What Can (and Can’t) Be Tailored? A Shopper’s Guide to Buying Dresses That Need Alterations

Some fixes are total light work for a professional tailor. If the dress needs these tweaks, go ahead and secure the bag, queen:

• Hem Dress Alterations: Taking up the length of long formal dresses is the oldest trick in the book. If the dress fits everywhere else but you are tripping over the fabric, a hem is an easy fix.
• Shorten Dress Straps: If the bodice is sagging or the neckline hits way too low, having a tailor shorten dress straps is a fast change that fixes the entire fit of the top instantly.
• Zipper Replacement Dress Fixes: Broken zipper on a gorgeous sample piece? Don't stress. A full zipper replacement dress swap is standard business, and they can even swap a basic zipper for a sturdier one.

Some areas are just too messy to fix without spending a band. If the fit is off in these spots, it is an automatic L:

• The Shoulders and Armholes: If the shoulders of a structured velvet gown are way too wide, fixing them requires rebuilding the entire top. It costs real coin and rarely sits right.
• Too Small in the Hips or Bust: If a silk slip dress is too tight and has zero extra fabric inside the seams to let out, no tailor can magically create new material. If you know, you know (IYKYK), always buy the size that fits the largest part of your body.
• Massive Intricate Lace Resizing: Trying to reconstruct a whole wedding dress covered in heavy, layered lace appliques is a massive headache. The pattern gets totally messed up when pieces are shifted around.