Distinctions

Last year I purchased a La Femme gown (style #17445) from Distinctions in Fashion located in St. Louis, MO on Olive Blvd. With alterations I paid close to $475 for the dress. My daughter wore the gown for 5.5 hours (equals $86.36 per hour) to her high school prom and then we put it away in the plastic bag they provided inside her dark closet.



My college student daughter wanted to wear the gown to a dance and pulled it out on 02/02/2013 (we picked the gown up from Distinctions on 03/2012) to see if it still fits. To our horror the entire outside sheer material was totally faded except in the areas where it was folded under. I took the dress to Distinctions to see if they could tell me what happened. The owners kept informing us it's used/worn and they couldn't do anything about it. I totally understand it was worn but why does a $475 gown that was stored in a dark closet in a bag they provided fade? We asked them if they would send it back to La Femme and find out. They refused and accused us of keeping the gown in the sun. I told them the dress would have to be rotated to have such a consistent fade (even the extra material that was left over from the alteration faded). Then she had the nerve to say we washed it and it had water damage. They were trying to find any excuse not to help us. To make matters worse both the owners were arrogant and rude.



I took the gown to several random dry cleaners to find out what happened. Each one of them said the material didn't hold the dye and the fade is consistent over the whole dress. The also stated the gown was never washed and the water damage is a result of the poor dye job. Each one of them suggested we take it back to the store where it was purchased. We did email La Femme but have not heard back from the company. Furthermore, their website doesn’t provide a contact number to speak to a representative.



I strongly feel others in St. Louis should know what happened and keep away from Distinctions in Fashion. You’re spending a lot of money and there are other retailers in town that are not rude and provide a much higher level of service. The owners don’t care about their past costumers because each year they have new parents who are willing to spend a lot of money to make their daughter’s dance special.