Guess which of these Communion dresses cost €300 less?
IF one of the excesses of the Celtic Tiger was the the transformation of First Holy Communion into a bling fest of Kardashian proportions, subtlety has crept back in the past five years.
Everyone wants their child to feel special, but must that mean a bank overdraft for the following three months, given that many parents are not even regular mass attendees?
If you want your son or daughter (and let’s call a spade a spade, little girls own this day) to have a day they will never forget but need to keep your costs down, there are options.
First off, there are €15 communion dresses on sale throughout Cork City and county.
The new gowns, in silk or satin, with net skirts, and diamanté detail, are selling like hot cakes, says Mary Hegarty, manager of the St Vincent de Paul shop in Mayfield. They were donated to the charity’s Cork branch by a large, well-known retailer.
“They’re all new dresses, aged for girls between seven and eight and between nine and 10, and they’re going for €15,” she said.
“They’re beautiful and a great hit with people. The word is out that we have them,” she said, adding that each of the St Vincent’s de Paul’s 25 shops in Cork got several of the dresses.
Visit other charity shops too, Hegarty says — people regularly hand in beautiful communion dresses, which are carefully cleaned before being put out on display.
However, several mid-range department stores also stock reasonably-priced dresses.
“Shop around and don’t get caught up in the hype. People really tend to go over the top at First Communion time, and it can get very extravagant. I see people taking out credit union loans and paying for fake tans for the girls,” Hegarty says. “Watch the sales all year-round too. I know people who got dresses in a big department store for €30.”
Some schools also have sensible, cost-cutting initiatives for parents — pupils at St John The Apostle boys’ national school, in Cork’s Old Youghal Road, for example, can simply wear a school blazer over the uniform. The garment can be purchased new for €35 or parents can borrow it from the school’s ‘blazer bank’, if they can find one that fits.
“We have a bank of blazers built up that we lend out for the day. It’s been running for years, although some years it’s more popular than others,” says acting principal, Carmel O’Donoghue.
“Over the recession, we noticed an increase in the number of parents borrowing from our blazer bank.
“It’s good to see the blazers being recycled, because they’re only in use on one day.”
Also, ask relatives or friends if they have a dress stuffed away in a wardrobe somewhere, says Hegarty — a lot of mothers like to keep them for sentimental reasons, she says.
Hegarty says she’d like for parents’ groups to organise communion-outfit sales days in schools.
“I think it’d be a good idea for a bunch of mums to get together to sell last year’s dresses in the school! Why not run a communion-dress sale day? The sheer volume of communion dresses bought in any community each year is eye-watering — and, after all, it’s not as if the girls get much wear out of them.
“Generally they wear them once on the day, once for the school photograph and perhaps once more for the May procession,” she says, adding that parents with limited resources should not go over-the-top.
“If you buy one of our dresses for €15, you will have another €100 or so to put towards something else,” she says, pointing out that the dresses often end up badly stained by Coca Cola or orange.
Websites like Done Deal have some great offers — just last week, the website featured communion dresses ranging from €80 to €330, complete with accessories like gloves, bag and tiara.
The website also offered boys’ communion suits, priced at between €50 and €80.
The garments were selling out fast, however — some within a matter of hours.
Some families are so worried about First Holy Communion day that Cork Penny Dinners are offering a range of free communion dresses, following a request for donations of new or second-hand clothes and accessories. Cork Penny Dinners also plan to give away clothes in the first week of March.
However, very many people still want the excitement of visiting a boutique to buy the communion ensemble.
The demand is such that the annual waiting list for communion dress consultations at Cinderella’s Closet, on Cork’s Mallow Road, opens as early as the previous June, says co-owner, Annette Enright.
The consultations themselves begin at the end of the previous October.
“This is a shop which aims to stock beautiful ensembles for every pocket”, she says — hence, prices range from €100 for communion dresses on its sale rail to €199 for a simple satin Princess Rose dress with a pretty waist detail, to the store’s top-of-the-range Princess Holly design, which is €399.
A duchess satin gown, with pearl and lace applique at the neckline, it boasts a bow waist-band and scalloped hemline. “Dresses are made of lace, satin, silk taffeta and organza with beading, pearls and detail,” says Enright, who assigns a stylist to each consultation to help mother and daughter find that “perfect dress.”
“This is a huge event for the children, so we give them the experience, as well as the dress. The child is very much part of the consultation,” she says.
Last year, the giant German retailer, Aldi, hit the headlines with its range of communion dresses for under €25 — however, when asked about customer response to the initiative, and its plans for the 2015 season, the company wouldn’t comment.
If you ever wondered what makes one girl’s communion dress so much more expensive than another, it’s really quite simple, says designer/dressmaker Kate Plum.
The quality of the fabric and the amount of detail in the garment – lace, beading, sequins or diamante – are the main factors determining the end price, explains Plum, who creates wedding and communion dresses in her atelier in Princes Street, Cork.
“You could get synthetic fabric at €7 a metre or expensive silk for €75 a metre,” says the 35-year-old Polish seamstress who has lived in Ireland for the past eight years, and makes communion and wedding dresses to order.
Plum generally charges between €150 and €200 to make a communion dress plus the cost of the fabric and any extra detailing required by the client.
“If you want detail such as diamante or special lace or expensive beading, it can cost up to €90 a metre, to make the dress because of the extra stitching involved.”
Look closely at high-end communion dresses she says – you’ll quickly see if they’re worth the money: “Check the fabric the amount of beading, sequins and lace, how many layers are in the skirt and whether there is a large volume of netting.”
People who don’t have a lot of money to spend on a communion dress should generally opt for simpler designs, she advises.
“Personally for me, less is more. I like plain dresses, but some mums do like to see a bit of detail.”
However, getting a dress specially made isn’t always the cheapest option, she warns.
“It’s actually more expensive to make something than to buy one in the shop, because when it’s made to order the customer get exactly what they want.
“There are many options and it’s very labour intensive work.
“I put my heart into all the dresses I make - it’s a form of artwork!”
The most expensive communion dress Plum ever made cost around €500.
“It was silk and lace, and it had beading, sequins, diamante and organza so the skirt was very fluffy!”
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