Original

A friend of mine described Original as a «prom dress shop on ecstasy». I felt like Alice falling down the rabbit hole into a fantastical land where everything is colourful, eccentric, beautiful and in extreme plentitude.
My shopping mission: find a bridesmaid dress. I was allowed to choose my own style (that’s why the newlywed is my BFF) but the colour had to be navy. I’d spent the summer casually shopping to no avail but after an impromptu trip to Toronto, and then Original, I was successful.
Ground floor is for shoes and jewelry and featuring some ensembles. But place the emphasis back on shoes. These are not your regular run-​of-​the-​mill shoes from Aldo. These are heels by Betsy Johnson and the like — with cupcakes and rainbows shooting off of them.
Upstairs are the dresses. The room is PACKED and can be daunting upon entry. I wouldn’t have been able to navigate the store myself. Every section of the upper floor has a particular theme of dress style and colour. Once giving the (very very) knowledgeable staff a vague idea of what I was looking for they had a wide selection of cocktail-​type navy dresses for me to try on.
My most memorable part of the visit was having a pair of platform, t-​strap, blush coloured shoes fastened to my foot (emphasis on for me). The customer service at Original was impeccable. Everyone, and I mean everyone, in the store helped me. Side note: This makes me sound like a demanding customer but I really am not! I’m the type of shopper that says «nooooo, just browsing». The staff at Original were not pushy but conversational which put me at eeze and helped me find the dress and shoes I was looking for.
Original is definitely a special occasion outfit kind of store, be prepared to stay a while and enjoy the experience of having a guided tour of Wonderland.

The dresses are SO beautiful to look at. I will agree with another poster here — the older woman who works upstairs has a way of making the atmosphere sour. I wasn’t even being served by her, but hearing the way she condescendingly spoke to a daughter and mother pair made me really uncomfortable. So I’m torn on how I feel about this place — but again, beautiful dresses!

Huge dress selection for bridesmaids and special occasions. From sequins to lace, full length to mini-​skirt, classy to trashy, they have it all. There’s not much room to navigate through the store as there are endless ends racks of dresses to teh left, right and centre — it looks like a unicorn exploded, leaving sparkles and colour everywhere.
I visited on a Saturday with my sister and there was only one girl trying to help four different groups of people. Needless to say, it’s more self-​serve and if you’re looking for help to find a specific style, this is the wrong place.
There’s no coordination in where each dress is stored — they’re all over the place. The price of the dresses were fairly expensive and I quickly realized that this place catered more to individual purchases (e.g. prom, evening gowns, debuts, etc.), rather than group purchases like bridesmaid dresses.
Great selection, poor service.

The old blonde lady who works upstairs is terribly rude to customers. I walked out because of how rude she was about me having a cup of coffee in my hand. There is a nice way to instruct customers and then there is a rude way. She chose the rude way and so I decided to leave this review.

I just stared my prom dress shopping and Original Toronto was the second store I visited. I wanted a dress that was elegant, not to prom-​like, and something unique.
The first thing you notice about their upstairs dress section is how crowded and hot it is. It was initially very overwhelming, there was very little room to move anywhere and their were more dresses than I could process, but a kind saleslady explained how all the dresses were organized and we were well on our way. It was still hard to see the dresses in their bags on squishy racks, but they were all colour coded and arranged by style so it wasn’t too bad. It just took a bit of time.
There were a lot of people there trying on dresses so it took a while to get a change room, but once I had mine, they didn’t try to rush me out of it and were okay with me trying it one of my dresses three times before I had made a decision.
The service there was extremely friendly without being pushy. I had interactions with two women and one man and they were all very nice and very personable. I never once felt pressured to buy.
I found the most beautiful, unique dress and it is absolutely breathtaking. The prices here are pretty high, higher than we intended to go, so keep that in mind. My dress was $ 650, though I did notice a few dresses that were a bit less.
If you can fit it in your budget and have the time, I highly, highly recommend this store. It is full of unique and beautiful dresses of all styles and the collection of shoes and accessories in the main floor are wonderful too.

Love that the dresses are organized by colour, and of course the huge selection.
Don’t go there without recruiting a friend to help you shop. You think I’m joking, but you actually will strain your arm and/​or back muscles before you finish looking at all the dresses, because there are so many packed in each rack that you can’t look at the front of a particular dress without using a decent amount of strength to push/​hold the nearby dresses out of the way.

This is my go to place for amazing dresses. The staff is amazingly helpful, patient and kind.
They have every sort of dress for any occasion and are reasonably priced.
If you’re looking for an amazing dress or shoes I highly recommend trying out Original! Trust me you won’t regret it!

On my recent dress shop tour of Queen West, I stopped by Original to see what it was all about. I hadn’t really seen much about it online, but I did know they carried some dresses and most likely some original pieces so I figured I’d check it out.
Original is located on Queen street and is sort of oddly placed among non-​fashionish stores. This store was the last fashion store heading east on Queen for a few blocks. You really can’t miss it with the brightly colored dresses and window displays. In particular, there was a gorgeous dress in the front window (probably what made me think I’d find another beautiful dress inside).
I headed inside and there were a few people milling about near the front of the store shopping. They left shortly after I entered so I was the only customer and there were two sales people, one sitting down and the other trying on some weird suit… I would say it looked like a Barney suit but it was blue and very big on him. But I digress…
The store is crazy bright with STUFF everywhere. Feather boas, hooker heels and shoes shoes shoes. This really isn’t a «fashion» store in terms of clothing. The clothing selection here is incredibly limited and considering that’s what I came for (being lead to believe that they had more clothes) it just didn’t do it for me. If you’re looking for shoes, well then you should probably come here.
Overall, this was one of those stores that I walked into, walked halfway through and then turned around and walked back out. I’m sure if I was looking for something kinda crazy that I could have found it here but that wasn’t the mission I was on.

Labelled as one of Toronto’s «largest and most eccentric fashion collections», FX Boutique is always living up to this reputation.
With collections from LA, the European flare of Paris and the bright lights of NYC, this store is bursting with tons of clothes — both new and vintage — to the point that you could get lost for hours while skimming the racks and trying on several party dresses.
One thing that is great about FX is the unique and one-​of-​a-​kind pieces they offer to their customers. This means you will never have to worry about showing up to the party and spotting another guest wearing your outfit.
Prices do vary at this store. Some of the fashions are on the pricey end, but they always have great sales and amazing prices on their vintage or vintage-​type items.