I’ve been delayed in writing this, because I do not have the pics to back it up (my cousin took them, and she hasn’t sent them to me). But I’ve been so heated about it that I decided I needed to write about it NOW.

My last post was all about my quest for a special NYE dress. I had narrowed it down to three dresses, and ordered one. I purchased the Jasmine Dress by Lauren Conrad in “Bel” (pictured at left). At the time of purchase, I was aware that the product was a) drastically marked down and b) final sale. My assumption was that this was a summer style, and the folks at Lauren Conrad were trying to get rid of inventory. I was THRILLED about this dress for three reasons:

1. The Price
2. The Style
3. The Material — as a stretch sateen, the Jasmine Dress is evening appropriate; sateen has a shine to it that regular cotton does not.

In fact, the dress is advertised just as such, “Sweet and strapless, this two-tier ruffle dress is the perfect blend of sugar and sass. Let this youthful piece take you straight from day to night with a simple change of accessories!”

And, even though it was close to the holidays, this dress had 2-day shipping that was cheaper than ground. It was perfect.

Fast forward 2 days. The dress arrives on Christmas Eve in a FedEx box. I am pumped. My mom is pumped because I’ve told her all about it. We tear open the box. The dress is crammed into the box on a plastic hanger with the kind of plastic wrap you get at the dry cleaners. Bad Sign. Okay, okay, I’m being pessimistic. We take it out of the plastic and off the hanger and I CANNOT believe my eyes. This dress looks like two (high quality) pillowcases sewn together. I am not kidding you.

Lovely children’s pillowcase dresses courtesy of Maya Made

I have been sewing since I was 10. My mom has been sewing her whole life. We know clothes, and we DEFINITELY know fabric. This dress was improperly washed in a washing machine, returned to Lauren Conrad, and then resold to me.

Let me tell you how I know it was washed:

1. The hems on the wrong side of the fabric were frayed. Cotton hems only fray if they’ve been washed.
2. The hems on the right side of the fabric were bunched and twisted. Again, only happens after washing.
3. The aforementioned beautiful fabric with a sheen simply did not exist. This dress was drab and dull. A polished cotton (like this stretch sateen) will lose its shimmer if it’s been washed and dried in a washing machine on the wrong settings. FYI, most people say machine wash cold and air dry.
4. The zipper gets stuck halfway up, making it extremely difficult to get on or off; though I suppose this could just be shoddy craftsmanship to begin with.

If you want sell used clothing, fine. Label it SAMPLE SALE, GENTLY USED, OR GIVE THE CUSTOMER SOME KIND OF WARNING. Final Sale just doesn’t cut it.

I cannot speak to full price (and therefore overpriced, some say) Lauren Conrad items, but I caution any customer thinking of buying a Lauren Conrad Product on sale. You definitely get what you pay for. And even that’s not true. I would not have paid $25 for this dress. Lauren, if you want some business advice, feel free to come to me. As a business manager, I would never have let this product out the door.

Check out the video (if you’re reading this via RSS, I think you might have to click through to the site). I especially love the part where Lauren says, “I wouldn’t put my name on anything I wouldn’t wear.” Really? Because I was just about to cut this one up and use it for rags to dust my apartment…but if you want to wear it out to Les Deux or something, it’s all yours.