These GoodOrient folks sent me a very nice email this morning, and I went to their site to browse around. It's been ages since I've worn a qipao (mostly because they don't have POCKETS) but I've always loved how elegant they are …
This is in their clearance section. It is available in sizes 4 or 14, and looks to me like a wonderful no-budget wedding dress. It's long, it's silk, it doesn't feature the patented Shelf-o-Cleavage that seems to afflict so many wedding dresses today, and it is TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS. (Yes, you read that right. $25.00.)
The non-sale price? $38.99.
I know for some people it's all about the acres of tulle, but this would be a wonderful dress for a quiet (or second) wedding or elopement. Bridal, but not Cinderellaish; elegant, but still funky. An small evening ceremony, with a reception at home? A city hall ceremony followed by a nice lunch in a restaurant? This dress would be wonderful … you could look like a bride and still get yourself into a cab without having to have a Designated Stuffer. And at this price, you could add some truly fabulous shoes and some serious undergarments. I'd wear sapphire (or lapis lazuli or at least sapphire-colored) drop earrings for the "something blue". (For the something borrowed I hereby lend you this idea.)
You could have a LOT of extra honeymoon if your dress was only $25. I'm just saying.
GoodOrient would like to advertise here — does anyone have any experience with them? I'm on the fence about whether to accept them, as I really prefer to accept advertising only from small businesses who do sewing- or vintage-related things. But a lot of people have been asking me where to get clothes made in Asia, and I have no answers. I'd love your feedback, folks.
Speaking of advertisers, I'm starting a new series of posts, a "meet-our-advertisers" series. I was a bit curious about all these folks — how did they start their businesseses? What do they like about patterns and vintage? These are not sponsored posts (other than that these folks all advertise) I was just nosy, I mean, interested, and I thought you all would be, too! I'll post the first one later on today. (These will be in addition to, not replacing, daily or semi-daily posts.)
A Dress A Day 
I guess my questions about this particular advertiser would be along the lines of who makes their dresses-because it seems like a lot of ready made clothing is made by underpaid women-and I don’t think that is what this site is about. If, however they have a fair and ethical practice for their workers and do not hurt women or have a track record of creating unfair competition with small businesses (probably by underpaying workers) then I think it would be great to list them.
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“But a lot of people have been asking me where to get clothes made in Asia, and I have no answers.”Um… Wal-Mart?I agree with Anonymous above… I’d be interested in hearing about the company’s trade practices and workplace ethics.
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Wal-mart. Heh.They mean ‘custom made’, of course. I will ask about their practices. Good point. Thank you!
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Agreed with the above posters. It’s a lovely dress. I’d only be comfortable having them as an advertiser if their practices are ethical.My father traveled through Korea a few years back and had some clothes custom made during his trip. He used a small tailor shop in Seoul where the husband did the measuring, wife and sisters-in-law did sewing. All adults, small family business. Apparently that’s a fairly common way to get clothes made and a common business model in the cities. Hopefully this company is a larger-scale version of that.
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Also, not sure how you feel about the whole knockoff issue, but they are clearly using photographs from other designers. For example, this picture is from the David’s Bridal Oleg Cassini catalog from about five years ago:http://www.goodorient.com/Happy_Wedding_Series—Ideal_Bride_P20769#DetailedI saw some Jim Hjelm pictures, too.
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I found a personal major red flag on their site: no physical address, no phone number. As a part of my new vendor due diligence I check a company’s Better Business Bureau report and online ratings/complaints. However, if a vendor hides their contact information, I won’t buy from them. It begs the question, what else are they hiding?
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“…the patented Shelf-o-Cleavage …”This gave me a wonderful laugh to start out my day. So true, so true.CMC
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The items the show – not just the featured dress – are truly beautiful. However, I’m with the other readers: I’d like to find out that the people making the clothes are making whatever the fair wage is (with the understanding that with some “family-run” businesses, family members may be working for wages that might not be the same as wages they could earn in a factory), and I’m less-than-comfortable about the fact that there seems to be no contact information. Where does one go to get redress if there’s a problem with an order? These are the things that make me more uncomfortable, not the fact that they don’t specialize in “vintage.” Heck, I’d LOVE to get some of what they have! But I’d like to know more about them.
