Coco Myles Dress Blog

Blog is Now on Our Iste

2010-10-18T13:29:00.002-04:00

Please note that we're now hosting our blog on our site at www.cocomyles.com. Thanks!

TheWeddingLane -- Great Coco Myles Blog Post (And She's a Former Customer!)

2010-08-31T10:04:00.003-04:00

Love this blog post from a former customer. Eileen and her bridesmaids are actually featured on our site. They're the group from Hawaii with those amazing parasols. It was great to find out that three years after using us for her bridesmaids dresses, that Eilenn was writing a great blog post about ability to make great celebrity inspired gowns.

Yikes! Stolen Bridesmaid Dresses.

2010-08-30T10:50:00.002-04:00

Feel bad for this bride-to-be who had her bridesmaid dresses stolen. At least the wedding isn't until May 2011.

Hail The Queens!

2010-05-21T12:14:00.002-04:00

Although our Custom Couture dresses are more popular for bridal parties, every so often a bride will choose one of our Celebrity Inspired dresses for their party. We think Marie made an excellent choice with these Hail the Queen dresses in Chocolate Georgette for her bridesmaids.

Bridal Party Marathon

2010-05-17T08:56:00.003-04:00

Want to get the bridal party to bond before the wedding? How about getting them to run a marathon together as a relay team? Cute story. http://bit.ly/9JKApb

Coco Myles' Facebook Make-A-Friend-A-Fan Contest

2010-02-24T09:49:00.003-05:00

Ladies, here's your chance to win a free Coco Myles gown of your choice! Refer your Facebook friends to the Coco Myles fan page and you may be the next winner!

Here’s how:

Simply go to Coco Myles' Facebook fan page and hit the Share button below the relevant post to share the link with your Facebook friends. You can add your own text to ask them for your support by becoming Coco Myles' fans at your recommendation. Once they join the fan page, they'll need to click here: Make-A-Friend-A-Fan Entry to provide your name as the fan who made the referral. The fan who refers the most number of friends by 5 pm (EST) Friday wins. Good luck!!

Coco Myles: Starting the Decade Off Right with Another Brides' Choice Award!

2010-02-04T11:52:00.003-05:00

When we won the Brides' Choice Award for 2009 from WeddingWire.com, we were thrilled. Given that the award is based solely on the feedback that WeddingWire receives from brides, we found it to be real testament to our commitment to customer satisfaction and our ability to be the answer the age-old dilemma of bridesmaid dresses.

Well, not sure if it's as satisfying as the first one, but we just found out that we won the Brides' Choice Award for 2010 as well. This year might be even more gratifying since it demonstrates the consistency of our dresses, customer service, and overall customer satisfaction. We never lose sight of the fact that our bridesmaid dresses are going to be in someone's wedding. We don't take that responsibility lightly and, hopefully, given this philosophy, we'll keep winning this award for many years to come.

A big thank you to our customers, both brides and bridesmaids, who continue to have such nice things to say about us.

The International Side of Coco Myles

2009-12-03T14:25:00.003-05:00

Being that bridesmaids dresses are our business, we've taken the time to research how the whole bridesmaid dress tradition came into being. Surprisingly, it originated from a need to fake out evil spirits so that they wouldn't know which woman in the bridal party was the bride. Apparently, both the bride and her maids dressed identically back in the day. The tradition of wearing the same color dress remains today (at least for the bridal party) and is still very much part of weddings in the English speaking world. Thus, we particularly love it when we supply a bridal party that's a bit off the beaten parth.

We were thrilled when we heard from Jacqueline, who had worn one of our dresses in an earlier wedding in Prague. [Jacqueline is easily our most international customer!]. She told us she was getting married in Germany, where the same-color bridesmaid dress tradition was not so prevalent and that her bridesmaids were not too keen on all wearing the same color dress. Fortunately, once all the dresses were in-hand, the bridesmaids were thrilled with the result --- as were we. We love the above photos which show off, rather nicely we might add, some of our Pink Georgette dresses. From left to right (in the lower photo) are the following dresses: Bradgelina, Scoop Neck Top/A-Line Skirt with Royalty Beading, Hail the Queen, and Graceful.

Daily Dose of Style Podcasts About Coco Myles

2009-10-28T10:46:00.002-04:00

Really great podcast about us on Daily Dose of Style. Totally appreciate their taking the time to review the site and the specifics about our mix-and-match sizing and length alterations.

Ivory Georgette Bridesmaids Dresses . . . Sweet, Simple and Beautiful

2009-10-15T10:43:00.002-04:00

As mentioned in previous posts, we've definitely seen a trend towards bridesmaids going with black bridesmaids dresses, but, as the above photograph demonstrates, going the opposite route and using ivory colored bridesmaids dresses also works beautifully. Our great thanks to our friend Shar for sharing this photo of her bridesmaids in our ivory georgette dresses! We know some folks may be hesitant to go this route out of fear that ivory colored dresses may be too close in color to the bride's traditional white dress, but if the bride should decide to do something a little different, as Shar did with her dress, then we think it's an excellent choice.

Coco Myles' Color Sourcing Solutions

2009-09-30T10:58:00.003-04:00

When Krystle first contacted us she asked if we'd send some swatches of our yellow satin and charmeuse colors. Unfortunately, neither of the colors was what Krystle had in mind for her wedding. We did some color sourcing and sent her some samples for her and her bridesmaids to review. Eventually they chose one of the satins we had sent and Krystle Gold Satin was born!

Above is a photo of the bride and her happy bridal party wearing their gorgeous Krystle Gold bridesmaids dresses. The featured dresses are three Blueberry Celebrity Inspired Gowns, a Strapless/ Asymmetrical Skirt, and a Strapless/Straight Skirt. Krystle also wrote us a very nice testimonial which is now featured on the Testimonial section of our site. Nothing makes us happier!

The Vibrancy of Charmeuse

2009-08-28T12:32:00.004-04:00

We constantly get questions about which fabric is best for bridesmaids dresses. We send swatches free of charge but we still have customers ask us about the difference between our charmeuse and satin. We tell them that the satin is heavier and a bit more forgiving since it's blended with a touch of Lycra. Our charmeuse is lighter and generally more vibrant in terms of color. We think the above photo demonstrates just how vibrant that color can be (please click on the photo so you can see it in all its glory)! These dresses were all made from our Wine Charmeuse and we think they look incredible. We also love that the photo shows such a large variety of our top and bottom styles, including our Jr. Bridesmaid dress and our Pickup Skirt (which is an incredibly popular bottom style right now).

Our heartfelt thanks to the bride, Karrie, for being kind enough to share the photo with us. Also, hats off to Artisan Photography for taking such a beautiful photo! You can read Karrie's kind words about, and review of, Coco Myles in the Testimonials section of our website.

Coco Myles . . . Pleasing Brides and Their Moms!

2009-08-05T13:44:00.002-04:00

Besides the bride, the person you want to please the most if the mother of the bride, or the MOH as she's known in the SMS world. In fact, we can only imagine the how joyful it must be for the mother of the bride to know that her little girl and her bridesmaids are thrilled with how the day turns out. It's particularly heartwarming when we receive a kind note from a mother of the bride letting us know how happy she was with our bridesmaids dresses. We thank Kay for her kind note below and for sending us the above photo -- which again demonstrates how black is the new black!

