Wendy Brandes Jewelry Blog

Never Is the Next New Thing

What Wendy Will Wear: Dress by Zang Toi

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What timing! Right after my post about how sample sizes, by definition, don’t fit the vast majority of people right off the rack, Tia from The Quest for “it” posted about the sample sale I had with my designing friend Zang Toi last month. Conveniently, she took a picture of Zang personally altering a red-cashmere dress sample on me. I’m so bad! I should be selling at these events, not buying, but Zang is impossible to resist.

That's black lace on the side. Courtesy The Quest for "it"

That’s SiSi, Zang’s assistant, in the left corner of the photo. She was taking notes about the alterations.

This is typical of my experience with Zang’s samples. I can often get myself into them, but I can’t flounce out the door that second. In fact, Zang has offered to loan me samples for events but I can’t take him up on it because the samples don’t fit me as is. We do lots of alterations when I am buying: taking in, letting out, hemming lengths, shortening sleeves, removing sleeves, reshaping necklines and so on. The initial fit of the sample depends on the shape of the model who wore it on the runway. Do all of you know about model fittings? Gorgeous blogger Tricia of Fashion Herald, who has walked in fashion shows, brought that up yesterday in the comments, noting, “Not even models will fit all runway and showroom samples, which is why there are fittings before shows.”

The tightest Zang sample I ever put on — I couldn’t zip it, walk in it or breathe in it — had been altered for an actress. She was much thinner than any of the models, so if she’s trying to be “model-thin,” she’s doing it wrong. As for my new dress, Zang took it in at the bust, let it out at the waist, and tapered it all the way down. Even if some of you are my height, weight and dress size, the dress might not fit you because it’s tailored specifically for me. So don’t ask to borrow it! I hope to wear it to Zang’s show during Fashion Week if the weather is cool enough for cashmere.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

    • Yeah, I wish I could take him up on it! I once wore one at his insistence, but it didn’t fit me at all. I consoled myself with the fact that I’m not famous so no fashion police would be scolding me with, “How can she wear a dress that doesn’t fit?” But Zang wanted to go out with two customers in matching dresses, so it wasn’t about me — I was just an accessory!

  7. A glorious red. Don’t get me started on sample sizes, I love them but everyone else has a flunk about them. They are what they say on the tin a ‘sample’ and the size is due to using and not wasting too much material.

    The dress is very you xx

    • I’m so bored with people thinking the world revolves around them. If they can’t wear a free sample, it means the designer hates them! It doesn’t have anything to do with business and the fact that no one is ENTITLED to free, perfectly-fitted dresses.

  11. That looks so amazing on you and most definitely fantastic paired with your signature red! I guess I always knew about the fittings and models thing but never really thought about it until now!

    • I KNEW about fittings but I didn’t really pay attention until Stacy started working on hers, and I heard all the details. Then it all started to become very clear to me!

  12. That dress is so You. One of the things that really came home when we did the style workshop with Imogen last year is that two women of the same height and weight can still have VASTLY different body shapes.

    DH was shocked to learn that most women’s retail outlets don’t offer free alterations. Men are so spoiled!

    • Hmmm, last time we took MrB for a suit, he did have to pay for alterations. But it was assumed he’d have them. I mean, the suits aren’t really finished.

      Re body shape, the worst thing is when, over time, your weight stays the same but your body shape changes and you can’t fit into things even if you haven’t gained an ounce! Unfair!

      • “your weight stays the same but your body shape changes and you can’t fit into things even if you haven’t gained an ounce! Unfair!”

        Yep, that’s exactly what’s happened to me in the last couple of years. Bah.

  15. Wow, what an amazing dress! Can I borrow it? (hee)

    I have never had the luxury of having a dress (or anything) tailored. If clothes don’t fit when I try ’em on, I don’t buy ’em. Sad, I know.

    I can’t wait to see how you style this dress, Wendy!

    • Why not look into tailoring costs near you? It might not be so much. If you pay $10 to get something altered, it might be better than spending gas money and your valuable time driving from store to store looking for something you desperately need. Some stores also provide in-house tailors, but you need to ask.

      That was what spurred me to start going to tailors. I could spend weeks going from store to store, in tears, trying to find one pair of jeans that fit, or I could spend an extra $10 on the first pair of jeans that almost fit. I decided to spend a little more upfront rather than keep spending what turned out to be an excessive amount of time/money trying to SAVE money.

      And there’s always DIY. Back in the day, my mother did hemming and sleeve shortening for my sister and I, but she did it by hand. It would have been too hard for her to work with the waist of a pair of jeans because she didn’t have a machine.

