Thursday, November 13, 2008

Engagement Dress

Dear girl residents of Dubai and Bahrain,

I am flying out to Bahrain for 8 hours and Dubai for 2 days but will only have 4 hours max of shopping time...

Can anyone recommend where to find engagement dresses in the 300 - 400$ price bracket? Before Saturday?

Your recommendations would be sooooo appreciated.

Thanks!

14 comments:

Sand-E said...

I'm so incredibly excited for you girlie!

Enjoy every moment of the experience. It's well deserved.

I'm going to be over ambitious or presumptious and ask to see a picture of the dress once you fall in love with it!

N said...

hehehe..

i will either email you one, or actually post it!

thank you for being excited for me!

xxx

LouLou said...

N,

My personal opinion is that specialized wedding/bridal shops in Dubai will have stuff that is tacky and overly ostentatious unless they are designer, i.e. obscenely expensive. Which is why most of us who don't want to spend that much opt for having those dresses made.

Your best bet is to hit one of the bigger malls (Ibn Batuta or Emirates mall) and check out evening dresses. This is a good time because with New Year's and Eid and Christmas etc...coming up, there will be lots of festive wear all over the place.

That's how I got my katb ketab dress which cost about $500. I did a fast walk around Festival City mall, scouting out shops that looked encouraging, identified 3 dresses I liked then went back, tried them on and only one of them looked as good on. It took me a little under 2 hrs.

In your case, with your time limit, I'd hit a larger mall just for the larger concentration of shops in a small area.

Good luck. I want to see the dress too.:)

N said...

Loulou! thank you!!!

would you be so helpful as to tell me which mall and which stores to aim for? my idea of evening wear is jeans, heals, a t-shirt and a trench coat.... i seriously wouldn't know which shops to go into, i think the most classy store i've ever bought from is massimo dutti... and i work with luxury products, its shameful really...

thank you so much!

and i will show you the dress too :-)

LouLou said...

The way Dubai is evolving, you will find more or less the same shops in all the malls. There may be a few boutiques that aren't. There's one I really love only in Mercato mall. And another that you can only find in Festival City.

But given your time limit, you can't really take a chance on just one shop because you may not find anything you like. And given traffic in Dubai, you'd spend half the time travelling between malls.

So stick with one of the bigger malls (Emirates mall, Ibn Batuta, the new Dubai mall, any of them should be ok). That way you get lots of shops in one building and more choice.

If I had to mention names, I'd tell you to check out Debenhams, Monsoon, Oasis. Zara and Mango also occasionally have nice evening pieces within your budget. Then there are lesser known boutiques that you will come across in malls that also have really unique pieces sometimes. Banana Republic also sometimes have nice evening dresses around this time of year.

The trick is to focus and not get distracted. Remember that no matter how big a mall is, the top floor will be mostly non-fashion items. So you're looking at the first two floors, max. It's easy to avoid shops that are obviously casual/sports wear. Usually if they're selling evening wear, they'll have at least one dress up on the window so that's a good clue. If you like something don't try it on. Just remember where you found it and move on.

I would spend one hour just looking all over. Then sit down, take a break, have a drink and go back and try stuff on. If you're like me, you may like the first or second or third piece you try so much that you won't bother with the rest.

I love Massimo too but don't go in there until AFTER you've bought your dress, if you have spare time.:)

I've seen their new collection. It's not what you're looking for.

N said...

excellent!

is dubai mall fully fledged?

i like going to new places and wanted to go there for research for work, but was afraid i would find only half the stores open...

are all the stores up and running already?

you've been a star :)

LouLou said...

I haven't been to Dubai mall actually. I just thought it would be a good bet because it is supposed to be HUGE.

Check it out here:

http://www.thedubaimall.com/en

LouLou said...

Just to let you know the consensus among my friends is that Emirates mall is your best bet.

Happy shopping.:)

N said...

so by some godly act i found THE perfect dress today in cairo and it is now safely stashed away in my wardrobe!!

shoes are nowhere to be found, so i will track those down in dubai or bahrain hopefully.

when you say emirates mall loulou, do you mean mall of the emirates? or is that another mall?

i cant believe you asked your friends :) so cool!

Innate_Inanenuss said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sand-E said...

Thirteen days since your original post and no emails or pictures of your dress posted! You Tease!

How's the shoe shopping going?

Jade said...

Hey babe..
sorry I missed this - havent been blogging or visiting any of my friends...
congrats on the new dress, hope you found your shoes!
Cheers,
J

N said...

Sande!

this is the lamest excuse ever, but i broke my camera and am too broke to replace it! i will try to get a pic of it before the day, worst case scenario i will post one up from the day itself!

shoes are safely tucked away in my closet as well! and i am proud to say i bought them from cairo as well! :)

Sand-E said...

No worries chicky! I'm sure you're running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to get ready for your big day. The last thing on your mind is posting a picture here. No pressure. When you're good and ready. I'll still be just as excited to see and hear about it. :D

Here's to hoping it all turns out just as picturesque as you imagined it to be!

Hugz and kisses to zee bride to be!