I know this is late.... but we had the most beautiful wedding thanks to Coco Myles. You were a dream to work with - as we had sizes 4-24 in the wedding. Our dresses were of fine quality and quick service was a plus. I think we had the best wedding in the world - but most moms think that too.

Black is Still the New Black

2009-07-30T14:07:00.006-04:00

We're hoping it's not a sign of these dire economic times that we're still finding bridesmaids' dresses in black to be so popular, especially since our dresses are pretty affordable even in this tough climate.

In any event, you can't argue with how wonderfully formal and elegant the black dresses are, especially when they're paired with one of our colorful sashes. We thank Heather and Frances for sending us photos from their weddings. We think these photos also show how well different styles -- in both tops and bottoms -- can work in a bridal party.

Coco Myles in In Touch Magazine

2009-07-22T14:27:00.005-04:00

Well, we didn't win The Today Show Wedding Giveaway. Though biased, we thought we had the nicest dress. We're chalking our loss up to being paired with the funky, plaid madras groomsmen pants. One of the nice things about being a finalist is that Bobbi Thomas, the Today Show's stylist, wrote a very nice piece about the Coco Myles Reese dress in In Touch magazine. Click the image above to check it out.

Coco Myles Bridesmaids Dress Featured on The Today Show's Wedding Giveaway

2009-07-07T11:46:00.006-04:00

We are truly honored to have been selected to participate in The Today Show's Wedding Giveaway. We're competing against three other dresses and hope to be chosen by the public as having the best bridesmaid dress for Leigh's bridal party. Any and all votes for Coco Myles are appreciated! Vote #4!

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Coco Myles Dresses Miami Dolphin Cheerleaders

2009-06-24T10:00:00.002-04:00

Here's the first of two segments featuring Miami Dolphin cheerleaders modeling Coco Myles dresses.

African-American Brides Blog

2009-06-17T12:04:00.004-04:00

Great write up about us at African-AmericanBrides.com!

Aloha - Coco Myles

2009-06-10T12:35:00.004-04:00

Great blog post about us on the Hawaii Bride and Groom website. Hopefully, they'll put it in the print edition as well.

Destination Weddings - Coco Myles

2009-06-08T16:45:00.003-04:00

Coco Myles got a great write up in the most recent issue of Destination Weddings & Honeymoons. There really is nothing better than our being featured in the popular bridal mags since we know how the brides devour them. Click on the above image to read the article.

D Magazine Checks Out Coco Myles

2009-06-03T10:52:00.003-04:00

Here's a nice blog post about us in "D Magazine" offering bridal advice for the Dallas bride.

Follow-Up Piece in Sacramento

2009-05-15T14:26:00.004-04:00

Here is a link to our follow-up segment on Fox40 Sacramento. The dress they ordered (Strapless Top/Pickup Skirt in Red Satin) came in and they were impressed. We only they would've paid more attention to our posted specs and ordered the size 4. All in all, a great clip though!

Coco Myles Does Fox/17 - Grand Rapids, MI

2009-05-07T14:39:00.002-04:00

Black is the New Black

2009-04-23T10:45:00.004-04:00

We're proud of all the different fabric and color combinations we offer. We know that color coordination is usually the bride's biggest concern when it comes to her bridesmaids dresses. That being said, we also think there's something stunningly elegant about black bridesmaids dresses. Our friend, Erin, was generous enough to share the above photo which shows her bridesmaids in all different styles of Coco Myles black satin dresses. Beautiful photo!

Coco Myles Featured on Wedding on a Budget

2009-04-15T15:27:00.002-04:00

Perfect 5-Star Rating for Coco Myles at Project Wedding

2009-04-09T22:18:00.004-04:00

Just discovered that Coco Myles has a perfect 5-Star rating at Project Wedding, which dedicates a section of their site to vendor reviews. Here's the link to the reviews. Despite the perfect reviews, we're still looking for ways to be even better. We're shooting for 6 stars next time. :)

Coco Myles on The 10! Show in Philadelphia

2009-04-07T12:43:00.002-04:00

Had a great time on The 10! Show yesterday in Philadelphia. Very kind and helpful crew over there.

Coco Myles on Action News in Philadelphia

2009-04-02T14:26:00.003-04:00

Here's a link to a recent feature about Coco Myles on Philadelphia's ABC affiliate, Action 6 News. The segment starts off with some news about the Conficker virus, which has absolutely nothing to do with us! :)

Brides.com Declares Coco Myles a "Must-Go-To" Website

2009-03-19T09:40:00.003-04:00

Gotta love when the online version of the largest bridal magazine in the United States calls you a "must-go-to-site for purchasing dresses for a wedding . . . ." Check out the entire blog entry here.

Coco Myles on Fox40 Sacramento

2009-03-17T14:38:00.001-04:00

Canadian Blogs Dig Coco Myles

2009-03-05T20:50:00.003-05:00

We just got a couple of really great blog write-ups about us over the past few days. We're wondering if it's a merely a coincidence that they're both written by folks in Canada. While we love the blog posts, sometimes the best thing is to read the comments. It always makes us smile to read something along the lines of the "how cool" "wow, didn't know they existed." On the other hand, it makes us realize that we need to do a better job of getting people to know we're out there and the unique solution we have to the whole bridesmaid dress purchasing decision. The blog posts are from The Professional Bridesmaid and Canadian Bride

Press Release - Bride's Choice Award '09

2009-03-02T10:14:00.003-05:00

Here's a link to our latest press release announcing Coco Myles being named a winner of WeddingWire's Brides Choice Award '09.

Fierce Bridesmaid Dresses for the Bride's Best Ladies

2009-03-01T15:58:00.004-05:00

When customers contact us about making bridesmaid dresses for their friends and family they often want to make sure that the dresses will be "beautiful", "gorgeous", and, yes, sometimes, "sexy". Now one word that doesn't cross our path all that often is "fierce'. We know what it represents (yes, we also watch "Project Runway") -- full tilt, a lot of heart, smokin'. Now that's a lot of pressure -- making fierce dresses, that is. But once Chantal made this request, we were confident we could do it and we think the pictures provide some pretty credible evidence of this. The orange and violet charmeuse dresses are so vibrant.

More than the beauty of the dresses, we're struck by how naturally happy the bride and her bridesmaids are in the photos. You can tell that no one had to be asked to smile -- these are happy ladies enjoying life! Great photos by Julian Mackler!

"Maid to Order" - Pretty Catchy

2009-02-27T14:37:00.003-05:00

Just discovered this lastest postive review for Coco Myles. It's in a blog called I Do for Brides, which, in and of itself is a pretty clever phrase. Besides receiving the nice review, the thing that struck us the most was the title of the post -- "Maid to Order". We wish we had thought of it!

Cuckoo for Coco Myles

2009-02-25T10:00:00.002-05:00

We discovered this cool blog post about us this morning from D Magazine which serves the Dallas, TX area.

WeddingWire Names Coco Myles a "Bride's Choice Awards '09" Winner

2009-02-12T13:56:00.004-05:00

We are thrilled to learn that Coco Myles has been named a "Bride's Choice Awards '09" winner by WeddingWire.com. The best part about this award is that it's based on the reviews and comments of actual brides -- sort of like the People's Choice Awards for wedding vendors. We're honored by the award! Here's a link.

Bridezilla!? What Bridezilla?