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I am not sure if this will be helpful but I thought I would share anyways. I found a website with a similar company that “custom makes” dresses. I contemplated ordering my bridesmaids dresses from there. I ordered fabric samples and it was 2 months before I received the samples. When I finally did get them, the fabric was of a very poor quality and I didn’t know how long it would take to actually get the dresses. It wasn’t a risk I was willing to take. I later told my Fiance about it and he was stronly opposed to it because he thought they would be made in a sweat shop. I would want to know who makes the dresses and what the labor conditions are.
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Over and above the copyright issue, the main worry I have when a company uses the pictures of other designers/companies is that they aren’t showing you their work–anyone can show you what an Oleg Cassini dress looks like, and they can say they’re going to copy it, but it may not look anything like, and with no way to call them up and talk to customer service, it just doesn’t seem like a very good business model.
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I skipped the dress & clothing sections and went to “Other Essentials” section and found a lot of georgous fabrics, mostly silk. If you were to let them advertise, I suggest that you specify the fabric section only. Regarding the sweatshop questions, I would be more concerned if this dress, in silk brocade, were to be found for this price at Walmart.
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I did a little digging (no prizes to me, the information was actually on their site), and found the following:Paying in the US by Money Orders to:”WAI KI LAM” Mail your payment to: 603 S. Shoreline CourtPost FallsIdaho 83854For those paying by wire transfer:Wire Transfer: fax your deposit slip to 208-777-4001Account Name: Wai Ki LamAccount Number: 039347567Name of Bank: HSBC BankBranch Address: HSBC International Banking Centre, 120 Broadway, New York, NY 10271 SWIFT Code: MRMDUS33 This should make it possible to do some more followup.I dunno; I actually have successfully ordered from various overseas entities (although I was stunned by paying $75 to ship a necklace that cost less than a third of that, because I wasn’t paying attention to everything I read. The seller marked the shipping clearly, and what can I say? It was cheaper than walking to Tibet to pick it up, after all. So I paid it, and now have to figure out what to do with amber beads the size of golf balls. Play golf? I digress. So … I feel cautious, but am uncomfortable with throwing up red flags (sorry!) because it’s an Asian/possibly Chinese-based entity. I’ve bought from India, Tibet, England, and probably other places off the Internet; the one time I got totally screwed by an unscrupulous proprietor was when I ordered goods from an entity called The Polish Peasant, and she was right here in the good old U.S. It was my first time buying from someone over the Internet, and she did not, in fact, offer a phone number or a hardmail address. I tracked her across country to her parents’ house, and got a partial refund. I digress some more, but I guess the moral is: real address good, foreign proprietorship not necessarily bad. I will also add that their prices are at the very least as high as, sometimes higher, sometimes lower, than the offerings available at the shops in Chinatown here in Philly, and even custom sewing in China is very low in cost; it’s not necessarily sweated.I do think it would be lovely to meet some of the other advertisers here, Just Because. And I will note that no one’s raised the issue of “how much did they pay people for the valuable vintage they are offering us” – or “I bet they paid $5.00 for 20 patterns, how can they charge us $15.00 each for them??” (or significantly more, in some cases). I want to be careful; I’m reluctant to let it slide into possible xenophobia.
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I agree with the working conditions of the original fabric and clothing….. and regarding no contact information or address, just maybe it is hidden in the log in section, and perhaps that address info is available only for registered members. and great idea about the fabrics only, depending on their background!
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Ah. I believe I have found our merchant, who actually has a phone number and a hard address:Registrant:Wai Ki Lam Good Orient Trading Ltd8A, Shun Wai Ind. Bldg., 15 Yuk Yat Street, Tokwawan, KowloonNA, NA NAHK852-23031061(buffs nails on dress, blows on them, looks mildly pleased with self)No, it wasn’t posted on the website itself – not that I found, at least, and I looked (although I didn’t register for anything). I did use the information on their site, however, to search further, and behold, Teh Powar ob Teh Intarweb.
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I won’t comment on whether or not you should accept them as advertisers, the others have covered that in detail. Just going to say – this is a beautiful style for a wedding dress, and a refreshing change from all the strapless underwire-bodice gowns out there. Imagine, you could not only save more money for your honeymoon (wedding costs are totally out of hand these days) but also move around in comfort and ease on the day. Maybe even dye it for later use.
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I’m happiest with your ads being mostly vintage (-sewing and -wearing) related. I think hearing from the owners of these businesses would be quite interesting!
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Regarding copyrighting a design: there are no copyrights on clothing designs. And if there were, how far would you go? Can I copyright the design for the basic T-shirt, and then no one else can ever make T-shirts again? Kathleen Fasanella has discussed this issue in a number of posts on her blog: http://fashion-incubator.com/mt/HOWEVER, if you put a label in your copied dress that says Oleg Cassini — that’s a completely different matter all together. The use of photographs on web sites? Quite honestly, you’d probably have to talk to a copyright lawyer to determine whether that’s a violation of copyright or not.CMC
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I love the idea of profiling some of your advertisers. I’m often overwhelmed by the volume of items (patterns, clothing, etc.) on these sites. It would be great to know what era, style or product people specialize in, to help target my searches.
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Can we talk about wedding dresses? The neckline on that one looks slightly revealing; does it close all the way down the front, or is that a long slit beneath the closure? I have chosen a special “mean lady picture of the day” for this post, because I have a secret aversion (public, now) to strapless wedding gowns and/or anything even related to “tarty” (THIS INCLUDES RHINESTONES) on a wedding dress. Call me old fashioned…or just call me “Mean Lady Picture of the Day/Born in Boston”. Weddings are not intended to provide a Showgirl Moment, and are often held IN THE HOUSE OF GOD! He (capital H) does not want to see your cleavage. He created it. (Jesus…where are my meds??)
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I read regularly and only click on the advertisers that sell patterns. I heart Janet! Please do her profile first!
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I totally applaud Lorrwill for recognizing the red flags for this company, with no way to contact them, and no idea where they are, and for checking them out at http://www.bbb.org. That is exactly what I was going to say! sandra B
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I WANNA TALK ABOUT WEDDING DRESSES!Signed, Cookie / “Mean Lady Picture of the Day/Born in Boston” / Francesca Bentley, Spy Imperiale(Still looking for my meds)
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No comment about the company itself, just pure love for the dress. I’m mentally drafting out a pattern to make a shorter version of it in non-white (since I’ve BTDT with one wedding dress and, if I must go through another marriage, will NOT wear white).And joining the fuss about wedding dresses – arg! A year ago when I was looking for my own I hit a point where I just sat down in one I was trying on and sobbed because I could NOT find a simple, elegant, off-white dress that had STRAPS! And no, slapping on last-minute straps ala David’s Bridal doesn’t work. The basic design of the dress is still strapless and it shows in the way it molests the cleavage and all chances of breathing.I so wanted to just wear another color version of my bridesmaids dresses but that sent my mother into a panic attack. Fortunately one more trip looking yielded a good dress at a great price but still….WHY MUST IT BE SO INSANE?!?!Ok. It’s out of the system. I’m good now. Really.
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My revolt against the strapless wedding dress was reinforced by watching that reality show “Say Yes to the Dress”, which is set in a huge Manhattan bridal boutique. (The show made you as nervous as if you were buying your own dress!) But almost all the dresses sold had the same silhouette; strapless, sweetheart neckline, nipped waist, full ballgown skirt. This Glinda the Good Witch look is really unimaginative. And look, I’m a tramp, basically (there, I’ve said it), but even I think there’s just something OFF about wedding gowns that show a lot of skin. It’s just not the time or the place! If it were a very simple column dress with simple drapery and long white gloves, I could be persuaded to bite the bullet and okay a strapless dress, but not that fluffy, sparkly prom dress look! Bleech. Basically TASTELESS for a religious ceremony. And it looks even worse when the bride has a tan and loose hair, which they practically all did. I’m still reeling.
