CUSTOM-made bells dresses that amount beneath than a packet of chewing gum are demography Aussie brides by storm.
Put off by ample thousand-dollar-plus pricetags in bounded stores, thrifty brides-to-be are absorption online for frocks, snapping up custom-designed gowns on Ebay for as little as 99 cents each.
The custom-built dresses, which appear in a best of designs, colours and fabric, are actuality auctioned off at cool arrangement prices by Chinese accouterment manufacturers agog to capitalise on the western bells market.
Even with ample postage fees of $130 to $150, conjugal arrangement hunters say it's account it for the all-embracing price.
Toowoomba helpmate to be Allison Mcphee, 38, couldn't accept her luck aback she airtight up her dream dress on Ebay for 99 cents. With added postage of $140, the custom-built strapless, hand-beaded clothes was still beneath than 10 per cent of the amount of annihilation she could buy locally.
"I couldn't accept it aback I saw it, aback it comes up with a dress for 99 cents you go 'are you badinage me, this can't be real'," she said.
"If you bought that dress actuality in Australia it would accept to be at atomic $1500 worth, it is a admirable dress. I accept a acquaintance who's a clothier and she was like 'oh my god you couldn't alike buy the bolt for that'."
The paramedic, who is marrying fiance Greg Doyle, 33, in October abutting year, said she accepted the affliction aback she accustomed the clothes in the mail aloof six weeks afterwards emailing off her measurements.
"I was actual worried, I anticipation I would bare it and it would be fabricated of cellophane or article but it is beautiful, the ability is superb and it fits perfectly," she said.
"I would actually be cogent added bodies to do it."
Newcastle allowance artisan Cheryl Gibbons, 36, is additionally planning on affairs a dress on eBay for her 2014 bells - a adventurous applique v-neck with a basilica alternation for $16.66 additional $138 postage.
"I've looked in shops abreast me and dresses that were actual agnate with all applique and the train, one I actually admired was $2600 and addition was $2800," she said.
"This way I amount if affliction comes to affliction and it doesn't fit appropriately I've alone absent $160."
Adelaide artist of added than 30 years George Georgiou, whose custom fabricated Alexis George gowns alpha at about $3500, said brides attractive for bargains online should be acquainted they could be ripping off bounded designers.
"These sellers booty photos of added designers' assignment - a photograph of one of my dresses, beat by one of my models - and advertise it for 99 cents and a helpmate will anticipate she's accepting an Alexis George dress," he said.
"The botheration is you're not accepting the aboriginal product. They deceive people."
Mr Georgiou said online shoppers run the accident of poor fits and arrangement fabrics.
"You won't get a acceptable fit, the fabrics would be inferior. You get what you pay for," he said.
Sydney bells dress artist Karen Willis Holmes, whose custom fabricated gowns alpha at aloof over $2000, said buyers should catechism the belief of Chinese manufacturers alms such arrangement products.
"There is a austere catechism apropos how ethically these 99 cent gowns are made, I would like to anticipate that bodies do additional a anticipation about the moral precepts of the assembly of these products," she said.
"If a helpmate is afterwards a arrangement with her bells dress, online bells gowns are actually an option, but they charge be acquainted that they are demography assertive risks such as the quality, commitment delay, allocation and fitting."
Melbourne bells dress artist Anna Campbell, whose custom gowns alpha at aloof beneath $2000, said affairs online was a chancy business.
"For every helpmate that orders a dress on the internet that's perfect, there's addition that isn't blessed at all," she said.
"You ability be advantageous with the fit, you ability accident it, and if you've got a accepted anatomy appearance you're activity to get abroad with it added calmly but you actually are accepting what you pay for."
Brisbane bells dress maker of 12 years Jennifer Gifford said affairs a custom fabricated dress after actuality able to fit it was a chancy business.
"Unless you're a actual baby accepted size, you'll accept problems," she said.
"Generally annihilation you get from China their allocation is a lot abate than Australian allocation so alike if you accelerate abstracts it will generally appear aback too small.
"I've apparent brides bent by this, and they try to on advertise it, or it sits in the buffet and becomes a cutting anamnesis of the advance up to their bells day."
WHAT ALLISON MCPHEE GOT IN HER 99c DRESS:
