Spamming the list

[resonant]

After I spent a really embarrassing amount of money assembling the first bits of a grown-up wardrobe on eShakti, they sent me a code to refer friends. (Actually I had to ask for another code, one that didn't have my real name in it.)

So if you want to buy some clothes from them and you're a first-time buyer, enter ESHREF2U92RP in the Gift Coupon/Referral Code box and it will get you a $30 coupon and me a gift card.

Here's why I love eShakti: They have custom sizing. I have a long torso and a large belly and not too much in the way of waist or hips, and I now have dresses with defined waists made out of non-stretchy material for the first time since the early 1980s, because I can now get dresses that fit me, damn it. How I wish they had jackets in a style I cared for.

Some of the styles allow other kinds of customization (skirt length, sleeve style, neckline) and some don't, but all of them can be either bought in standardized sizes or, for a fee, made to your measurements.

Tips, experiences, pros, cons:

- They're kind of pricey, though not as pricey as I would have expected custom clothes to be.

- To my amateur eye they seem nicely made -- no dangling threads, no loose floppy facings. Read the information about the fabric carefully so you don't count on stretch that isn't there. Some are lined and some aren't.

- However big you think your upper arm measurement is, it probably needs to be an inch bigger.

- I find it very difficult to visualize some of the changes, and it is possible to customize a garment to the point that you make it less attractive. I bought the kidlet a little black dress for homecoming, and they added these bell-shaped sleeves, and they ended up being widest precisely at their waist so that they made them look shapeless.

- When they say a V-neck is deep, they mean it. In fact nearly all the dresses I've bought have been lower-cut than what I'm used to. (I have a chicken pox scar on my chest, a couple of inches above the center panel of my bra, that used to be my measurement for when a neckline was too low ... well, everybody in Iowa has seen it now.) Most of the dresses are made with tabs that snap over your bra straps, but in most cases these require me to pull my bra straps a little further out on my shoulders than I typically wear them.

- Sometimes a garment is on sale for a good reason. I bought this adorable dress, and when I got it home, it had a keyhole back so low that it showed the entire back of my bra. I ended up having to take it to a tailor and get it fixed, and the fit is not nearly as cute now.

- I don't know about your body, but clothes that fit my body look bizarre on a hanger, kind of like cartoon characters look when they've been run over by steamrollers.

- editing to add one more tip: If you see a style you like, you might want to impulse-buy, because sometimes they'll introduce a style and it will only be available for days. [mourning the loss of the skirt with the cats embroidered on it]

- You may not know what it feels like to wear clothes that fit. Every single garment that I've ordered from them, I've put on and thought, "Oh, that's a pity; it's way too small and I'll have to send it back." And then I wear it for fifteen minutes, and it bends with me and doesn't pull across shoulder or belly and looks great in every position -- I've just been compensating for a nonstandard shape by getting used to clothes that fit in the belly and are too big everywhere else.

Comments

[cesperanza]

OK, I have to say, they look awesome. I'm going to buy one or two of their dresses as soon as I can measure myself, but I love their little retro dresses!

[resonant]

It would be so weird if everybody showed up at a con wearing the same dress. We'd have to crash somebody's wedding and pretend to be bridesmaids.

[devon]

I've been buying their stuff for a while because I'm short. I can wear a standard size pretty well, unless it has a high waist (which about half their dresses do). Still, I love having dresses where the waist doesn't fall at my hips, and the hem doesn't fall at my ankles. I just wish that their color schemes weren't quite so WEIRD, you know? I only like about 10% of their dresses enough to consider them seriously. I probably have half a dozen or so by now.

[resonant]

I find a lot of their styles quite weird -- it's probably lucky for me, actually, that only about 5% of what they have looks really wearable to me, because otherwise I would have no money left for food.

Last year, when I first discovered them, they had one black jacket and one dark-red jacket, riding-jacket-style, that I looked at for the entire autumn and could never persuade myself to spend the money for. I so wish I had bought them, because this year's jackets are very strange.