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I think once you have one maker of “new clothes” among your advertisers, then you have few grounds on which to reject others (except sheer arbitrariness). And then what happens if major-chain-store-found-in-many-malls wants to advertise chez vous? I think you’d be losing some of your mystique and your niche. (better, to my mind, to stick to recruiting future airship hostesses) As for the silk: there aren’t any fabric vendors advertising with you now, are there? I wonder why not?
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I’d love to hear more about your current advertisers, especially since I’ve shopped at a few of them.Re: GoodOrient, well, I like that the advertisers are all vintage-related and I don’t like the idea of a non-vintage advertiser there. As for wedding dresses, well, I haven’t been married yet but I also think that many of the dresses worn today are sort of “fairy-godmotherish”. It’s as though these women are deciding what their wedding dress will look like while they’re still in their teens! I know that everyone wants to be a princess on their wedding day, but why is there only the one style associated with princesses?I’m not religious and so if I do get married it won’t be in any house of any god, so I don’t veto sparkles if they’re done tastefully. If the dress looks like a prom dress only in white, there might be too many rhinestones. Basically, I want the wearer to look gorgeous in the dress, not the dress to look gorgeous on the wearer. The dress should help the bride look beautiful, and sometimes a little sparkle will help that happen.
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Hi y’all.. as an Erin Side Bar advertiser.. I sort of LIKE being a smaller business gal mingled with the other smaller business gals (and or guys). If you open the door to the Big Fish, I fear it may soon become not a First Come, First Served sort of homey, pertinent advertisement for us lil’ folk.. but an I CAN AND WILL PAY MORE TO BE IN A TOP SPOT place and you may soon be flooded with requests from others who can tie themselves in SOMEHOW to vintage, clothing, dresses and patterns..And we readers will have to scroll forever through your vastly popular blog just to find.. THE BLOG!!I love the dress.. I love the price.. but I do love feeling mighty yet being so little in Dressaday Blogland :)An advertiser hath spoketh! lolPS.. there’s another side of me that says ‘Another ad? Mo’ money? GO GIRL and TAKE IT!’ It’s a smaller side, but a point to be considered..
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It looks like the legitimacy of the company has been discussed out the wazoo here (I’m personally on the “don’t advertise them” side because they’re using images from other designers
), but about the dress:Low-cut key-hole qui pao = FAIL. D:It would’ve been just fine if they’d kept it more traditional and left out the gaping hole… >>;;
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Re: wedding dressesI got married 6 years ago for the first time at age 41. I knew I did not want to look like a giant white puffball with cleavage and a head. So my first requirement when I visited the bridal shops was that I wanted a dress I could wear my regular bra with. I did not want to spend that day of all days worrying about spilling out of a strapless bra (I’m a size 34-D), not to mention the rack is more comfortable. I wish I could describe the looks that I received from the bridal shop personnel, but suffice it to say they must have thought I had three heads to come up with such an outrageous request. I managed to find a fairly understated (not poufy) dress a-line dress that fit my criteria, but every wedding I’ve been to since it’s been that same strapless dress. Enough with that one style!
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Okay, my meds are kicking in so I’m back to my regular picture. Thank you for bearing with me.I saw a wedding dress I like! You go to miss-vintage.com, click “formals” on the upper toolbar, click “weddings” on the right, then “the fifties” in the middle. (Sorry I can’t do a simpler URL)The dress I like (for a garden wedding) is top row, 4th from the right. Click to enlarge! Mmmmmmmmm…pretty pretty pretty. And somewhat covered up without being stifling.
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Hmmm…I wonder if cutting and pasting this works? http://www.miss-vintage.com/formal/1950s/weddings/ 4th from right, top row. (Bride looks like a young Nancy Reagan, but that’s okay. She had good clothes.)
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Erin,This blog is a special community in the ether-world. Please go slowly in adding more advertisers, especially businesses you don’t really know.When you allow a business to advertise here, it is a HUGE endorsement, even if you do not mean it as such. I shopped at one online store because I found them here. When the service was not good, I was stunned, even betrayed. How could she do that to ADAD?Part of what makes your site so special is that the businesses that you permit to advertise here are small, vintage, and quality- oriented. If an aspirant does not completely fit your blog and your personality, then I would hope that you would wait for another more worthy advertiser. On another question, how to get clothing made in Asia. If you are traveling there, that’s one thing, but the few stories I’ve heard from friends and a women’s magazine investigative article all lead me to think that contracting bespoke work to people over whom you have NO leverage when things go wrong means that you cannot hold them accountable. Lots of money, lots of aggro, no wearable garment. Better to find a custom clothier nearby. Just my 4 cents.
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I actually enjoy the fact that the advertisers that you have currently really do fall in line with what you tend to blog about. And while I can appreciate why Good Orient would want to advertise here, I am personally of the opinion that it would stick out like a sore thumb.
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i hated all the wedding dresses available when I got married last year, so I had vogue 2903 http://www.voguepatterns.com/item/V2903.htm?tab=vintage_vogue&page=2made in ice blue crepe back satin and carried white and blue hydrangeas, (May 25)I say “no’ to advertising Good Orient unless they are a small business. And yes to learning more about the advertisers. Personally, i adore Marge at Born too late vintage!
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I am a dedicated reader of your site, Erin (this is my favorite blog), and I’ve never bought a vintage pattern to sew (someday I will, though, and it will probably be from an advertiser on your blog), but my first thought upon reading that Good Orient might advertise here is what some other posters expressed: they don’t really fit in. And I would love to read more about your vintage advertisers–one of the reasons I’ve never bought a vintage pattern is not knowing where to start looking! Too many choices.
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I purchased a cheongsam from Good Orient to wear to my rehearsal dinner (yes, I made my wedding dress–designed it, too!) and I had a decent user experience with them. I had to let the hips out (I have hips, the cheongsam didn’t), but the seam allowance was sufficient for that. So, I am a satisfied customer. And I’m still on their e-mail list six years after my one purchase. That said, I agree that they don’t really fit with your current group of advertisers. I’m glad to see you feature non-standard dresses like this, and wouldn’t mind seeing their stuff show up on your blog again. But as for advertising, I’d rather see you to stick to the small businesses who really stand to benefit from being showcased here.
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Velvet Plaza: What a pretty design to choose! And blue and white hydrangeas sound like a lovely compliment to pale blue satin, too. Sounds heavenly!
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Ah, here is a topic on which I feel uniquely qualified to comment; I’ve lived in China for the past 3.5 years and had many adventures with trying to get bespoke clothing made. I have yet to find one that meets my exacting standards and have mostly given up. No matter what photos they show you, or even examples of their other work, I’ve found the quality is extremely variable and Not To Be Counted On. Of the things I’ve commissioned, 2/3 have been failures that I’ve ultimately discarded. Mostly due to poor measurement (I swear their tape measures are not standardized). Also, they seem not to understand how to draft a pattern for those of us with Boobs and Hips. I can’t imagine the nightmare of entrusting my wedding dress to this highly variable process, let alone doing it remotely. I may be maligning the gifted tailors of Good Orient but I rather suspect not.Oh I could riff for ages on the subjects of sweatshops (not so much of a deal here) and design copyright (absolultely does not exist here) but I’ll stop now and we can go back to talking about dresses.-Barbara in Shanghai
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Beautiful dress. Although, in Chinese culture, white is associated with death. Not sure if you’d want that on your wedding day…
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Hello everyone,My name’s Alan and I’m the Webmaster/Manager of GoodOrient.com. I didn’t realise that Erin reviewed us (Thank you Erin! Still speachless) until Monday morning (your sundays) when I checked my email. I wish that I did, as there are so many questions for us in the comments section!Goodorient is actually a semi-family/corporate business. The core of us are family members who had the same passion of exposing qipaos into the fashion industry, with hired help on customer service, and parts of the tailoring process. We first started out in singapore back in 1998, by our CEO James, who was really into chinese arts and crafts. We relocated to Shanghai in 2003, then Beijing as of currently, as we really want to be in the heart of our Culture, and discover more hidden treasures of the East. James is British educated, while I’m a Canadian myself. Athena’s