      I’m afraid I’m going to let you down in the styling department with this dress. See the shoes I have on? I also have on my Cleopatra necklace. Probably when I wear this, that will be as much styling as I do! 🙁

  16. I’m so glad you got this dress… I was drawn to it as soon as I walked into the showroom. It’s so perfect for you. Now, that dress that you couldn’t breathe in — the one that had to be altered for the actress because apparently Zang’s model was too THIN… was she invisible, this actress?

    • Hmmm? The model wasn’t too thin, or rather, she wasn’t thinner than the typical model. It was the actress who had gone to a skeletal extreme. In fact, at the time, there was a huge amount of gossip about the actress’s scary weight. There was some editorializing about “Oh, the poor actresses feel pressure to starve themselves to fit into sample sizes.” But this actress had made herself too small to wear a sample off the rack! She needed all kinds of alterations (and psychological help). You’d recognize her name and situation, but I’m not telling.

    • I was a little unsure about the neckline in person but in the photo it looks just fine to me! So I’m happy with my selection.

  20. That dress is incredible. And it looks perfect on you! Totes agree with your Hendricks samples size opinion btw. Why does everyone expect freebies? I don’t get it.

    • Thanks! As for the freebies, yeah, it can suck if other people get all this great free stuff and you don’t…on the other hand, I’ve been able to bear it all these years and I feel like celebrities should be able to bear it too. There are WAY bigger problems than having to buy your own beautiful dresses.

      Personally, I hate loaners anyway. If I love something, I want to keep it. If I don’t love something, I don’t want to wear it. I would only wear borrowed pieces as a favor to a designer friend, not for my own gratification.

  21. So many people get tripped up on the wording from your last post, like you’re attacking “real” women as annoying people like to call them. I think it’s great that you’re devoted to Zang and not bitching that you can’t get free shit from him. I mean, free shit is nice, but if I love a designer, I don’t want a loaner, I want to re-wear the shit out of my (not free) shit. A lot of shit going on in this comment.

    • Do you want me to design a set of S#@T swear rings for you? 🙂

      I knew I was taking a chance with that last post because it could be misunderstood by people who are (a) normally smart but reading carelessly at the moment (b) blinded by political correctness and emotion (c) chronically fucking stupid (d) always looking for a fight. I showed the post to MrB to make sure my point was totally clear and he agreed it was and said, “People will misunderstand it anyway because that’s what people do.”

      But I am just tired of people thinking that everything in the world has to accommodate THEM no matter how impossible that is to achieve. Really, it shouldn’t take a genius to realize that a sample is, by definition, one of a kind and that no ONE dress/ring/pair of jeans will fit every woman perfectly.

      Hey, I wish I could design the magic ring that would fit size 4 1/2 and size 8 1/2, but even a hinged shank wouldn’t allow for that much size variation. I had to do a lot of work last week just to increase a ring by a quarter size. Hammering, removing metal, repolishing, re-plating and re-enameling. Took hours of labor at three different locations.

      Thanks for being smart!

  23. If people expect to pull something off a rack and have it fit them perfectly, perhaps they should acquaint themselves with the “One Size Fits All” option. Can Miss J recommend something in an over-sized t-shirt???

  24. The neckline is stunning on you! I could NEVER wear that neckline, and I rarely wore strapless in shows. But I do remember doing a Zang Toi trunk show at Nordstrom, and I wore a gorgeous long blue eve. gown that had pockets (you could not see them, of course), and this was WAY before designers did pockets in gowns, and we were all like “Brilliant! This guy really likes his customer.”

  25. You look breathtaking in this dress, Wendy! The cut, the colour, the black lace detail–it’s all very you. 🙂

    Incidentally, after reading your post about Christina Hendricks yesterday, I went to a local designer’s studio to do an interview. One of her shirtdresses caught my eye and I tried it on. It fit perfectly right off the rack. Even the designer was surprised at how well it fit. I ended up buying it. How could I not? 😉

    • I’m going to have to protect you from the wrath of all the non-sample-size-fitting people. I’m glad you didn’t leave it behind. Anything that doesn’t need alterations demands a purchase. Can’t wait to see a picture!

  29. this is so true! in a perfect world, all women would have their personal alterations guru/couturier to get sleeve lengths and hems just right.

    you just reminded me – i need to bring some of my trenches and other blazers to the tailor next week for some alterations!

  30. Those of us not in the know (well, I might be the only one, honey, to tell you the truth) until we read your blog (and the blogs that you link in your blog) owe you a whole lot, WendyB! The things you know, the things you explain, all so interesting. Just like the engagement ring post. Thanks!

    Mama and I are pleased that you are partial to our Duncan’s photo!