2009-02-04T19:51:00.005-05:00

We first mte Naomi after she requested some swatches from us. She liked what we sent her and she then asked us to proceed with making some dresses for her bridesmaids -- which we were only too happy to do. Each dress contains an asymmetrical bottom and the bridesmaids got to choose the top that was best suited for them. Between the time the orders were submitted to the time the dresses were finished, there were a few reqeusts to change some sizing. We could change the sizing, but time was of the essence. Fortuantely, we were able to assure Naomi that all would be okay. Based on some emails we knew she wasn't quite sure we'd live up to our representations. Well, we did. And based on the photo accompanying this post, we did a rather nice job making these very attractive lades into elegant, well-dressed, and beautiful bridesmaids. Naomi even thanked us after for bearing with her Bridezilla qualities. We honestly did not catch that from her. We thought she was just real organized and efficient in getting things done -- a trait we can appreciate. And they all lived happily ever after!

2009-01-25T22:02:00.002-05:00

My Real Wedding from The Knot and The Nest.

My dress was a Casablanca, with a white and champagne color combination. My bird cage veil was exactly as I pictured it. The bridesmaids wore custom purple dresses by Coco Myles (awesome company!). They each wore a traditional Irish sash to match the kilts.

Tags: Fashion purple
Photo: Timachine Photography

In the works . . .

2009-01-23T11:59:00.005-05:00

We're looking forward to adding a few new items to our site. We'll be adding a little bit of everything. A few new tops, a bottom, some Celebrity Inspired gowns, and branded bridal jewelry.

The first things that'll be added are our new Sweetheart Strapless Top and Bubble Skirt for our Custom Couture line. Here are some photos:

We've made the Sweetheart Strapless Top for some customers in the past upon special request. After a few of these requests, we decided we should just to add it to our line. We think the Bubble Skirt is a really fashionable item right now and that it'll look great for bridal parties -- or as a sporty cocktail dress.

We thought the following dresses from the recent Golden Globes awards were great and we're in the process of creating some inspired versions:

Kate Winslet
Miley Cyrus
Salma Hayek

Finally, we're looking forward to adding some great bridal jewelry to our site. We thought we'd add some pieces that'll work really well as either bridesmaids gifts and/or items to wear during the ceremony.

Bridal Gowns Too

2009-01-15T09:27:00.001-05:00

While our focus is on the whole bridesmaid thing, we get a special thrill when the bride decides to use us for her wedding dress. We take the responsibility of making great bridesmaids dresses very seriously -- it is our customers' weddings after all. However, there's a special sense of satisfaction when we find out that the bride herself wore one of our gowns during her big day. We always get a little extra excited it when we see orders for white satin dresses. A big thank you to Katelyn for sharing her photo with us.

Winning Over the Bride's Mom

2008-11-14T14:29:00.002-05:00

We love getting emails and letters from happy customers. We think our favorite to date though is the one below from Christi, who was the mother of the bride in the wedding. It's one thing to impress the bride with our dresses and service, but when the mom checks in . . . well, we must be doing something right. Great photo too of our short sleeve style dress!

"I wanted to write and thank you for a wonderful experience! My daughter, Amy, was married in Washington DC on May 31, 2008. The six bridesmaids were living all over the world. We were lucky enough to find Coco Myles because Amy wanted a short sleeve, modest neckline, tea-length dress and you had the perfect dress."

"Each girl ordered their own navy satin dress with a long sash in ivory. The neckline matched the bride's dress which was the dress her grandmother was married in 50 years ago. The girls called it the "magic dress" because everyone fit perfectly (no altering was needed by anyone) and they all loved it. As we were heading to the ceremony a man in the parking garage commented "nice dress...you can actually wear those again". Thank you for making this part of my daughter's wedding perfect!"

Hot Pink Hawaii

2008-10-15T10:16:00.001-04:00

Here's a great shot from theknot.com showing off some of our dresses in an idyllic Hawaiian setting! Kind of makes us want to offer bamboo parasols in the future. Great element!

My Real Wedding from The Knot and The Nest.

Fabric Reservation for Bridesmaid Dresses

2008-07-30T14:29:00.006-04:00

We've noticed that every set of bridesmaids tends to have one woman who must love to check things off her list and orders immediately after the bride chooses to use us for her bridesmaids' dresses. Inevitably, there's also a bridesmaid or two who wait until the very last minute to order their dresses. Sometimes bridesmaids may order months apart from one another in which case we may need to use different lots of fabric to produce the dresses. Although we do our best to color match, there may be slight variations in color if the dresses are purchased at totally different times.

In thinking through the issue, we gave some thought to being like other bridesmaid dress retailers and asking the bride to place the order for all the dresses at one time. We decided against this since we thought it defeated the flexibility we offered brides in letting their bridesmaids order separately without the bride having to lay out the money or repeatedly ask her bridesmaids for their measurements.

After some more thinking, we decided that the perfect solution was to allow the bride to reserve the fabric once she decides to use us for her bridesmaids' dresses. The price we're charging for the fabric is totally refundable once the dresses are purchased. There is a $25.00 charge for processing the fabric reservation but we think this is a small price to pay to make sure that even if a bridesmaid orders way late in the game, her dress will still be made from the same exact bolt of fabric used for everyone else.

As far as we can tell, we're the only bridesmaid dress retailer that offers this unique solution. Our reservation system also allows the bride to create specialized comments to her bridesmaids so they know exactly what to order when they sign in using the bride's reservation code. We're excited about this new feature and hope it's a great help to brides and bridesmaids the world over!

Bridesmaid Dresses on the Beach with Mix and Match Sizing

2008-07-21T12:00:00.002-04:00

One of the things we’ve introduced since launching our site is “mix-and-match” sizing. Sometimes a woman’s measurements simply don’t match up with traditional sizing charts. We therefore decided to introduce a process whereby the customers can order a dress with the top made in one size and the bottom in another. Thus, someone with a waist that fits our size 14 dress and a bust that fits our size 8 can order the dress to be made in this way. There is an additional $20.00 charge for this service since it does require that we produce a new marker for the dress.

We’re really grateful to Jade for sending us these beautiful photos of her recent beach wedding. Her bridesmaids’ dresses were produced in our Turquoise and Orange Georgette fabrics. The styles are Strapless/Asymmetrical and Scoop Neck/Asymmetrical. Also, two of the dresses were produced using the mix and match sizing process described above.

How Beautiful is Alberta?

2008-07-01T09:41:00.003-04:00

Although our focus is on bridesmaids’ dresses, we’re always particularly honored when someone chooses to use us for their wedding dress. For this purpose, our Strapless/Ballroom Skirt combination is the most popular. In White Satin, it makes a beautiful wedding gown, especially with an added beading pattern. The other dress featured is our Empire Top/Straight Skirt in Wine Satin (with spaghetti straps added).

Love that Alberta, Canada scenery!

Thanks for pic, Cheryl!

Modesty Dresses (in real life!)

2008-03-24T13:25:00.002-04:00

We finally have some photos of our more modest dresses. The one above was sent to us from Alyssa, who, some eight weeks before her wedding date, wasn’t too thrilled with the velvet bridesmaid dresses she had previously selected from another vendor. She ordered a bunch of Modesty Long Sleeve Tops/A-Line Skirt dresses for her bridesmaids from us. The dresses shown are in Brick Red Satin. We also supplied a little additional fabric, free of charge, for the girls’ dresses.

Great Article with One Small Omission

2008-01-16T12:18:00.000-05:00

We thought this was a great article in the NY Times discussing the growing trend of brides and bridesmaids customizing and buying their dresses online. Maybe it’s just our skewed perspective, but we think a mention of Coco Myles would’ve made the article even better since we offer more colors and customization than anyone else. Anyway, it’s nice to know the NY Times Sunday Business Section is taking note of the trend.

Coco Myles in Brides Magazine

2008-01-03T09:36:00.000-05:00

Here is a link to the recent Brides Magazine Editors' Choice feature about our bridesmaid dresses.

Oh, Canada

2007-12-04T14:00:00.000-05:00

Operating online, we think it’s imperative that we be able to accommodate customers all over the world. To date, we have shipped dresses to every continent except Antarctica. We’ve limited our Google paid-search campaign there so we’re not overly concerned.

We’re particularly happy with our Canadian business. Although we do charge $40.00 for international shipping and handling for Canadian orders, this fee is generally decreased, or eliminated completely, when more than one dress is shipped to a particular Canadian location. We’ve also found that our customers are usually surprised when they find out that we take care of the import duties and fees. It seems they’re used to other online retailers leaving them with the duty bill at the end of the day.

We just received these beautiful photos from Melanie, a happy Canadian customer. The dresses shown are in our orange satin and charmeuse. The photos really help show the difference between the bright charmeuse fabric and the more subtle satin. From left to right in the standing photo, we have a Strapless Top/A-Line Bottom with Pearl Ivy Beading in Orange Charmeuse (makes a nice maternity dress, no?) followed by two Scoop Neck Tops with Asymmetrical Bottoms and Waterfall Beading. All the ladies are sporting short red satin sashes as well.

Mix and Match Examples

2007-11-12T12:06:00.000-05:00

We love when our customers send us photos. We think the following pictures offer great examples of different styles (in the same color) being used to coordinate a bridal party.

The first photo shows five of our Navy Satin dresses with Strapless Tops. As shown on the left-most dress, we do offer customers the ability to add spaghetti straps to our Strapless Top if requested. This dress also shows how the Asymmetrical Skirt looks paired with our Ballroom Skirts. Much thanks to Angela for sharing the photo with us!

The second photo features both our Scoop Nec (l) and Criss-Cross (r) Tops in Wine Satin. There's also a Short Sash in Brown Satin featured on the Criss-Cross dress. Many thanks to Cierra for sending us the photo!

More Modest Offerings

2007-11-06T09:47:00.000-05:00

If we had to speak about one facet of our offerings that has been most influenced by our customers, it’d be the trend towards more modest dresses. It may very well be that not all women are that comfortable with the selection they have at traditional retail stores.

We’ve recently introduced two new modesty tops – a long sleeve modesty top and a ¾ sleeve modesty top. These tops are available in the same fabric, color and beading options that we’ve always offered. We’ve also added a new option for these tops – bows. The bows can be placed on either the wrist, neckline, or down the back. These tops are particularly suitable for religious events that require a more modest dress. So far as we know, we’re the only ones offering these kinds of options for modest dresses.

Ix the next few weeks, we’ll also be offering a pickup skirt which will be a perfect complement to the modesty tops. Our customers will also be able to match the pickup skirt with any of our existing top options, with the exception of the empire top.

We’re always happy to add to our Custom Couture line in order to give our customers as many options as possible and we look forward to continuing to receive your feedback so we can continue to offer you what you want.

Lighthouse Weddings

2007-10-12T09:56:00.001-04:00

Much thanks to Shannon for sharing these beautiful pictures of her wedding with us. Shannon is wearing our Sweetheart Top with a Ballgown Skirt in White Satin. The beading on the dress is our Pearl Ivy. She paired her dress with one of our long sashes in pink satin. We think she made an excellent choice. We love the lighthouse photo -- especially how the clouds match the white satin.

Coco Myles in Prague

2007-09-28T10:34:00.000-04:00

Prague is widely acknowledged as one of the most beautiful and romantic cities in the world. We were thankful when one of our customers, Veronica, sent us these photos from a wedding that took place in this majestic location. We had to deliver the dresses (shown here in our Lime Green Satin) to Wisconsin and Germany but had no idea that the wedding was taking place in Prague. We especially love the photo of the betrothed coupled getting bombarded by bubbles. We’re very happy, and honored, that our dresses were part of such a beautiful celebration.

Tffany Blue Wedding?

2007-09-19T10:14:00.002-04:00

Given the amount of requests we've had for a blue that resembles that used by Tiffany's, we've decided to offer a new satin color called "Jewel Blue". The color is now available in our satin color palette.

Dyed to Match . . . Chuck Taylors

2007-09-19T10:10:00.001-04:00

Much thanks to Amanda for sending us photos of her wedding. While we don’t offer dyed-to-match shoes (yet), we’re quite tempted to simply stock up on a wide range of Chuck Taylors so we can accessorize the footwear for both the bride (yes, she has them on too) and the groom. We’re also very honored that the décor of the hall matches the beaded stars on our Katie dress.

Brides Magazine Editors' Pick – Coco Myles!

2007-08-28T18:58:00.000-04:00

We’re thrilled that Brides Magazine has selected Coco Myles as an Editors’ Pick for bridesmaid dresses in its September/October ’07 issue. We were able to provide Brides with a few of our dresses for a photo shoot and they loved them. In the recent issue, which is now on newsstands, they have a photograph of one of our Strapless/Asymmetrical Navy Charmeuse dresses with a Short White Charmeuse sash. Considering they’re the most widely read bridal magazine in the world, we couldn’t be happier. Hopefully, we’ll be able to post an image of the article. We’d do it now but we don’t want to run afoul of any copyright issues. For the time being, you can find us on page 186.

Skorch Magazine Article

2007-08-04T15:35:00.000-04:00

We’re happy to be featured in this month’s (August ’07) issue of Skorch Magazine. About 30 clicks in there's an interview with us. Skorch is an online magazine that features fashion tips and advice for plus-size women. The editors of the magazine fell in love with our website and asked us a few questions about how we came into being and our ability to provide Celebrity Inspired dresses for plus-size women. Besides my incorrect use of the word “jive” (should've been "jibe", oh well), I think the interview went well.

Jr. Bridesmaid Dress Photos

2007-08-02T11:25:00.000-04:00

As we mentioned in earlier posts, our Jr. Bridesmaid dress came about as a result of collaborating with our customers. We know the name is not the most original but we think it’s a great dress to accompany other Coco Myles dresses at a wedding. As you can see based on these photos, the dress also works great for flower girls. The first photo features the Jr. Bridesmaid dress in Ivory Georgette with Lilac Georgette accents (nice color coordination with that matching hyacinth!). The second photo is the same dress in Black Satin with Hot Pink Satin accents. The shot also features our Strapless Top with Asymmetrical Skirt in Navy Charmeuse. Much thanks to Julie, Chloe and Malena for sending us their photos!

Encrypted . . . and in Good Company

2007-06-28T17:43:00.000-04:00

When we started a little over a year ago, we decided that we'd encrypt all the credit/debit card information we receive from our customers on our servers. This does tend to lead to the occasional problem of our having to call a customer for their credit card info if they want to add another item to their existing order or decide to use expedited shipping after placing the order. The usual response is "Can't you just add it to my existing order?" We answer this question by explaining that the encryption is for the customer's protection. This is usually, although not always, treated as a satisfactory answer.

Based on a story today in Internet Retailer, it seems that the hassle is well worth the effort.

