Some families save wedding dresses, and some don’t bother. For people who don’t want to bother and for people who want to save some money and don’t mind using a pre-married gown, there’s a specialty consignment store in the suburbs of St. Louis that sells formal gowns for brides and their attendants. Well, there used to be. The store abruptly closed, with lots of unsold dresses inside.

In traditional retail, this wouldn’t matter so much. Bridal shops are different, because of the amount of custom ordering and alteration they do. In the case of Savvy Silhouette, there’s a unique problem: all of those gowns in the store are being sold on consignment, and they don’t belong to the store itself.

The business model is pretty simple: you leave your dress at the store, and they give you half if they sell it. Maybe you could get more for the gown elsewhere, but selling on consignment is easier. This business model becomes a problem if the business suddenly disappears, and that’s what customers say happened.

“We trusted her to try to resell our stuff for us,” one consignor told TV station KTVI. “I know they were unwanted dresses, but it wasn`t right for her to take the dresses and not return them.”

The store owner says that she isn’t stealing the dresses, but the shop is relocating. Why hasn’t she contacted her customers? She claims that her phone where all of their contact information was stored has been stolen. Oh.

Consignment shop closes with bridal gowns left for resale [KTVI]

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