And then there’s that… sleevelet? That odd little blip hanging halfway down her left arm. Is that meant to be a sleeve? Is it meant to be there at all? Because it looks a little like someone told Ramona Kaveza that sleeves are in and she tucked a Kleenex around the model’s arm to see how it would look and forgot it there.

In short, I’m HATING this one, and I don’t think if it fit it would help very much.

What say you all?

Then, last year, something happened.

Kate Middleton wore a wedding gown with sleeves, and the world stood up and cheered at the style.

Cries went up for copies. And then the last Twilight film came out and Bella wore long sleeves, too. The knockoffs started hitting the markets nearly immediately.

So one popular royal bride and one pop culture fictional bride made headlines for wearing sleeves… and suddenly they’re starting to show up on the bridal couture runways again.

Oh strapless isn’t going away anytime soon. It’s still the thing seen most on the runways and on the racks from Kleinfeld to Besty’s Bridal in West Igotlost. Strapless shouldn’t go away completely, ever. I’m all about options. Some women look and feel their best in strapless and they ought to have that option, absolutely. I’m just glad the rest of the population is finally after all these years getting a chance to wear what looks and feels best on us.

There aren’t even a lot of designers showing sleeves yet.

Ramona Kaveza is the strongest proponent of sleeves. Her spring 2012 collection shows everything from strapless to long, lace sleeves. In fact, she’s got a couple off-the-shoulder gowns with long lace sleeves!

In addition to a couple strapless gowns with small boleros, Oscar de la Renta is showing one trumpet gown with long, lace sleeves.

Jim Hjelm’s collection features one gown with elbow-length lace sleeves.

As you can see, there aren’t a lot of sleeves yet. Those you can find are almost universally long, tight, and composed of lace. All the same, it’s the start of a trend whereby women who don’t want to expose their arms aren’t suddenly required to do so, brides will have one less reason to shiver in the cold when they marry in the winter, and more brides will be able to express themselves sartorially without being forced to look outside the realm of bridal salons.

Not everyone wants Kate Middleton’s sleeves any more than everyone wanted strapless all these years. But at least we’re seeing a choice now. And that, my friends, is all to the good!

I got all excited as I was preparing for this post because, hey, it’s finally Thursday and that means it’s time for LOVE/HATE and I have a picture of an uber gorgeous short dress that I’ve been sitting on for weeks now! At least I thought it was so gorgeous as to be beyond reproach.

Maybe I just wanted to love it so badly that my mind played seamstress?

You see, this dress has so much going for it: It hails from the gray matter of Ramona Keveza, who I utterly adore. It’s short, and I like when bride’s switch it up with something abbreviated. Plus, it’s sort of ruffly but not too ruffly, if you know what I mean.

And yet I just can’t shake this weird feeling that if the camera angle was just a tad different, we’d all come face to face with the model’s right nipple. I mean, where exactly do bosoms go in a dress like that? Once they get to wherever they’re supposed to go, are they in danger of falling out during bouts of serious boogying?

In conclusion, there’s a part of me that does love this dress, along with its more colorful cousin. There is, however, an even bigger part of me — a part that measures in at 36DD — that hates this dress and all dresses like it for being a forever unattainable ideal.

FYI: My book, iDo: Planning Your Wedding with Nothing But ‘Net (Paperback) is arriving on people’s doorsteps! This is neat both because it is happening slightly ahead of the June 10 schedule and because, duh, it’s my first book! I’m just a tad excited, and I do hope you’ll check it out…whether that means buying it or asking for it at your local library.

The legality of counterfeit (or so-called designer inspired) dresses is confusing to many people. No one wants to pay full price for what they believe is a designer dress and then discover that it’s a knock-off. But some brides-to-be and their maids, in the interest of saving money, gladly patronize eBay sellers and online shops that blatantly advertise from scratch copies of high-end wedding gowns and bridesmaid dresses.

Counterfeit Chic has a straightforward explanation of how laws and lace intersect:

Like other items of clothing, wedding dress designs are not protected by intellectual property law. One designer did manage to find a loophole, however. In Eve of Milady v. Impression Bridal, 957 F.Supp. 484 (S.D.N.Y. 1997), Judge Shira Scheindlin granted a prliminary injunction against an alleged copyist of the distinctive lace designs on certain bridal dresses. The reason? While clothes are not subject to copyright, fabric designs are considered protectable forms of writing, and the court found lace patterns to be a form of fabric design.

So where does that leave sites like Designer Duplicates and The Bridal Chalet? Here’s a bit of copy from the latter’s web site:

The majority of our gowns are not brand name designer dresses. We custom manufacture “design inspired” gowns which closely resemble the photographs but include signature design elements unique to us. The images shown are reference photographs to illustrate the basic design and cut of the gown. Our clients frequently make additional modifications and design changes.

We all know that low-end shops “borrow” from the lines they see on the runways, but they usually put their own spin on the pieces they gank. Do signature design elements negate the theft of a design? What if a bride pays for a custom made gown and asks her seamstress to copy a designer’s work from a snapshot, but the seamstress doesn’t know where the snapshot came from? There are so many gray areas, legally, ethically, and morally!

I love the dress above, but because I stumbled across it on a counterfeiter’s web site, I don’t know who designed it. I don’t know what it ought to be made of, or how thick the lining should be. I can’t be sure how much it should cost. The price range for the gown is listed as $2199.00 to $2899.00…for just a little more, you can get a wonderful, beautiful, high-quality gown that is completely legal and karmically clean.

Honestly, I’m torn on the subject. Do you think it’s dishonest to buy a designer copy or just a great way to save some money on a gown?