STORE LEAVES BRIDES JILTED FOR DRESSES
Alfred Angelo’s abrupt closure sows heartbreak, allows women few options
Monica Carroll sped from Richmond to the bridal store in uptown Houston late last week, fueled by panic.
She arrived too late. The hostage hung inside the darkened Alfred Angelo boutique, locked to customers who had shelled out hundreds or thousands of dollars after weeks of searching for the perfect dress. Hers, strung with crystal beads and rhinestones, had been a big splurge on a small budget, an elegant sheath silhouette to be worn over cowboy boots during her November wedding.
“It was heartbreaking, standing right there outside the store and knowing that it’s right there,” she said. “There’s nothing I can do to get it.”
More than a week after the Florida-based wedding retailer abruptly closed more than 60 boutiques nationwide, many brides in Houston and elsewhere are still scrambling to find new dresses with little information about whether they’ll receive their orders or refunds. The company, which also had locations in Willowbrook and Baybrook, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy with the intent to liquidate, and its thousandpage list of creditors includes hundreds of local customers.
In federal bankruptcy court in West Palm Beach, the company acknowledged its
efforts to deliver dresses to brides who had paid in full. But it noted that many orders are in jeopardy because the company has terminated all of its employees and no longer has the financial means to obtain or ship them from dressmakers in China.
It’s the latest in a series of retail bankruptcies in recent months, many of which have resulted in widespread store closures and layoffs. But this one came with little notice to employees and customers and no plan to restructure the company in an increasingly competitive industry.
Day of weeping and cursing
Privately held Alfred Angelo, once a family-run company with more than 80 years in business, struggled under a heavy debt load when Czech Asset Management, a private equity firm, became involved in its operation several years ago. The company estimated it had less than $50 million in assets and between $50 million and $100 million in liabilities.
“It is very unusual in this day and age to go straight to Chapter 7, especially in a high-profile situation,” said Dennis McCuistion, executive director of the Institute for Excellence in Corporate Governance at the University of Texas at Dallas.
Gabrielle Mire, who was an employee at the Post Oak store, said management alerted sales associates the morning of July 13 that they’d be required to turn their keys in at the end of the day. For 12 hours, she faced dozens of women as they cried, cursed and otherwise panicked that the dresses they’d chosen were gone with little time to replace them.
She rescued five orders for gowns, veils and bridesmaids dresses before the store locked for good, and she has spent the last several days delivering them to customers she knows personally, an off-the-clock mea culpa on behalf of a company that collapsed without warning.
“We don’t know what’s going on,” she said. “We’re still trying to do all that we can in the event that we can make a miracle happen.”
Hundreds of others have coalesced with the same goal, taking to social media to connect jilted brides-to-be with local dress shops and women with used ones hanging in the closet. A Facebook group serving as a virtual dress swap has amassed nearly 1,500 members, and Twitter exploded in the wake of the catastrophe as users exchanged photos.
Corrina Ruiz, a Houston fashion blogger, offered to lend a fitted gown with a long train and lace sleeves, a last-minute purchase before her wedding earlier this year. Her original dress fell victim to botched alternations, leaving her frantic to find another.
“I know how it feels to be so close to the wedding date and not have a wedding dress,” she said. “If I could relieve some of that stress for just one other bride, it would mean the world to me.”
A dress-saving hero
Terror overcame Sarah Prince when she heard the news the morning after the closure. She called the Post Oak store but couldn’t reach the voicemail system, much less an associate. She’d dropped her dress there in June for alternations and planned to pick it up early next month for an October wedding.
“Hell has no fury like a bride without her dress,” she said.
She prowled Facebook, desperate to talk to a sales associate who could help. At last, she found Mire, who put her in touch with a woman who had singlehandedly saved her dress.
The hero was Monica Narvaez, a tailor who arrived at the Post Oak store the day before the closure to find the associates talking anxiously, sensing something was amiss. She took an armload of dresses that night, worried she wouldn’t have another chance to pick them up, and then fetched others from the Baybrook and Willowbrook stores.
“It was a premonition,” Narvaez said this week. “We were speculating that something was bad, something was happening.”
When the stores shut down, she had more than 30 dresses safely in her possession. She has returned about half of them to grateful brides and kept the rest for alterations, which she’ll complete at a steep discount regardless of whether Alfred Angelo pays her the money she’s owed for the work.
The company fell about a week before this weekend’s Houston Bridal Extravaganza Show. Alfred Angelo has for years set up a large booth alongside other vendors, and its unexpected cancellation sent organizer Laurette Veres hustling to turn the space into a dress gallery for 12 local vendors.
“There is no silver lining to this story, but at least it happened when these girls can have a chance to come to our show,” Veres said.
Competing bridal stores have capitalized on the chaos. David’s Bridal, a major national chain with four Houston-area locations, immediately offered discounts for affected brides, and a local associate said the Galleriaarea store has managed to help many of those who paid a visit in desperation.
Houston-based Impression Bridal also has offered discounts, waived rush fees and, in some cases, provided free dresses from its outlet store.
‘Knew they were in trouble’
Nick Yeh, who has owned the company for more than 30 years, said he worried Alfred Angelo’s messy ending would dissuade prospective customers from trusting his company with sizable deposits, which are standard in the business.
“It was surprising to the consumer, but within the industry, we knew they were in trouble,” he said. “The way they did it (creates) a lot of fear and distrust.”
Patricia Redmond, a Florida attorney representing Alfred Angelo in the bankruptcy case, has fielded about 7,800 emails and countless phone calls from brides demanding information about their orders.
In many cases, she had to deliver bad news.
She reported one success Friday night, however, when she orchestrated a complicated mission to fetch a gown locked inside a store just one day before the wedding.
Redmond hopes to rescue other dresses for brides with weddings this month, she said, but the trustee overseeing the bankruptcy case could lose control of the store properties in the coming weeks, which would make those efforts near impossible.
“The timing here is really crucial,” Redmond said. “For as long as we can, we will continue to try to get brides their property.”
The trustee did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Altered wedding plans
Like other parts of the retail industry, the wedding sector has changed substantially since the days when bridal families bankrolled big, fancy affairs. Destination weddings and smaller, more casual ceremonies have grown in popularity, and brides can browse, research and buy online without setting foot in a boutique.
In Houston, a number of independent bridal shops operate alongside national chains and major department stores with wedding sections. Some prominent retailers, such as the highend Priscilla of Boston, have left the area in recent years, while smaller ones such as Whittington Bridal have opened.
“They’re doing well, but they’re all feeling the pressures,” said Ed Wulfe, CEO and founder of commercial real estate firm Wulfe & Co. “There is a lot of competition and a different mentality about weddings today.”
Alfred Angelo hasn’t specified what will happen to its outstanding orders during the liquidation process. A small notice taped on the window of the darkened Post Oak shop directs customers to contact the bankruptcy trustee, but the company in court offered no guarantees for those affected. Redmond encouraged customers to file a claim in the bankruptcy case.
Carroll, a thrifty cowgirl, hadn’t expected to fall for a $2,500 gown, but she and her friends just knew it was the one when she stepped out of the dressing room.
With little left to spend on a replacement, she has put her wedding planning on hold until she receives word from the retailer and her credit card company about whether she’ll be able to recover the dress or her money.
“I don’t know what move to make,” she said. “At this point, I know I’m going to be settling for less.”