Elaines of Palo Alto

I just discovered Elaine's this summer and will be a frequent customer. Elaine's expertise, her professional\r manner, and her timely work all make it easy to recommend her wholeheartedly. Pros: good location, convenient hours more

I've had nothing but good experiences at Elaine's and that's why I keep going back to her. I first went to her with my grandma's 50 year old wedding gown to remake it for my wedding. The age and condition of the dress ultimately made me decide to purchase a gown, but Elaine did everything I asked her to do and more to try and make my grandmother's dress work for me. I've used her for alterations on two bridesmaid dresses and most recently, I took the wedding gown I purchased to her. The dress I bought was beautiful. When I took it to Elaine, she made the dress GORGEOUS by fitting it to me and altering it until it fit my body perfectly! I've recommended her to my maid of honor and now she'll be getting her dress altered by Elaine as well. more

I came to Elaine's on plenty of great recommendations and I am glad to add mine to the list. I needed her to substantially alter my wedding dress based on a concept that I had, but which (because I know nothing about tailoring) I couldn't really describe. Even with my confusing description, Elaine managed to produce EXACTLY what I was looking for and my once-plain dress is now both unique and gorgeous. She asked for much less than I was expecting to pay, and even moved up the completion date when my circumstances changed and I needed the dress earlier. She is a busy woman and has tons of clients, which might be an issue for some people, but there's a reason that so many people rely on her. I will definitely be going back for any future needs. Pros: Owner-operated, personal service, talented Cons: Busy more

I STRONGLY suggest looking elsewhere for alteration services. When I tried to set an appointment to see examples of her work, she told me to refer to her website, which has NO photographs of her work. I eventually met with her to confer about alterations that I need done to one of my vintage pieces: she took one look at my dress, told me that it would take more effort to tailor the dress than to build it from scratch, and quoted me a price four times what she quoted me over email. I'm sorry, it never costs more to alter a dress than to make it from scratch, especially a vintage piece. Then she just ignored me until I left her studio. Well, it's good to know, I suppose, that she has so much business that she can afford to be that rude to potential clients. more