Also, sometimes it seems like they get hold of a fabric and make everything out of it. This summer it was something like chambray only darker blue, and right now it's heather-gray knit -- neither of which I consider wearable for office clothes.

[sara]

I was just going to say, I will have to keep an eye on this, because my cousins and I all complain regularly that we can't get jackets that fit (women come broad-shouldered on my dad's side of the family) and yet bespoke is usually so pricey (we swap around old tailored things, including some stuff that was my grandmother's back in the 60s and 70s, and dress-up stuff because you can't wear it in front of the same people forever, because we've all got useless artsy and teaching jobs where we have to dress like grownups on nonprofit salaries). But I don't think any of their jackets right now would suit any of us -- we all tend to be a bit more tailored.

[sapote]

I noticed that about the everything-in-one-fabric; I was trying to overhaul my work wardrobe this summer, and dagnabbit everything was in blue chambrey that looked like denim. In my part of the country you can't just go wearing retro dresses in denim or people will make very specific subcultural assumptions about you that they wouldn't if you wore another fabric. But I'm glad to hear an overall good review! A question: all the measurements are horizontal, right? My main fit problem is something atrocious called a short back, which involves some vertical measurements.

[resonant]

Now I'm curious about what subculture you reference by making a dress out of denim instead of a nice floral or something ...

I picked a random dress and looked at the measurements. They're asking for shoulder, chest, bust, under bust, waist, hip, upper arm, and length of arm -- so, yes, other than arm, all horizontal. (Skirts also ask for "wearing waist.") I'm long-waisted and so far it hasn't been a problem, but then I've only been buying high-waisted dresses rather than natural-waisted ones.

You might send them an e-mail and see what, if anything, they could do; they've always responded to my e-mails within a day (though they've not always been able to do what I was asking).

[sapote]

Oh, uhm. Hm. Well, it's a little Christian Homeschooler depending on the skirt length? Which is interesting, because the exact same dress in a novelty print says "comic book shop employee, probable lesbian". I will write this up to the rich diversity of cultures in central North Carolina.

Thanks for the info! I am super curious about this now.

[out_there]

There are a lot of styles there that look pretty and flattering. I'm so used to modern fashions mostly being ugly or made from horrible fabric blends.

Luckily, I don't really have funds for wardrobe shopping right now -- or a need for it, to be honest, my work uniform is fairly simple and my social life isn't fancy enough for those dresses -- but otherwise, I'd be tempted to buy a lot from that site. (As it is, I'm going to enjoy window shopping for a while.)

[resonant]

I wore so many of them in my first few weeks on the job that people now identify them as my personal style, which is funny for a person whose closet is mostly extra-long tees from Duluth Trading.

[burnishedvictory]

They ship to Canada! Awesome.

*goes exploring*

[resonant]

Wow, I didn't realize that was so unusual. Clearly I've been failing to notice how lucky I am, again.

[exceptinsects]

Oh my god, thank you!! I've been looking at their stuff for years and never quite got up the courage to try them! Your info (and the coupon) is exactly what I need to push me over the edge. :-)

[resonant]

Well, good luck!

I forgot to mention that I did get one skirt that was tremendously too large -- don't know what happened there, as everything else has fit really well.

[ellen_fremedon]

Ooh. I've been thinking of getting some dresses from them; I'm glad to know you had such a good experience. Does the coupon code have an expiration date? I'm trying to put off major clothing purchases until I know where I'll be working next year.

[resonant]

I think it goes through November 30.

They almost always have a deal going on -- buy two get one, that sort of thing -- if that helps any.

[annezo]

I guess I'm the only one getting a "website not found" message when I click the link?

[resonant]

Maybe you clicked before I fixed my html fail? anyhow, it's just eshakti.com.

[annezo]

Okay, I can see the website now.

Thank you!