On average, only 66% of merchants and other organizations involved in processing payment card data encrypt that data for transmission over the Internet, compared to 100% among best-in-class organizations, research and advisory firm Aberdeen Group says in a new study, “Protecting Cardholder Data.”

We will certainly continue to encrypt credit/debit card info even if it means a few extra calls to customers.

Yellow is Big

2007-06-26T11:47:00.000-04:00

As per the Wall Street Journal, Bright Yellow seems to be the big, new color. We've yet to see a Yellow that's brighter than our Charmeuse version (as seen in the immediately preceding post). Here's a little summary:

THE TREND: Bright yellow on everything from ball gowns to patent platform pumps.
WHO'S DOING IT: Jil Sander, Catherine Malandrino, Nanette Lepore, Burberry and Nicole Miller, among others.
WHY IT'S HAPPENING: Recent spring and summer lines showed splashes of color, and now designers are taking yellow front and center. "Women need a ray of light in their wardrobe," says Ms. Malandrino, who adds that her most popular dress this season is a short bright yellow chiffon number.

Mixing Colors Done Right

2007-06-22T12:12:00.001-04:00

We know the usual way to go with bridesmaids dresses is to have everyone wear the same color dress. Usually this works out great, and with our Custom Couture dresses everyone will have perfectly color-matched dresses even if they’re ordered in different styles. However, sometimes it makes sense to be a little non-traditional and get dresses in different colors. We think this works great for large bridal parties. As you can see from the picture above, this method can work extraordinarily well! Having a sunset on a beach doesn’t hurt either; especially when it color coordinates with the dresses! The dresses shown are in our Yellow, Orange, and Hot Pink charmeuse colors. Much thanks to Kitty for sending us this great shot!

Celebrity Inspired with Your Favorite Color

2007-06-15T13:55:00.000-04:00

We think one of the really fun things about our site is the ability to get a great Celebrity Inspired dress but in a color different than the dress that inspired it. For instance, Emmy Rossum made a huge splash when she wore this dress to the Academy Awards. There’s no doubt that the brick red color of this is beautiful. However, as demonstrated by our beautiful customer, Grace (a very appropriate name, no?), our version can look quite wonderful in Royal Satin as well.

Blueberries at the Beach

2007-06-06T13:16:00.000-04:00

We’re getting a lot of inquiries about what dress works well for beach weddings. We think our Blueberry dress works really well in this regard especially in bright summer colors. A great example is the dress shown above in our Yellow Charmeuse. We thank Sarah for wearing the dress so well. We love the matching flowers too.

Criss Cross Top/Asymmetrical Skirt

2007-05-04T10:18:00.000-04:00

Recently we’ve received a lot of orders for the Criss Cross Top with an Asymmetrical Skirt. We’ve also had a number of requests from folks wanting to see photos of how this dress looks in real life. In the December 12, 2006 post you can see how this dress looks in turquoise charmeuse. And, to the immediate left, we’re especially happy to have the lovely Sarah showing off this dress in our Raspberry Charmeuse with Pearl Ivy Beading. We love how the beading helps to “formalize” the dress. Wicker chair is optional.

Personal Favorite -- The Teri

2007-05-04T09:41:00.000-04:00

I think this is my favorite Celebrity Inspired dress. I remember the day we first photographed it and I loved how it looked. It looks even better on our friend Tsz who’s wearing it in Royal Blue Georgette with a White Charmeuse shawl.

Do You Know the Way to San Jose?

2007-04-06T11:54:00.000-04:00

Our dresses found their way to San Jose recently. They were graciously worn by the bridesmaids (or at least most of them) of our friend, Nadia. We first heard from Nadia back in January when she requested some turquoise and chocolate satin samples. We soon found out the wedding was to be held on March 17 and didn’t start to receive the orders until the first week in February so we were little bit under the gun on this one. Two of the bridesmaids may not have believed that we could get their dresses to them in time and went elsewhere – although they did wear our turquoise satin sashes. We’re happy that at the end of the day we were able to ship the dresses to everyone in time for the wedding. Nadia was good enough to send us this picture of the happy event showcasing our wares. We love the fact that almost of our tops are featured in this photo; demonstrating that, when it comes to bridesmaids’ dresses, personal style and matched dresses can indeed coincide in this crazy world of ours!

From left to right the dresses are: Strapless Top/Ballroom Skirt; Strapless Top/Asymmetrical Skirt; Sweetheart Top/A-Line Tea-Length Skirt; Scoop Neck Top/Ballroom Skirt; skipping the bride; Strapless Top/Asymmetrical Skirt; Criss-Cross Top/A-Line Tea-Length Skirt; not ours (except for that killer sash); Sweetheart Top/A-Line Tea-Length Skirt; not ours (except again for that sash . . . love the way she tied it, by the way). We wish Nadia and her bridesmaids all the best!

Maternity Dress to the Rescue

2007-03-16T14:35:00.000-04:00

Thank goodness for our maternity dress! When we first started, we didn’t even offer the maternity style dress that’s now on our site (in three different lengths). Amazingly enough, we were able to scientifically determine that women who fit the demographic of being part of a bridal party may also get pregnant!

We’ve learned firsthand the difficulties of purchasing a bridesmaid dresses while venturing into motherhood. Our friend Noilyn contacted us back in August. She was particularly fond of our Bronze Charmeuse and, along with her bridesmaids, loved the concept of being able to design their own dresses for the wedding. All the bridesmaids ordered without any issues and the dresses were made and delivered to everyone’s satisfaction. However, in the one of the bridesmaids became pregnant and could no longer fit into her dress. We gladly accepted the original dresses in exchange for a newly produced maternity dress. [We wonder how David’s Bridal would’ve handled this!?] Our generosity was rewarded by the powers-that-be when one of the other bridesmaids determined that she ordered the wrong size and we were able to provide her with the dress originally prepared for the then pregnant bridesmaid.

Even with the two dress exchanges, at the end of the day all worked out incredibly well as is evident by the beautiful photo taken by Jenny Stafford of Red Loft Studios shown above. We think the photo demonstrates how nicely our maternity dress blends in with our traditional bridesmaid dresses. We’re very thankful to Noilyn for writing us and letting us know how much she appreciated our efforts on her behalf. You can read her words below in the comment section to this entry.

We Do Try Harder

2007-03-16T09:32:00.000-04:00

This has to be my favorite blog comment about us to date. We love the part about our Avis-like “we try harder” approach to customer service. It was posted on favoridea.com, which, as the name implies, is a site dedicated to wedding favors. The only problem with this review is that the satirical part about us being part of a Nigerian spam operation is what comes up in the Google search synopsis. So unless someone reads the full review they may very well think that General Ubgyama, who, from what I’m told, has recently inherited $15 million and needs a U.S. partner to help collect his money, is now designing dresses for us.

Burnt Orange

2007-03-09T17:10:00.000-05:00

Maybe it was just a coincidence, but in the course of one week we had five separate requests for “burnt orange”. We figured coincidence or not, we’d better get on the Burnt Orange bandwagon. Thus, we’re happy to announce that we are now offering this color in both satin and charmeuse. In recognition of our prior post, we figured we’d let you know that these colors bear a strong resemblance to Pantone 17-1353 (“Burnt Orange”).

