She Trusted an NYC Designer to Make Her Dream Wedding Dress. Weeks Before the Wedding, It Still Looked Like It Came From Shein.
In most weddings, brides plan months ahead in search of the perfect dress. Alexander (@itsalexandermae) thought she could trust a designer from New York City to create the dress of her dreams. But after three fittings and only two months before the wedding, the dress still looked like it came from SHEIN.
“I knew I wanted something super simple and the experience of going custom,” Alexander told TikTok. She wanted a customized wedding dress and had even met with other fashion designers.
She settled on an unnamed New York City-based designer, whom she called Kim. The designer is famous among influencers in the city. For their first online consultation, Alexander said that she paid $120. She showed her inspiration photos, and Kim drafted a sketch. The designer came up with a simple strapless dress with a romantic, A-line skirt.
Things seemed to be going as planned. Alexander came in for the first fitting with a prototype dress in November 2025. The dress looked close to what she wanted and only needed a few alterations. She wanted a drop waist, a lower backline, and for the princess seams to be stitched closer to one another.
Alexander wouldn’t come back to do her second fitting until March 2026. When she walked in, the actual dress looked nothing like she’d hoped for.
Every fitting had a different dress
“I’m floating in this dress. It’s asymmetrical,” Alexander listed off. Her request to get the princess seams properly stitched was ignored, and the dress strangely crumpled and bunched at the center. Even the skirt of the dress looked deflated—far from the puffy, elegant fantasy in her mind.
“I left this appointment freaking out,” Alexander stated. She reached out to Kim over her concerns. The designer reassured her that the dress isn’t final yet and that the tweaks will be made. Alexander insisted that they move her fittings up, and they agreed to meet again in May.
By the time May rolled around, the third dress looked completely different from the first two. It was still simple, but the bodice’s shape appeared more rounded. There was bunching at the sides, indicating that the dress wasn’t a perfect fit on her body.
“The dress is not gonna get done by these people,” Alexander said. She expressed the modifications she wanted in November, but none of them were implemented by May.
Alexander said that she had already dropped thousands of dollars on the dress and made three out of four payments. But her wedding is in August, and she realized that if she wanted to purchase a different dress, she’d have to do it immediately.
A wedding dress fail
After talking to her inner circle, they were all in agreement that Kim’s dress was not going to make the cut in time. Eventually, she told Kim she wanted to end their collaboration. She also requested a partial refund. Even though they had no official contract, Alexander thought Kim would agree to protect her reputation.
Instead, Kim allegedly refused the refund, told her to make the fourth and final payment, and come in for her fourth fitting. Unsurprisingly, the latest dress disappointed Alexander once again. She had only a few weeks left before the wedding, and the dress still had markers and clips on it.
“I’m just gonna say it. This dress looks like it’s $900 on ASOS. Like, this is a cheap-ass SHEIN-looking dress that I have sunk thousands of dollars into,” Alexander said. To top it all off, right after the fourth appointment, Kim wanted to discuss the payment.
She managed to end the relationship without making the final payment. Despite her horrific experience, Alexander eventually found the perfect dress to walk down the aisle in.
Wedding dress shopping is not easy, and even cover-worthy dresses can fail a bride in the last minute. But working with the right designer could alter a bride’s dress shopping experience for better or worse.
(featured images: itsalexandermae)
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