Ellen’s Couture

I don’t even know where to start! I went to Ellen after meeting with tons of tailors and freaking out about my dress one month out from my wedding. Cool, calm, and collected, Ellen reassured me that we had plenty of time to restructure a damaged dress that was five sizes too big. With a vision and unparalleled talent, she was able to pull apart the layers of the dress in seconds and piece them back together to showcase my options, meanwhile other tailors wanted to run! My hope was to make a high lace neckline with a back keyhole into an off the shoulder sweetheart neckline, besides taking the entire dress in, reshaping the booty area (of course a necessity lol), and cleverly disguising a damaged train using elements from the hem. My visits to Ellen over the next four weeks included awesome therapy and dress-​making sessions! It was masterful and frankly surprising to see this dress transformed into what I had imagined. Above all of Ellen’s incredibly amazing skills, her sweetness, warmth, and guidance (for many things that came up, including accessories, shoes, and flowers) made the process sooo easy going and fun. It was like hanging out with my sister! And no visit was complete without a hug! Thank you, Ellen, from the bottom of my heart for everything you did!!!

Ellen is amazing! She is so warm and caring and flexible. Also, she knows everything about wedding dresses and materials, and she is such a huge help figuring out shoes and other wedding paraphernalia. I cannot begin to tell you all how happy my sister and I are that we found her. Ellen willingly takes on all our wedding headaches, even across state lines. I would come to her for all my tailoring needs going forward! You must come here for your custom dresses and work. She is a huge pleasure to work with and I want to adopt her, frankly. Ellen is someone we’d want hang out with, too.

Elen is amazing! She transform my size 4 dress in a size 2.
Made a amazing work with my pageant gown dress!
and i won!
Thank you!

Ellen is fantastic and my dress came out perfectly!!! I thought I hit five stars last time! My dress had multiple layers and was made of silk and tulle. tulle is not an easy fabric to work with, however Ellen handled it expertly. She made me love my dress. When I stop being lazy, I’m bringing all of my garments to her! and sadly, I have many. Ellen is very busy so give her adequate time. You won’t be disappointed!

Ellen saved me… I brought in an expensive, poorly made, terrible fitting bridesmaid dress and she made it fit perfectly. I highly recommend, happy to have finally found a go to alteration spot!

I did not love Ellen’s couture. I had a basic bridesmaids dress that was too big up top and far too long. They took measurements and hemmed it, but it was still about an inch too long, and the top was still a bit big and fit very awkwardly. They pulled the sweetheart neckline apart a bit so it was more plunging than anticipated. They also charged FAR too much! The cost of the alterations were half the cost of the dress itself, and bridesmaids dresses are expensive. It ended up being ok with spanx, a sticky bra, and some garment tape, but it still doesn’t fit right and I’ll probably never wear it again because I just don’t feel comfortable in it. The alterations were definitely not worth the price!

Ellen is a bride expert! She not only altered my wedding dress for my 5’1 frame, she bustled and added in cups for a great price. Her selling point to a picky bride, is you can come in for as many alterations as you want to make sure you are 100% satisfied and it is picture perfect. Ellen’s advice and no nonsense attitude was exactly what I needed. She showed my bridesmaid how to bustle my dress and get me in the dress in a timely manner. She made sure they knew what they were doing and answered all of our wedding questions before we left with the dress on the final fitting. She’s truly an expert and knows what she is doing. I recommend her fully– no questions asked. If you want a tailor who is on her game please take your wedding dress to Ellen. You just can’t go wrong!

Amazing service and attention to detail. Ellen tailored my wedding dress to perfection. I will never go to another tailor again!

100% worth it. Ellen is a genius with wedding gowns, albeit sometimes a rude one :) no worries, she’s a softy inside and most importantly will never let you leave disappointed. I feel honored to have worked with her to create my gorgeous and unique wedding gown. Highly recommend Ellen Couture!

I’m so happy that I live practically next door to one of the best bridal alterations places in town!
I had a second wedding where I was re-​using my Vera Wang Farrah wedding dress. The dress was already altered and in great shape, but the belt was falling off and it was really bugging me. I took it in to Ellen and she also identified some uneven places in the hem. She fixed up the belt and fixed up the hem for me, and then told me not to lose any more weight ;)
Also note — there are 2 tailors. One is Ellen and she specializes in the more complicated bridal work. And then there is a male tailor to whom you can take your more «normal» stuff. Ellen has to be booked through a bridal appointment. The other tailor can be walk-​in.
Seriously though, her work is top notch, detailed, and highly skilled. Make sure that you call ahead and make your appointment (and put it into your own calendar as well). The coordinator will call the day of to remind you of your appointment — though they messed up one of my appointments (they’d crossed it out and put it on a different date, then called me on the crossed out date).
Regardless, my review is for the overall experience, which was very positive, and Ellen charged very reasonably for her work.

Had my wedding dress altered with Ellen. Overall she did a great job. She knew exactly what to do to make the dress fit perfectly and look very flattering. Couldn’t have been happier with it.
Only potential complaint is that I didn’t notice until the day of the wedding that the bustle was a little off so the dress dragged a little.

