Another day, another episode of TLC’s delightfully deranged Say Yes To The Dress. If you missed why I split this episode into two parts (and likely the rest of season 1, which follows the same format), I explained that a bit in this post. We’re finally formally introduced to one of my personal favorite employees at Kleinfeld’s: the extremely competent Director of Merchandising, Dorothy, who is going to Milan with owner Mara to do some shopping for the salon.
Frankly, Dorothy and Mara just seem happy to be out of Kleinfeld’s and away from the other owner Ronnie – more on him later – and I would love to see a spinoff show where they just go around the world looking at dresses. That said, these “couture bridal gowns” are all the worst parts of 2007 fashion. Many of them seem to come from the concept “what if a going-out-top was also a bridal gown.”
I wish I hadn’t seen these dresses, which obviously means I am going to unleash some of them on you. The real star of this scene was Dorothy taking photographs of the ones that she liked with her digital camera. Were we ever so young?
Not to worry though. Back in New York, there were still brides that needed to be dressed. And they did not disappoint.
Our first bride was the indecisive Marisa Bove, a wedding cake designer that is on her third trip to Kleinfeld’s. Her consultant, Sarah, is already exhausted with Marisa, who purchased a dress on her last appointment and immediately regretted her choice. Marisa wants a dress that is “lacy, romantic, fitted, with a full-bottom,” which describes both of the dresses she has already fallen in love with.
Marisa’s family seems just as exhausted by the trips to Kleinfeld’s as Sarah is, but they gamely soldier on through the appointment. Sarah puts her in a few dresses – including a mermaid gown, which her sister Sabrina hates – and Marisa finally falls in love with….. the dress she picked on her first appointment.
If Marisa came back for a fourth appointment, SYTTD tactfully did not include that information in this episode.
Our second bride is a lovely young woman named Jill, but her segment of the episode barely focuses on the bride at all. We don’t learn when her wedding is, what she wants, or anything about her…. we just learn that Kleinfeld’s co-owner Ronnie is kind of a creep.
Jill’s consultant is Audrey, who takes no shit, but nevertheless has to put up with her boss making invasive and creepy comments about the dresses that her client is trying on. What follows is a legitimately unnerving montage of Ronnie interrupting the appointment to steamroll the bride with his own opinions of her dresses.
No one really seems to know how to tell Ronnie to go away, including Audrey, and the two lone members of Jill’s entourage just stare daggers at him throughout the appointment. Audrey gets a particularly great confessional where she’s asked to describe Ronnie’s eye for fashion and she says, “let’s put it this way. He owns 1600 of the world’s best designer dresses here.”
Jill’s mom’s face here is how I looked during pretty much this entire appointment. If Jill says yes to a dress, we certainly do not get to hear about it. I would like Ronnie to be in this show about 95% less of the time.
Finally, we have Camilla Lewis, who has traveled to New York from Manchester, England. She has a classic SYTTD conundrum: she has to buy a dress today and fly it back to England in two days. Camilla is paired with Keasha, and she’s looking for slim lines, lace, and satin for her traditional English church wedding.
Camilla’s entourage consists of just her mom, who is very gentle and supportive of her daughter. Considering how much of the show later on tries to cast for “drama” and really emphasizes the contentious interactions between families, I am really enjoy the low-stakes family dynamics in the first season. It feels refreshingly realistic, and much closer to what a normal bridal appointment would feel like. Camilla’s mom is also an icon for using the phrase “wow factor” for the very first time on the show!
Camilla tries on three dresses before the finds “the one” and it’s quickly rushed downstairs to alterations for my queen Vera to work her magic. My favorite thing about Camilla is how much she praises the seamstresses for making this happen – as a seamstress myself, she is truly the best kind of client to work for.
Despite the fact that I liked the brides in this episode, this was not a good episode of SYTTD. The weird focus on Ronnie’s behavior – which is framed in this episode as funny and kooky – and the trip to Milan took away from the actual brides in the salon. I wanted more of that! I want to know if Jill said yes to the dress! This show is clearly still working through it’s growing pains.
Final Score:
- Bride needs a dress in under 2 months – +7 points
- Manager intervention – +5 points
- Ronnie being a real weird creep – -10 points
- First instance of “wow factor” – +5 points
- Bride has a “bridal moment” – +5 points for Marisa, +5 points for Camilla
Total: 17/100
Bye beautiful! Don’t forget to thank your seamstresses!