Color Communication Made Easy

2007-02-23T11:14:00.000-05:00

We wanted to sing the praises of the Pantone Color Guide for Fashion and Home which is pictured above. We’re happy to source colors for customers who wish to utilize a shade that we don’t offer in stock. However, we pride ourselves on our speed and the color sourcing is one of the more time-consuming endeavors we engage in. First, the customer has to send us a swatch/sample, then we have to source a few possibilities, then we have to send what we’ve found to the customer for their approval and, finally, procure the fabric. The whole process may take as long as 3 to 4 weeks, which I suppose isn’t that long when it comes down to it. In any event, we’ve found that about a third of this time can be eliminated by using the Pantone Color Guide which is a ready-made resource for color communication. Rather than having the customer send us a swatch, they can simply reference it via the Pantone system. This system has worked really well for us so far.

Custom Couture in Georgette

2007-02-09T13:39:00.000-05:00

We’re pleased to announce that we are now offering our Custom Couture line of dresses in our georgette fabric. Previously, these design-your-own dresses were only available in our satin and charmeuse fabrics. Our website should be updated within the next week to ten days to include this option. However, we are presently accepting orders for these dresses in georgette. Just send an email after you order informing us that you want your dress in georgette and we’ll make it happen. You can check out the color range by looking at some of the Celebrity Inspired dresses we offer in georgette (e.g. Teri).

A Few Great Links

2007-01-30T12:47:00.000-05:00

Below are a couple of links to sites that have recently said some nice things about us. We’re particularly proud of the first one, which is from an existing customer who just received her dress this past weekend:

Happy Customer!

A Charmed Event

Wedding Tips

Madame Butterfly

2007-01-23T13:51:00.000-05:00

Another one of our all-time favorite customers is Andi (a/k/a Mrs. Butterfly on weddingbee.com). Weddingbee.com is a site that allows women to post questions, issues, vendor reviews, etc. regarding their upcoming weddings. What struck us about weddingbee.com is how articulate the posters are. It’s great content for anyone who’s in the process of getting married. Sometimes more popular sites like weddingchannel.com and theknot.com can be a little annoying with their automatically streaming video and slow loads.

In any event, Andi was kind enough to write some really great things about us throughout the whole process – from ordering swatches, to communications about our Jr. Bridesmaid dress (she was the first one to ever order it!), to having her bridesmaids wear our dresses. In fact, her comments about us are so good that we feel compelled to inform you that she was not paid for her words (although we did send her one of our fabulous t-shirts). We're very proud of our A+ vendor grade. Here’s a link to all of Andi’s comments about us which includes photos of her dresses http://www.weddingbee.com/index.php?s=cocomyles. You can click on each post's title to see the full posting and photos.

We’re thrilled she had such a great wedding and we wish her – and Mr. Butterfly – all the best for the future!

New Additions to the Site

2007-01-18T21:10:00.000-05:00

We’ve reconfigured our site so that future additions to our Custom Couture can be done in a simpler and faster fashion. We’re excited to formally introduce our Short Sleeved Top and ¾ Length Sleeve Top. We'd received a ton of requests to make some tops that had a little more coverage and we've produced these tops with those requests in mind. The shawls aren’t looking too pretty on the sleeved tops at the moment, but we’re working on that.

We’ve also added purple/violet to our charmeuse color family as a stock color. Based on requests we’ve received over the past two months, purple is a very popular dress color.

We’ve also gotten around to adding a lot more testimonials and have decided to automate this system so that your “kind words” can be shared much faster.

We’re now looking to add a few dresses inspired from the recent Golden Globes awards. At the moment, we’re admiring the dresses worn by Jennifer Hudson, Angelina Jolie and Penelope Cruz. If there’s anything you were particularly fond of, we’d love to hear from you.

Is that Tiffany Blue? No, it’s Ashley Blue

2007-01-18T11:47:00.000-05:00

These pictures were sent to us from one of our all-time favorite customers, Ashley, who has to be one of the sweetest people on this planet. Ashley was one of the first customers we had that sourced a non-stock color with us back in June. She had wanted a very light blue satin for her wedding dress and we were lucky enough to be able to source it for her. She chose Chocolate Charmeuse for her bridesmaids. We found it fun to simply name colors after customers once we sourced it for them - - - sort of an homage to those who trusted us to get the right color for their wedding. Lately, people have been asking whether we have any “Tiffany Blue”. We’ll send them a swatch and advise that the color is properly known in these parts as “Ashley Blue”. We're wondering if one day someone will walk out of Tiffany’s with a box and someone will say it looks just like Coco Myles' Ashley Blue.

Different Styles Matching Perfectly

2007-01-09T16:00:00.000-05:00

This photo was sent to us recently from Helaine who was kind enough to take a picture of herself and her fellow, beautiful bridesmaids in their Coco Myles dresses. We think the picture provides a really good example of how our dresses can be worn in different styles and yet match perfectly since they’re all cut from the same fabric (Brick Red Satin in this instance). As you can see, some dresses are beaded, some are strapless, and one is being worn with a shawl. Now, as for the footwear . . . we assume this picture was taken either pre- or post-nuptials. Thanks, ladies!

Logistical Assistance from the Bride

2006-12-25T14:47:00.000-05:00

Recently one of our customers, Linda, helped us get a dress to one of her bridesmaids who ordered a little late. Through no fault of our own, we needed to rush a dress to the bridesmaid on a Saturday morning for a wedding that night!! After we were able to produce the dress much faster than usual we breathed a big sigh of relief and patted ourselves on the back for another job well done. That was until we found out that neither UPS nor FedEx could deliver the dress to where it needed to go before 1:00 pm Saturday. Linda was kind enough to accept delivery of the dress at approx. 9:30 am and get it into the hands of the bridesmaid that same morning. It was a great feeling coming into the office the following Monday with a kind note and photo from Linda letting us know that everyone loved their dresses and expressing her gratitude for getting everything done in time. Linda is elegantly wearing our Scoop Neck Top with Ballroom Skirt in Navy Satin. The woman looks great and, more importantly, has a great heart!

Baltimore Rules

2006-12-25T14:14:00.000-05:00

For whatever reason, the U.S. city we seem to be most popular in is Baltimore, Maryland. We haven’t done anything special in the way of marketing to folks in Baltimore. It just seems that word-of-mouth has spread there quicker than in other cities. Other than the movie “Diner”, I never really had an appreciation for Baltimore – I don’t even like crab cakes. Now Baltimore is one of my favorite cities. The picture posted above is from one of our latest Baltimore customers. Christiane needed a dress in a rush for her friend’s wedding. All of the bridesmaids were given the freedom to buy their dresses from wherever they wanted and we’re thrilled Christiane found us. While you may tend to think we’re selling our dresses to dainty women who write poetry and have nicely manicured nails, you can see that we can also make ladies who participate in roller derby look great! Christiane is a member of the Junkyard Dolls which is one of the teams in Charm City Roller Girls (“Baltimore’s Only All Girl Roller Derby League”). Christiane is on the far-right wearing our “Sweet Emmy” dress in red satin (yeah, as if Emmy Rossum could compete in roller derby). As tough a lady as we’re sure Christiane is, she was a delight to work with and we’re happy she looked great at the wedding. Dig those gloves too!

Seasons Greetings!

2006-12-25T13:43:00.000-05:00

Being that it’s the holiday season and that the world has taken a much needed pause to celebrate, we thought now would be a good time to post stories and photos from some of our favorite customers who were kind enough to express their gratitude to us and send us pictures of themselves in their Coco Myles dresses.

