Kelly Chase Couture 26-654 is a floor-length navy blue evening dress built in two contrasting textures. The bodice is navy stretch satin, princess-seamed and lightly boned, cut strapless with a deep sweetheart neckline that dips to a soft center point; the back runs straight across below the shoulder blades and is fully closed over a concealed center zipper, so there is no cutout and no open back to manage. At the natural waist a slim satin band gives way to a scalloped peplum in the same satin, its curved edge traveling all the way around the hip and continuing across the back. A hand-worked cluster of dimensional fabric flowers in cornflower and periwinkle blue sits on the left waist and spills over the peplum edge, each bloom layered petal by petal and centered with dense gold beadwork - the detail that Kelly Chase builds by hand and that the factory copy does not mention. Below the peplum the skirt opens into a full pleated tulle A-line shot through with vertical gold metallic shimmer, so the navy reads deep and quiet while the light moves as she does, finishing in a soft floor sweep. It is made to order in sizes 0 through 28 in Navy, and it is an easy choice for a mother of the bride or groom, a wedding guest or guest of the couple, a charity gala or military ball, a bar or bat mitzvah mom, a grandmother of the bride or a debutante presentation. Browse the full Kelly Chase Couture collection, or see related ball gowns, beaded gowns, best-selling evening and cocktail dresses, evening plus sizes and plus size formal dresses. Pair it with gold or antique-brass jewelry, a navy or metallic clutch, and a heel you name at fitting so the tulle hem is set to the exact height.
A dress like this is decided in a mirror, not on a screen. A strapless bodice has to hold its line through a receiving line and a first dance without a hand on it; a scalloped peplum has to break at your own waist rather than above or below it, or the scallops fight your hip instead of following it; the flower cluster is placed on the pattern, not on the body, so it has to land on your rib cage and hip the way it lands on the sketch; and a pleated tulle A-line has to be hemmed to the shoe you will actually wear. That is what a fitting is for. See it at Jan's Boutique, 406 Marlton Pike E, Cherry Hill, NJ 08034 - roughly fifteen minutes from Center City Philadelphia, half an hour from Wilmington, and an easy drive from Princeton, the Jersey Shore, Bucks County, Lehigh Valley, northern Delaware, Maryland and New York. Inside you will find 13,000 square feet, 50 dressing rooms and more than 15,000 dresses on the floor in sizes 000 through 26, with no sales tax on clothing in New Jersey and on-site alterations by fitters who work on couture construction every day. Call 856-428-8181 or book an appointment online, and mention style 26-654 so the Kelly Chase rack is pulled and ready before you arrive.