my wife and she’s really the core of the whole business with dress designs, partnership maintenance and logistics. I’m just the I.T. guy =)I hope that the introduction above is sufficient, but please do let me know if you would like to know more about us! Now I’m going to address some of the questions posted here.”All adults, small family business. Apparently that’s a fairly common way to get clothes made and a common business model in the cities. Hopefully this company is a larger-scale version of that.”Amy hitted the nail on the head. We are a larger scale of a small family business. Our tailors are families and cousins, as their crafts were passed down from their father and mother, and has been for generations. Their ancestors had a business that catered to noblemen and “Guan”(politicians). The master tailor’s son is not going to continue his craft though, that’s a growing trend in China with the Gen80 crowd(post 1980 generation youngsters). Lots of crafts are dying due to lack of successors.As for their pay…I cannot expose everything, but let’s just say that each of our tailors and helpers makes more than my wage during hot seasons.They work in their own house, with air conditioner installed but rarely turned on(they are very thrifty, similar to the majority of the older populations in Beijing), and TV always turned on. Me and wife also on occasion pop over for dinner, upon their invitations. They cook a heck of a spicy fish that makes a grown man(me) cry.”this picture is from the David’s Bridal Oleg Cassini catalog…:…I saw some Jim Hjelm pictures, too.”We partner our non-qipao wedding series with a local company due to the demands from our customerbase, for cheap wedding dresses. Have been for 2 years now, and we’ve had nothing but praises from our customers, with the occasional returns for adjustments. I didn’t realise their older series are knock-offs of well-known designers… I will address the issue with them on this one, but their newer designs are all photographed by asian models. I’ll still check on if most of these are knockoffs. GoodOrient wouldn’t want to get into trouble with infringements..”I found a personal major red flag on their site: no physical address, no phone number.”We have the physical addresses and phone on our contact us page. Our returns information are in our “FAQ” section of the site. The new site design (2 months give or take my speed) should have it on the front page. I have tried to apply for a toll-free 800 number but has gotten rejected multiple times..If anyone have experience on this, can you please shoot me a personal email?”I ordered fabric samples and it was 2 months before I received the samples. When I finally did get them, the fabric was of a very poor quality” -Etiquettely CorrectThe first thing we do on a new design, is fabrics selection. What I hate about our qipao industry, are the cheap, uncomfortable fabrics used to make the qipaos. Those fabrics should only be used in car trunk linings! Quality is of the essence for us. We do it for the passion for quality, not for the extra few cents we can earn, by using a subpar version of silk. We may have done that when we first started out, before we made our own designs. But the GoodOrient today, is striving to be the trend-setter of East-meets-West.”I’m happiest with your ads being mostly vintage (-sewing and -wearing) related”This I have to apologise to Erin and to all readers, if it was offensive, and veered off your main goal for the blog. I will email Erin some, on this issue.”Low-cut key-hole qui pao = FAIL. D:It would’ve been just fine if they’d kept it more traditional and left out the gaping hole…”This was actually among our popular items back a few years ago(we only have 1 left, hence the clearance section). The demographics of our shoppers are quite varied. Some requested for us to add more buttons or lengthen the sleeves, and some asked of we can cut away more fabrics in the halter-tops, minidressify some designs, use more transparent fabrics etc.. We have a vast selections of dress/blouse/etc designs to cater for all taste, and yearly removed a lot of designs to not congest the site.We also custom-tailor and adjust designs that customers have emailed us.Our qipaos also are worn for people not wanting a traditional wedding dress theme. A lot of girls ordered a set of qipaos for her, and her bridesmaid(often red-white,black-white contrast), and guys ordering kung-fu suits.Some of our stuff are worn to dinner events, convensions, to work, and to night clubs and rave parties.”I purchased a cheongsam from Good Orient to wear to my rehearsal dinner” – LenoreHello Lenore, thank you for your post! You are currently the only one in this thread to have bought from Goodorient. I hope that you still wear the dress on occasion.——————Phew..that was a mouthful, I apologise to all readers, as I tend to get carried away posting some times..After reading all the posts, and contemplating for a while, I do realise that only our fabrics fit in Erin’s http://www.dressaday.com. Nevertheless I thank everyone’s comments, as they are most valuable towards us improving. I will continue to visit this post, but if you have any questions, or suggestions to us at all, please write to me directly at urbanzen[atz]goodorient{.}com!Erin, I’d like to thank you again for the surprise blog post, and for the opportunity to express our company here.Greetings, from the Orient.Alan
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Ha! My hips got bigger and I ran out of seam allowance. I did get to wear the cheongsam several times, though. When I switched from the 12 mile daily bicycle commute to just 4 miles, I sorta changed shape too. I’m just going to have to bike more so I can wear it again.
