Paris 1900

This shop has an amazing collection of vintage wedding gear. If you want a gown that no one else has seen before...definitely make a stop here and have the owner pick out something for you to try on! She has amazing taste!

Went in feeling wonderful about myself after leaving another fabulous bridal store, left feeling awful. If I had started my shopping here, I would have been too depressed to go elsewhere.

I am a normal-sized young woman. I brought a bridesmaid with me. We had an appointment, but the owner snippily told us there were no appointments that day. Her store was empty. She let us in, and I tried on several different gowns. Most were much too big on me, but she said that was how they were supposed to fit. My bridesmaid also heard her whispering about how I needed "much bigger sizes." It's not a big store, we can obviously hear you! It's a bridal store, aren't you trying to make the bride feel, you know, good about herself? It's a sensitive time for a girl, and she just made me unbelievably self-conscious. I mean, come on...they even have a mirror that makes you look fat. How on earth do they sell anything??? They also do not allow photos, so even if I had liked something, my mother, who lives across the country, would not be able to see it.

I would avoid this place. We left angry.

Paris 1900 is not a shopper friendly store. Susan, the owner is uptight, opinionated, prickly, and rigid. I went in to shop for wedding dresses and tried on about 15 different ones ranging from $400-$1000. Susan acted as if the dresses I was trying on were $15,000 couture dresses, and they weren't. I had my maid of honor and mother-in-law to be with me and she was very rude to them. Not even allowing them to drink bottled water. When I would come out in the dresses, she would belittle my friends opinions and was pushy with her style choices. Not even showing me all of her stock. I had to ask to browse the items in the back rack, and found a dress I loved there. (She was not being forthcoming about those dresses, as she thought she knew best what I should wear). I found a dress, and put down half the deposit. She said it would take a few months to come in. It came in within a week, in a standard size 4. Within the next week, my fiance lost his job due to the economic crisis. My mom offered to pay for the other half of the dress, but my fiance and I decided that we should use our parents efforts in better places. I called Susan and explained the situation to her. She absolutely wouldn't budge. She said that I either forfeit the cost of half the dress or I could come pay the other half and buy the dress. I said I did not want to lose my deposit, may I come in and look for a less expensive dress? She said no. She said my money only was good for this particular dress. I said I needed to think about it and call her back. She called me back two days later and was very pushy. Asking what I was going to do. I said I'm a little torn about the money, and that I know she wants to sell this dress to someone else, as it is a standard 4 and she will add it to her off the rack dresses. She said she is not in the business of helping people with their wedding budgets, and that if I didn't come in and purchase the final balance on the dress the next day she was going to put it in her stock. She gave me an ultimatum to buy the dress in 24 hours. I said originally the dress was not supposed to come in for months, and now you are forcing me to buy it today or I'm losing my deposit. She hung up on me. I called her back, she said I can't help you and hung up on me again. The dress at this point feels tainted and I don't even want to wear it at my wedding. She was unwilling to let me purchase a less expensive dress, unwilling to give me more time to come in and buy the dress I loved, and completely unprofessional in her business practices. Although the store has lovely items, the experience has been difficult, unsympathetic, unprofessional, and overall dingy. Very poor customer service. I have lost my money and have no time to come up with the rest to pay for a dress that I'm being bullied into buying. And again, it is a standard size 4, nothing was custom made for me. She is going to sell it and make money off of me and someone else. She has many off the rack dresses she sells. I would be mindful of supporting this woman and her practice, steer clear.

I just can't say enough about the wonderful experience I had at Paris 1900 in Santa Monica. The owner, Susan Lieberman, was attentive to every detail and really went overboard to make sure everything was perfect for my special day. I highly recommend her store to anyone!