Of course, with the way blogs work -- with later entries being published above prior entries -- this little intro probably won’t be read until after you’ve read the other entries. In any event, we hope you enjoy(ed) them! And Seasons Greetings to all, particularly to our customers who have made this such a fun year!

Photo Shoot Results!

2006-12-10T10:58:00.000-05:00

As mentioned a little while ago, we had what we think was a really successful photo shoot last month. We think these photos will come in handy for a variety of reasons, including showing our prospective customers how nice our dresses look when worn. We’ve had a good number of emails from people asking for pictures of this sort and we’re happy to now provide them. We decided to post a few of the photos so folks can see them before they’re put on our site and used in our marketing/advertising materials. The dresses are (from bottom to top): Black Satin Strapless Top with a Tea-Length A-Line Bottom with White Satin Sash; Turquoise Charmeuse Criss-Cross Top with Asymmetrical Bottom (Pearl Ivy Beading); “Sweet Emmy” in Red Satin; Hot Pink Satin Sweetheart Top with Ballroom Bottom (Royalty Beading) and Shawl; “BlueBerry” in Royal Charmeuse; and, “Lily” in Eggplant Georgette. We hope you like the photos as much as we do! Please note that you can click on them to enlarge and see more detail.

Shefinds.com Finds Coco Myles

2006-12-01T20:41:00.000-05:00

Being an online company, it is always nice when independent bloggers find us and write nice things. We recently got a great review in Shefinds.com, a site who’s self-proclaimed purpose is to “study the trends and surf the web for the best items and then send you a link in the SheFinds weekly newsletter.”

We’re very happy to have been featured this past Wednesday as their “Bargains Week Feature Find”, even though they claimed our sizes only ran up to 16 -- we go to 32. You can check out their kind words right here. Thank you, Shefinds.com!

Referrals from dressupgames.com

2006-11-27T20:41:00.000-05:00

I woke up on Friday and was shocked to find that our traffic was about five times as much as usual. After checking out the referrals leading to our site, we discovered that we were a newly added link to dressupgames.com. We're their top link in their formal design section. We’re very grateful for the new visitors!

Sisterhood Never Looked So Good

2006-11-07T13:07:00.000-05:00

One of the great things about being in this business is discovering opportunities that you wouldn’t otherwise knew existed. This happened to us this past May when we received 50 orders from a university sorority house. Now we knew that a bride and her bridesmaids might like the convenience of shopping online for their dresses given the usual geographic disparity of bridesmaids today, but who knew that sororities might like to order a whole bunch of dresses for their members for special events like formals and rush. It seems we're in a good place since we're not sure anyone else could produce an order of 50 or so beautiful, custom-made dresses in under 6 weeks. Needless to say, we are now bidding on the term “sorority dresses” and look forward to making other sorority sisters look as good as these ladies.

By the way, on this order, the women all bought tea-length black satin dresses but got to choose the particular shape of the top and bottom. Consistency with personal preference -- looks good, no?

"Cheap Bridesmaids Dresses"? Well, No One Searches for “Bridesmaids Dresses with a High Value Proposition”

2006-10-27T09:47:00.000-04:00

We bid on the search term “cheap bridesmaids dresses” but there’s something inherent in the word “cheap” that just doesn’t feel right. While our dresses are inexpensive compared to other bridesmaid dresses (particularly those that are custom made), we tend to think of cheap as being low quality which definitely is not the case here. We also bid on “inexpensive bridesmaids dresses” which is a little more palatable. Unfortunately, with this type of paid-search marketing you have to go with what the masses are searching and, based on Overture’s estimates for last month (September ’06), there were only 359 searches for “inexpensive bridesmaid dresses” while there were more than 7,700 searches for “cheap bridesmaid dresses”. So despite our qualms, I guess we’ll keep bidding on the cheap.

theknot.com's "Professional" Posting Policy

2006-10-26T13:47:00.000-04:00

So every now and then (okay, practically everyday), we’ll go to theknot.com, which is the largest wedding community website, and type “coco myles” or “cocomyles” into their search field to see what’s being said about us. So far so good, thankfully!

Their posting policy prohibits “solicitations” so we never sought to go there and tout our wares. However, the other day we came across this thread. We figured this was a pefect, non-solicitous situation in which we could interject and offer some information to some prospective customers. We simply wanted to inform the person who started the thread that she could order swatches from us and see, first-hand, the difference between the satin and charmeuse fabrics.

I had previously become a member of theknot.com and, during the sign-in process, honestly identified myself as a “professional” rather than a groom or wedding guest. When I tried to post a response to the above thread, I got a message stating that professionals were not allowed to post.

I definitely understand why theknot.com wants to prevent solicitations on their message boards. I can only imagine how many photographers, limo drives, and wedding bands would be posting. However, I think it’s unfortunate that they don’t give professionals the opportunity to answer, or inform, members if they have a question. I guess it’s tough balancing solicitations and honest information. Maybe they could prevent professionals from starting threads but allow them to post on existing ones. Just a thought.

Speaking of Real, Live Women

2006-10-19T11:48:00.000-04:00

Despite our high customer satisfaction rate, we're still finding it difficult to get women to send us photos of the dresses being worn, particularly by their bridal parties. My guess is that when women are planning their wedding and are caught up in the excitement of ordering, or merely discussing the ordering of their bridesmaid dresses, they’re very willing to say, “Sure, I’ll send you some photos!” Then the wedding comes around, then the honeymoon, followed by catching up at work and nights spent sending out “thank you” cards. Before you know it, the bride has forgotten all about us. We also feel a little weird about nagging someone after the fact – we don’t want to come off as the “stalking bridesmaid dressmaker”. The truth is we realize that after the wedding, we’re not that high on someone’s priority list. We also think that women may not want pictures of their wedding posted on the Web or used for commercial purposes, which we totally understand. We’re trying to come up with ways to incentivize (strange how this word does not pass spell-check muster) our customers to send us those photos.

Given some feedback we’ve received and comments we’ve seen on some sites (i.e. theknot.com), we do think this will help others feel more confident about ordering from us. In an ideal world, we’d love to have our customers send us video clips from their weddings which we'd then make available for others to view.

That being said, I am thankful to a wonderful woman who just got married in the UK and was kind enough to send us these photos of her beautiful bridal party. I have to admit the whole “English Countryside” thing is a great backdrop for our dresses – it definitely does them justice! By the way, the dresses are Classic American Beauties (love the irony that they’re being worn by Classic British Beauties) in black satin.

Real, Live Women

2006-10-17T20:43:00.000-04:00

When we launched back in March, our take was that the website did a great job of showing what the dresses looked like. I loved that our site looks and works like an actual dressmaking application while other sites look like electronic versions of old-fashioned catalogs. Well, as we now seek to broaden our marketing efforts beyond that of paid-search, it seems we need to have some real, live women in our dresses in order to develop a press kit that will be acceptable to traditional media outlets like television and magazines. The truth is we’ve also had a fair number of customers also asking to see what the dresses look like on women.

So we’ve hired our models and are now looking forward to leaving the artistic wizardry in the very capable hands of our photographers, Arnold and David Katz. The shoot is scheduled for November 1 and, hopefully, we’ll have the whole press kit ready in the middle of November, although I’m sure this kind of thing will take longer than anticipated.

Coco Myles in Crain's NY

2006-10-10T16:31:00.000-04:00

Here's a nice little article about us in this week's Crain's New York Business that focuses on our pricing.

