I bought the Frida dress by RM Roland Mouret last month and have been waiting to wear it. The weather has been terrible here so I’ve been saving it for a warm day or a worthy event to show it off properly. Last night I was invited to a dinner/fashion show at the Dallas Museum of Art hosted by Neiman Marcus, Michael Beaudry and Stephen Webster (what a cheeky Brit! Love him!). The weather was a warm 72 degrees so I thought it the perfect opportunity to wear my beloved Frida– I put it on after getting all dolled up and asked the babysitter to zip me up. She pulled up the zipper and then I heard her say “oh no!”. Apparently the zipper zipped 3/4 of the way up and then SPLIT IN HALF and went off track! You can not imagine the drama that ensued. First of all, I was STUCK in the dress! I had 30 minutes to drive to the event which was 25 miles away downtown and I panicked! Try as she could, she couldn’t get the zipper to go up or down. So I wiggled the dress up to my waist and pulled it around to the front so I could inspect the damage. I had to make a split second decision. Cut myself out of this gorgeous, BRAND NEW, and very expensive dress or take my time releasing the zipper and risk being late to a formal sit down dinner at an important event. I chose the latter of course because I didn’t want to ruin the dress. Thankfully I was able to remove one side from the pull but now the zipper was completely ruined. I put on my other new RM dress, the Mona in turquoise, and went to the dinner (very angry and agitated!)
First of all, this dress is brand new, I’ve never worn it before. It’d been hanging in my closet for about a month waiting for an opportunity to be donned and shown off. Second of all, when you spend almost two grand on a dress, the zipper should not be made so cheaply! Now I have to tell you I am not overweight so the dress was not too tight, I am 95 pounds and the dress is actually a bit loose on me. So it wasn’t as if we had to squeeze me into it, the zipper should have glided up easily!
I sent emails to the Net-a-porter.com team who immediately responded (I love Net-a-porter! The best customer service, ever!). You guys all know I am an avid fan of Roland Mouret and own a dozen RM dresses. This is the first time I’ve ever encountered quality issues with his dresses so I am hoping this is an isolated incident and will await to hear their response about resolving it.
What about you, have you had any ‘dress’ dramas?
I love this dress and have been looking at it on Neiman Marcus. I hope they resolve this problem for you. Keep us posted.
Here is the update, the dress in my size (size 6UK, which is a size 0 i think) is completely sold out, and RM people said they will not be re-producing it.
Net a porter is allowing me to return the dress, thankfully. Now I am thinking I’ll take a size 2 (UK
and just let it be a bit loose, it’s a shift dress so should be fine.
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaa am so upset!
Thank goodness they are handling it for you. I think the size 2 will probably work I sized up in my RM dress and it fits fine.
Oh yes, I have 100% faith in Net-a-porter, they are taking the dress back and are refunding my duties, too. Plus they’re holding the bigger size for me. I’m concerned though because the waist line might hit me too low? The 0 is already kind of loose…
So sad.
Wow! You and are the same exact size, Tina. I’m 5′ and 95 pounds. It’s such a pain having to search for petite sizes wherever I shop. Do you normally have all of your clothes tailored? I’m desperately trying to find brands that will fit me off the rack. Any suggestions? Thanks!
Is there any way you can take it to a good tailor and get the zipper replaced? You could even, potentially get RM to send you the zipper so the original one could get put in? Or would RM even be willing to do the repair? I mean if the zipper is the only thing broken it could really be worth fixing it if you love the dress.
I think you should try to get a new dress, a broken zipper only leads to trouble if you try to fix it. It should be perfect at that price!
I wouldn’t buy the size 2. I think it will be too big on you. I am 5’3 and 106lbs. and I always wear 0 and many times those are even loose on me. I wouldn’t think about buying a 2. If the 0 is already too big to begin with, the 2 will just swim on you. I would just get a refund. Fit is everything, especially for a petite woman. A poorly fitted dress will just overwhelm.
I have one Roland Mouret dress, from his old “Roland Mouret” label (not the “RM” label) and I love it.
Here’s a picture (I have this dress in black):
http://www.style.com/fashionshows/complete/slideshow/S2006RTW-RMOURET?event=show1381&designer=design_house85&trend=&iphoto=25
I actually bought it for around $500 — a total steal — from http://www.catwalktocloset.com. I was really pleased.
This dress was from one of my two favourite collections by Mouret, Spring 2006, the other being Fall 2005.
These two collections spawned arguably his two most famous dresses: the Galaxy (from 2005) and the Titanium (from 2006).
I’ve been obsessed ever since.
However, I’m not terribly keen on the RM line. Sure the dresses are gorgeous, but I think I preferred the somewhat “limited” factor of his clothes when he was designing under the “Roland Mouret” label. He was, in my opinion, not the international star back then that he is now. I think he was well known primarily in England and Europe, but only with diehards in North America.
Either way, I’m glad NAP is handling the situation well.
Tina, you’ll be able to wear your new dress soon enough.
I had a similar incident with a RM dress, but ‘luckily’ I hadn’t bought it….
BECAUSE it was in the fitting room that I got stuck and they had to call in the tailor(a man) to cut me out!!!!
I agree, I tried it on at NM for size and it was huge… so I got the refund. I’ll wait for another great dress….
Tina…that is ridiculous. that dress costs more than my own WEDDING GOWN and the zipper broke? I would be fuming at how cheap they make some labels now. I mean seriously…you are safe trying on a dress from walmart for 15 bucks and that zipper would work. Glad they are working it out for you but totally understand your disappointment esp. the night that it broke!!
OMG, I cannot believe this happened to you. I have so many RM dresses and this has never happened. I was once wearing wide leg cream colored pants and Louboutin heels, and as I was walking down the steps of my house, I stepped on the front of the pants and down I went into a puddle. I changed and went to the party, and at the party someone else was wearing the same pants. I think it may have been an act of God. Did someone have that dress on at the party?
I saw that one of the previous people who posted needed to repair their zipper… I found a great how-to on how to repair any kind of zipper problem. Check out the link I posted… I fixed mine in about 10 minutes.