Kelly Chase Couture 26-660 is a floor-length olive green dress cut on a one-shoulder line and built on a metallic olive-and-gold glitter ground that reads deep moss in shade and warm antique gold wherever the light catches it. A black three-dimensional floral applique gathers at the shoulder in raised, hand-set petals, spills diagonally across the bodice, and then scatters down the skirt and out toward the hem, so the pattern travels as one continuous vine instead of a printed repeat. The covered shoulder carries a sheer black illusion panel that the applique climbs over and around the back of the neckline; the opposite shoulder is left bare. The bodice is princess-seamed and lightly structured, the back is closed, and the skirt holds a narrow column through hip and thigh before releasing into a soft trumpet flare just above the floor - no slit, and no train beyond the sweep at the hem. One colorway, Olive/Black, in sizes 0 through 28, at $3,637.50. It is the rare formal dress that answers two different searches at once: it is unmistakably a black-tie evening dress, and it is equally at home as an olive green mother of the bride dress or a green wedding guest dress for a fall or winter celebration. Olive is the color most often asked for and least often stocked at this level - the comparable one-shoulder floral applique gowns on the market top out near $1,698 at Mac Duggal and around $750 at Badgley Mischka and Neiman Marcus, all of them machine-embroidered on crepe. This one is couture-weight lace on metallic lame, cut and finished to order.
A one-shoulder gown is the silhouette that most rewards being tried on, because a single strap line carries the entire bodice: there is no second shoulder to share the load, so the neckline sits exactly where that one seam puts it and nowhere else. The trumpet skirt has to be settled on the body and on the actual shoe you will wear, since the flare point decides whether the hem breaks at the instep or drags. And an allover applique has a direction - the vine has to be taken in on the seam rather than through the pattern, or the flowers break across the waist. Metallic lame compounds it, reading one way in daylight and another under warm reception light. All of which is why Jan's keeps professional alterations on site rather than sending gowns out. Come see it at Jan's Boutique, 406 Marlton Pike E, Cherry Hill, NJ 08034 - a 13,000 square foot showroom with 50 dressing rooms and more than 15,000 dresses in stock in sizes 000-26, serving Philadelphia and the tri-state area since 1974. There is no sales tax on dresses or alterations. Call 856-428-8181 or book an appointment - appointments are required to try on. Browse the rest of the Kelly Chase Couture collection, request Kelly Chase swatches, or see more guest-of dresses, gala and charity event gowns, evening plus sizes and plus size formal dresses. Questions before you drive in? Read Coming to Jan's or contact us.