Send a Swatch, Make a Friend

2006-09-27T11:05:00.000-04:00

Here’s the quandary when we started.

We figured most people would be very happy to know that we’ll send them swatches of our fabrics for free, which we do. We also think it’s reasonable to expect bridesmaids and brides to want a physical sample of the color they’re choosing for their dresses. We also know that a bride shopping for bridesmaid dresses is going to have some wedding-wide color issues that go beyond the bridesmaid dress, including flowers, tablecloths, flatware, etc. Because of the huge role that color plays in any wedding, we feel we have a responsibility to provide as much information to the bride as possible.

So our core belief is that we should provide samples to customers especially since we operate entirely online. On the other hand, we didn’t want to be bombarded by requests from 7th grade girls who think it’d be cool to get swatches from a dress company.

We therefore came to the conclusion that we would provide the swatches for free but wouldn’t make it a FAQ on the site. Our philosophy was to freely give the swatches to those who made the effort to ask for them figuring that this would limit the amount of 7th graders requesting fabric.

Those who contacted us about obtaining swatches were generally surprised to find out that we were willing to send swatches for free, probably because they’d seen other companies charge as much as $15.00 per swatch for this service. If you are thinking about buying from us then we think it’s our responsibility to get you what you need to make that purchase – and if that means sending a small sample of the fabric you may use then, to us, that’s well worth it! Forunately, so far, time has proven us correct.

Now, here are our revised thoughts on the matter:

Maybe we were too cautious in our approach to the junior high school kids. I mean, really, what do they want the swatches for? Even if our worst fears are realized and an entire 7th grade class asks for each of our colors, at least they’ll remember our name later on (hopefully). However, the biggest contributing factor to the change in philosophy is our discovery that the simple “swatch request” gives us an opportunity to introduce ourselves to each other and to demonstrate how Coco Myles works in terms of getting back to you almost immediately after you contact us, getting you what you want (the swatches) in a pretty package and for a great price ($0), with friendly customer service along the way. This process creates good feelings for both sides. It also makes a nice template for future transactions involving the dresses.

Because of the positive client relationships that we’ve developed from the swatch request, we think it's time to make our customers more aware that we will send them swatches for free! We’ll probably be adding a FAQ to this effect in the next day or so. If we get deluged with requests then we’ll respond as best we can. At present, we’re able to send our swatches out the same day they’re asked for so long as the request is received before 4:00 pm Eastern Time. All others are sent the next day. Hopefully, we can keep this effective process in place.

So for you Coco Myles fans who can’t let a day go by without reading our FAQ section, they’ll be a new one coming soon that’ll let our customers know that Coco Myles will be happy to send swatches to them for free!

And let’s not lose sight of the power that a simple swatch has to bring people together!

Introducing Our Jr. Bridesmaid Dress

2006-09-20T07:57:00.000-04:00

As stated in one of the earlier posts, we're grateful for all the customer recommendations we've received about adding certain items to our offerings. The latest dress we'll be adding as a result of those comments is our Jr. Bridesmaid dress. Our website folks are currently adding this dress to our site, but we thought we'd at least show you what it looks like on this blog. Over on the left are the front and back images of the dress. We're giving our customers the ability to choose both a base and accent color. This way if the bridesmaids dresses are, let's say, Chocolate then the bride can choose to use the Chocolate as an accent color to the Jr. Bridesmaid dress. The dress shown is an example of a White base color with a Chocolate accent color. Of course, the dress can be made in one solid color as well.

The dress is currently available for sale ($115.00) and should be up on our site within the next week. If you'd like any information about sizing and specifications, please send us an email.

Our Posting Offer

2006-09-19T17:21:00.000-04:00

We think the best way to help persuade people to choose us is for them to hear from previously satisfied customers. For brides-to-be in particular, we know we're asking you to trust us with a pretty important purchasing decision. Advertisements in magazines are great, but we think nothing works better than a customer testimonial. The problem with testimonials is that they only appear on the "testimonee's" website or literature. To broaden the scope of the testimonial concept, we're asking our customers to post about their experiences with us on third-party sites like theknot.com, weddingchannel.com, craigslist, etc. where there's much greater exposure.

For honest positive comments, we're agreeing to either credit our customers $10.00 from their order or provide them with a free Coco Myles t-shirt (shown above -- American Apparel Girly Tank 5.8 oz 100% Cotton). We've never really heard of a company doing this before but we think it's a highly credible way to create greater awareness about Coco Myles in the bridesmaid market. So if any of you out there are old customers and want in on this, just send us an email with a link to your comments and we'll give you the credit or the t-shirt. And let us know your size if choosing the t!

Off the Charts

2006-09-15T11:16:00.000-04:00

About two months ago, we decided to provide our customers with the actual specifications for our dresses. When you go to the site you’ll see that upon designing a dress, the specifications for bust, waist, hips, and length are displayed. We feel really good about this change, particularly after looking into the history of sizing charts. According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the “size chart” came about as a result of The Civil War (bet they didn’t teach you that in American History) which necessitated the mass production of uniforms. Standardized women’s sizes didn’t come around until the 1920’s and since that time these “standards” have been subject to everything from the arbitrary whims of different manufacturers to the fact that women are becoming heavier leading retailers to sell bigger clothes labeled with smaller size numbers.

By giving the precise measurements of the dresses, we think we’re helping our customers select the best possible dress. Why standardize when you can be specific, right? One of the nice advantages of selling online is being able to provide this kind of information. While we still provide a sizing chart for reference purposes, we do ask our customers to order based on the dress’s actual specs.

Two Thumbs Up for Personalized Fashion!

2006-09-12T09:38:00.000-04:00

It’s a great feeling when someone finds us and is impressed not only with our dresses and website, but our concept of personalized fashion as well. Both The Budget Fashionista and Dahlia's Day - The Wedding Talk Blog checked us out and really liked what they saw. We hope those positive blog posts keep coming!

What's With the Blog?

2006-09-10T11:19:00.001-04:00

Feeling inspired by the beautiful Sunday morning sunshine, I hereby commence the official Coco Myles Blog!

The goal here is to provide a two-way forum where we can openly communicate with our customers (and prospective customers too). We’ve been impressed by the amount of suggestions that people have provided us over the past six months. To date, these suggestions have resulted in our maternity wear, junior bridesmaid dress, and soon-to-be-offered short- and long-sleeved tops. We hope this blog further frees up the collective wisdom of our audience and provides us with excellent ideas and suggestions for years to come.

We’ll freely post all your comments here – both good and bad. There’s no need to sign-in or create a user name. We will, however, remove any comments that we think are irrelevant or inordinately profane. We know our concept of having our customers design their own dresses on the Internet is new-fangled and we hope that the open forum that this blog represents will help foster trust for both our concept and company.

I’ve just recently read Naked Conversations by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel. While reading, I became really excited about the possibilities of creating a blog for Coco Myles. To quote the book:

Businesses need to join the conversations [with their customers via blogging] because they build trust. Most companies know the value in that. Blogs also humanize companies, or at least the people who work inside of them. Your blog lets your potential customers see who the person is on the other side of the desk before they engage you in potential business. The more you talk with someone, the better you understand who he or she is, and you are more prone to conduct transactions with people you know well enough to trust.

We know that for some, buying a dress online requires a certain amount of trust in the vendor. As Scoble and Israel state, we hope this blog provides you with an opportunity to know us better and that this knowledge will result in your trust as well.