Touch of Design — Local services in Easton

Would give ZERO STARS if I could. Should be called TOUCH OF LIES.

I bought my wedding dress back in December and started alterations in early January, more than 8 months before my wedding. When I first went to this business, they came off professionally, which I know now to be a complete facade and act to fool brides and customers into doing business with them. The owner, Rosa, uses excessive flattery during fittings.

In January, we decided to proceed with Rosa because we were fooled like so many others. We came in for close to 10 fittings. In April, I noticed she was trying to add on extra charges as she said more needed to be done than what she originally told us back in January. The prices are heavily inflated and she charges whatever she feels at the time. There is no pricing list.

During that time period, we went for fitting after fitting with no work being done on the dress. During this process, she was asking my mom and sister for alterations notes on what other adjustments needed to be done. I’m not sure why a business owner needs the customer to take notes for them as their personal assistant. We also sent reference photos via email and text message throughout the process. At the final fitting and pickup date, she still requested the same photos and did not recall receiving them, which now makes sense because she wasn’t referencing them. This is one of the reasons why my dress looked drastically different than how we both discussed it should look.

We kept pointing out things that still needed to be fixed only to be told that it would be handled at our final fitting. Even at my final fitting, my dress was split into two pieces, buttons were missing, and a simple strap was sewn on incorrectly and twisted. I told Rosa and her staff how concerned I was that the alterations were not resolved. She proceeded to tell me that all would be fixed now at the pickup vs. final fitting. We still asked if we should come back because we wanted to make sure before the pickup on 8/16 that it would be in fact ready. We were told no need to come in before, it will be done by 8/16.

The pickup came 10 days later and again, nothing was done on 8/16. Mind you that the week of pickup, I called once and was told by Fiona the dress was being worked on and would be ready for my pickup. My mom also called and spoke with Rosa herself. She told my mom the dress was “all set.” We went the next day at pickup and NOTHING was done. I was so upset and vocalized this to her. I told her she lied and did not deliver (when she had over 8 months to do the work). She kept saying the work could not be done that night. This is unacceptable when a contract is signed and she gaslighted us all week about the dress being ready.

When I went for the new pickup date, we spent another 2+ hours there still pointing out issues with the dress. Rosa still expected another $580 after already charging $1,260 originally. This brought the final bill to close to $2,000. The alterations cost almost the equivalent of my wedding dress. I explained that this was outrageous to ask for the full amount and still not have things done as they should be, and because of all mental anguish. This is where she just shut down and said “you have to pay and I don’t care.” We paid the bill. Regardless of what she says, she is clearly only after the money and does not care about making customers happy or righting her wrongs.

If you are a former bride who had a good experience, I’m happy for you. Sadly, this was not our case and we saw many other brides having massive issues. Rosa likes to hide away brides and smooth things over when other customers are there. It’s her covering up the truth that people are upset because things are not done properly.

For future brides, do not look past the bad reviews. I’ve been noticing a lot of bad reviews lately and sadly I have to be another one added to the mix. This ordeal could have been avoided if they had just done their work correctly and on time. Essentially, they crammed 8 months of work into 2 days...

Although Rosa did a great job on the dress, the communication was completely absent between her and my sister ( the pregnant bride) who was getting her dress altered. We understood that the amount of alterations that had to be done since she was pregnant was a lot however to start off at a price of 700$ and end up paying almost 1900$ with absolutely no word of how much everything extra would be is absurd to me. It should have at least been communicated between her as things were being decided on what had to be added/ changed about the dress. We would have just gotten a completely new dress with the price we ended up paying and if we were told prior we would have been able to either tell her it's not worth it for us and to just get a new dress or better budget it out. Communication and good business practice should be a value as an owner and as an establishment and it felt as if we had something pulled over our head. During the fittings she would just tell the bride she " had " to do this for the dress without one word of how much it cost not even giving her the option to decide whether for her it was worth it or not. To a certain degree it felt as if she was taken advantage of and for a 6 month pregnant bride that is just wrong. When they told us the price and we expressed some shock the owners response was " well are you happy?" which made the pregnant bride feel like she was being pushed into a corner. We would have been a lot happier if transparency was a thought at all but atlas this studio is empty of it. Very disappointing especially the day before the wedding.

