar Horse Track in San Diego she said strangers were literally seeking her out across the room to compliment her (my CK Bradley) dress and ask her who the designer was. Needless to say, each and everyone who has worn the dress, including myself has been thrilled to death with the compliments and are always immediately thrilled to spread the good word of CK Bradley. Anyways, long story aside, its most recent wear was at a wedding where one of my friends may have been too aggressively performing her "moves on the dance floor" when a strap on the dress broke. It is a perfectly clean break and should be easily fixed, however upon first attempt we have not been able to track down the specific colored thread and the mend is currently a bit noticeable (at least to me the owner of the dress). The dress is totally wearable, but as a bit of a perfectionist, I was hoping that I might be able to track down a bit of the blue thread used to sew the straps on so that my tailor could perhaps fix the dress in a less noticeable way. I have attached a picture of the dress (pre-incident), as I am not 100% sure what its official name/style was. I would appreciate any advice/help you could provide with this matter. On a side note, do you have any of these dresses still kicking around in either this specific pattern or anything else. I am part of a rather small chested/small waist/larger bottom club and this style could not fit my body more perfectly. I wanted to pick the dress up in the blue/green combo (size 6), but didn't manage to find it in time. Thank you again for your help and my apologies for sending such a lengthy email. I look forward to continuing to shop the CK Bradley brand and having recently moved from Boston to Los Angeles, I can't wait to wear all my CK wear out here. All the best. -Kirsten Durocher -- Kirsten Durocher

Let's rehash this a bit. Does "...too aggressively performing her moves..." include shaking and or stomping? I ask because I, the namer and designer of the dress think it might have had something to do with the dress, not your friend. Can a dress inspire behavior you ask? I think so. The dress in question here is called the Bamba Dress after the dance and song La Bamba...and the origin of that according to Wikipedia "... has no direct English translation, but is presumably connected with the Spanish verb, bambolear meaning "to shake", or perhaps "to stomp". So...could I be at fault here for not making a dress with super heavy duty thread knowing that it is almost IMPOSSIBLE not to want to dance while wearing it?

Even before the dress was put into production...we danced with the idea of no straps as you can see above, but opted for straps in hopes that that would lessen the occurrence of a surprise peep show. Other dresses also inspired by dances....

Kirsten. We are on a search for your thread. Stand by....

-On my way to delve into the CK Bradley dress archives on a hot and sticky day...


5 comments:

  1. As one of Kiki's nearest and dearest, I can attest to the fact that she does break out in some pretty impressive/amazing dance moves of her own from time to time. She is very much one with the spirit of the bamba dress.

    As a proud member of the sisterhood of the traveling CKB dress, I was able to sport that little number to a "Samba" themed benefit on the Cape last summer- it survived impeccably.

    My fingers are crossed for a speedy and lovely resurrection!

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  2. that is so great! and definitely love that you think through things like "aggressive dance moves" and unwanted "peep shows" when you are designing your clothes..one of the many things that makes you awesome!

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  3. Some people design for large busts, some for runway, and me? For puddle jumping and aerial dance offs...

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  4. Not sure of the desired size, but Queen Bee has a similiar style "Lola" that she's looking for on sale right now on the website. I have no connection (just a ckb fan) but noticed it today when I saw this blog posting.

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  5. What great thoughts to go into something like this! love it!

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