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Wow. The power of the internet. I am very glad that Alan was kind enough to post to the blog with his responses to reader questions. I would consider trying a purchase.Amy
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Heh, I could have saved myself some digging! But I’m not sorry I dug; I at least satisfied myself that GoodOrient was a legitimate business. Whether or not it fits into Erin’s Category of Suitable Advertisers, of course, is not a choice for me to make; it’s Erin’s choice. I’m actually very happy to have encountered the website, because I find it very interesting, and it appeals to me tremendously, but it’s not the first website that leaps to mind as “vintage” (as much, say, as MomsPatterns, et al.). Of course, if Erin’s website grows to the point where she categorizes her advertisers, then it’s Yay Erin! Because I would not be unhappy if Vendors of Suitable Fabrics advertised here, or those Vendors of Suitable Underpinnings (I’m talking to YOU, Crinoline Petticoats), or Vendors of Suitable Accessories (Hats! Hatmaking trimmings!) had little homes here.Belle, I don’t want to rub up bad memories, but since you did mention a bad experience/bad service with someone who advertised here at ADAD, is that person still advertising here? Bad enough it’s happened once, it would suck to have it happen to someone else, too. Can you/are you willing to elaborate on your experience?And my profound respect to Alan for coming here to tell us more about his business.
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Thank you everyone. Personally I think that the website can use an overhaul. Firstly the width is too long, and secondly, I just have way too much things to fit into GoodOrient’s main page. So we’re hard at work on revamping the structures and functions of the site. If anyone have comments/suggestions, no matter how big or small, please do email me!Alan
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It’s all been said, so I’ll just add my “vote” and a little story.Vote: Create different vintage related categories per Balladonna’s suggestions, GoodOrient could fit in there, although I’d like to hear about the fabric quality. The Suitable Hats/Underpinnings/Accessories idea is SHEER BRILLIANCE. EBay can be so hit or miss.Little Story: 16 years ago I got married, and I made my dress. (Also baked the cake, but I digress.) My now mother-out-law was scandalized that my dress did not have full sleeves. Shows you how much things have changed in the past 16 years.
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Hi Alan (if you are still reviewing these comments):I am looking at a contact page with nothing but a web email form. No company address, no phone number, no name.The links on your front page: Contact Us and About Us both do not contain this information…
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Hi, I live in Beijing and love reading your blog. Though I don’t sew, I have the advantage of getting inexpensive tailoring here, which is what I do. I don’t personally use these guys but I know lots of friends who do, and they are very used to catering to English-speaking clientele. http://www.beijingtailor.com/
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Strange..My apologies Lorrwill and everyone else. The vital informations will be re-added back into the contact, and about page as soon as possible!Thank you for bringing this up to my attention..Alan
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Information about Good Orient from a recent shopper…We just ordered 28 robes, tops, jackets for a theatre production. We ordered late but they arrived in time. They are beautiful, raw silk and silk, cotton blends. The construction was fine. Some of the jackets were surprisingly reversible. I had to call Beijing a few times with order changes and Lucie was always very pleasant.–D. Stoddard, Southern Virginia University
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I know this post is a year old, but I dont suppose anyone knows where to find a pattern for a dress of this style? Im relatively new to sewing so wouldnt be comfortable drafting one for myself. Thanks!
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