Although Rosa did a great job on the dress, the communication was completely absent between her and my sister ( the pregnant bride) who was getting her dress altered. We understood that the amount of alterations that had to be done since she was pregnant was a lot however to start off at a price of 700$ and end up paying almost 1900$ with absolutely no word of how much everything extra would be is absurd to me. It should have at least been communicated between her as things were being decided on what had to be added/ changed about the dress. We would have just gotten a completely new dress with the price we ended up paying and if we were told prior we would have been able to either tell her it's not worth it for us and to just get a new dress or better budget it out. Communication and good business practice should be a value as an owner and as an establishment and it felt as if we had something pulled over our head. During the fittings she would just tell the bride she " had " to do this for the dress without one word of how much it cost not even giving her the option to decide whether for her it was worth it or not. To a certain degree it felt as if she was taken advantage of and for a 6 month pregnant bride that is just wrong. When they told us the price and we expressed some shock the owners response was " well are you happy?" which made the pregnant bride feel like she was being pushed into a corner. We would have been a lot happier if transparency was a thought at all but atlas this studio is empty of it. Very disappointing especially the day before the wedding.

Update: Spoke to Rosa on the phone after she didn’t call back until I left this review. she was not helpful at all. Was more concerned that we left a review than the actual problem. After reading through reviews I’m realizing this actually happens all the time is here and is normal business practice for them. Taking advantage of brides coming in excited and then completely blindsided them with the bill. The business is a scam and Rosa is a scam. NEVER go to this place unless you want...

I want to preface this review by stating that I understand my experience won’t significantly impact her business. However, if this review deters even one person from giving her money, it is worth it to me. I brought my wedding dress to Rosa to alter for my April 2023 wedding, months in advance, as I wanted to make many changes to it. At the time, I wasn’t 100% sure I loved, or even liked my dress (which I shared with her). During my first appointment, she asked if I intended on losing weight, and if so, how much- which I believed was a fair question to ask. I explained to her that I wanted to lose 5-10 pounds. However, she then began to ask me questions about how I was dieting, and then started giving advice on how to lose it properly, which I never asked for. These pieces of advice included eating only 800-1,000 calories a day, and doing multiple workouts a day. While I didn’t appreciate being given toxic diet culture recommendations, I pushed it aside. She then decided to touch different areas of my body (without permission), recommending where I should lose the weight in order to look “best” on my wedding day. I cannot begin to tell you how vulnerable it feels to be standing in your wedding dress, that you are unsure of, and be given horrible unsolicited advice on how and where to lose weight. For the following 4 appointments, she continued to make these comments, and ask the same question, every time. “You’re beautiful the way you are, but I have to ask, are you trying to lose weight?” “How so?” “You should do _.”. Starting a hurtful statement with a compliment does not make it any less hurtful. Come the second appointment, I began cutting her off, explaining to her that I only believe in losing weight in healthy ways, and would not be following her recommendations, as I have done such things in the past and have learned that they are not OK. I would also like to add that my dress already needed to be taken in when I brought it to her, it wasn't vital to lose it for the dress. These comments did not stop until I had lost 10 pounds. Then, it became all compliments. For the final dress fitting, she emphasized that I brought my mom and maid of honor in to see the final results, and learn how to bustle the dress. They traveled 2+ hours to come, only to find out that the dress was far from being done, and we were never given any heads up about this. My final appointment was two days before the wedding. During this appointment, I found out my dress was STILL not done. The cups had not been sewn in, the sleeves were not added on, nor was the belt sewn on. She told me to wait, and that it would be ready within a half an hour. She did not give me any updates, unless I interrupted her and/or her coworkers from working with the 10 other families that were in the shop for bridal/prom appointments. 2 plus hours later, past closing, it was complete- without any apology whatsoever. I paid an outrageous amount of money to get my dress altered by Rosa. I knew that she was overpriced, but I thought the work would be worth it. None of this was worth it. I was willing to pay top dollar for a dress that I loved, but I didn’t expect to lose self-confidence along the way. In addition to the comments, she was consistently passive-aggressive with me, until my bridesmaid came with me to get her dress done- a long standing customer. There are many wonderful seamstresses out there. DO NOT go here. If you still decide to, I truly wish that she does not treat you the way she treated me. Good work should not be at the...