I was super nervous about getting my wedding dress altered and had ZERO clue as to where to begin. A friend recommended Ellen and after reading the Unilocal reviews, I decided to go in. She is good at what she does. She knows bridal gowns and she knows exactly what to do. I had to have my dress taken in and hemmed which with the type of gown I had, that meant completely taking apart the dress. She did a fantastic job. Granted the alterations cost almost as much as my dress, so that was a bit of a surprise but also worth it to know my dress would look exactly like I want it to.
If you are needing to take your dress somewhere and you can’t go to the store you bought it from, go to Ellen. I’m giver her four starts just cause I wish the prices were a little better but she charges what she does for a reason. She’s excellent!

Ellen was able to get my dress, which was very large to fit nicely. However, I just took the dress out of the bag (on my wedding day) and upon close inspection, the tulle on my 3800.00 gown has been butchered. I don’t think it will be noticeable to guests but I see it, it’s an expensive gown and it bothers me. I’m wishing that I would have paid the extra 300.00 to let Kleinfeld alter my gown. You get what you pay for!

Ellen is THE BEST, she is a master at her craft and there is no question about it. So here is a quick background: I bought my wedding dress at a Kleinfeld sample sale and immediately had buyer’s remorse. Due to their strict ‘final sale’ policy, I was stuck with a huge wedding dress in a sample size 10 (I’m a size 4) which I had spent thousands of dollars on. My only option was to find the best wedding alteration specialist I could find in Manhattan to re-​create the dream dress I envisioned in my head. I was nervous in the beginning because my dress is very intricate with a lot of material (some very delicate) and it was clear I would be demanding a lot of work (i.e., change overall structure of dress, add lace to overall border of the dress, significantly take in the size from 10 to 4, etc). Ellen knew exactly what I wanted and I immediately felt comfortable that I’d be in good hands.
Just to give everyone a heads up about Ellen: she is all business and doesn’t seem like she has time for BS. If you are looking for someone who is warm and fuzzy, she is not the one for you. There are no pleasantries with her. Took me a few visits to get used to it and I’m not sure if it’s because we started to build rapport, but she slowly and surely turned out to be a very sweet person after all!
Based on her clientele, you can tell they have been loyally going to her for a long time. I will certainly go to her for any future alterations going forward. She doesn’t have a policy of maximum number of fittings. She will do her work until it is perfect. I almost cried during our last fitting because my wedding dress was exactly what I had always wanted, and it was all thanks to Ellen.

I highly recommend Ellen. She worked wonders on my wedding dress, which was a sample gown that needed some serious help. Similar to others, I picked Ellen based on the reviews on Unilocal and because I read that she’s an expert in working with lace. She did not disappoint a single bit. She far exceeded my expectations. She reworked the straps of my dress to give me the support I needed and update the overall look of the gown. She turned a so-​so dress into a stunner.
Ellen altered my dress in a way that made me feel beautiful and confident, which was especially important for me as I am a new mom coming to terms with my new body. I can’t thank her enough for giving me that feeling.

Ellen is Amazing! I cannot say enough to how much I love this woman.
I found Ellen through Unilocal but was a little hesitant at first because picking a tailor based off of reviews from years ago is risky (most of these reviews are from the previous year) and 1. my knowledge of good tailors in NY is slim to none and 2. It was for my wedding dress so finding a good place was crucial!
I walked into her store and knew i was in good hands. She has her own store in the heart of the UWS so I think that speaks volumes for her talent. I read some of her negative reviews, I don’t get it. I think people just complain for the sake of complaining. Ellen isn’t a chatty cathy (which I prefer) she tells you what you need done so your fittings are short and concise, shes a strong woman who knows her sh*t.
I bought my dress from the Sample Room, it a one of a kind and not your usual dress so i was extremely nervous about it being altered bc i thought it needed all kinds of nipping and tucking. Ellen knew exactly what to do to make it fit perfectly. After picking up the dress after my final fitting (3 wks before my wedding day), I was afraid I gained too much weight which when i tried on the dress I realized i had lost too much weight and i was swimming in the dress, I panicked bc it was 2 days before I had to leave to my wedding in the hudson valley so thoguth it would be impossible for her to squeeze me in. I called Ellen and told her my dilema and that I had one day to get the dress fixed, she said no problem and took me that day and fixed it by the next day. AMAZING. The dress was perfect!
I will recommend her to all my friends, and continue to go back to her for any of my important alterations!

Ellen is incredibly talented. She took in my dress more than 2 sizes and did a beautiful job. She knows her stuff, she clearly explained things about the material, the cut and why she was doing what she did.
Is it cheap to have your dress altered here? No. Is it worth it? Absolutely. I was super stressed the 2 weeks leading up to the wedding and lost more weight. When I went in for what was supposed to be my final fitting, the dress was now baggy around the hips. Ellen was kind and patient and despite being fully booked the next week, made time for me to come back in and make sure it was right.
I highly recommend Ellen, particularly if you have a big job with alterations.

I found Ellen’s Couture here on Unilocal.I was looking for an alterations specialist for my designer wedding gown. I had found the most beautiful gown, but it needed a lot of work because it had been a sample gown. It was distressed. I did not want to go through some horror story so I chose Ellen’s based on her positive reviews here on Unilocal.
Ellen is AWESOME!
Her store is like 20+ stops from where I live but I’m glad I took all the trips to her store. The location is nice. The store is spacious, clean and comforting (dingy isn’t comforting when it involves wedding dresses); the store is beautiful.
Ellen made my gown fit me perfectly, from bust to length she did a magnificent job. I needed some lace added to the chest because the dress was a little too revealing for me, the lace cap sleeves needed to be fitted and needed additional lace as well. When the gown was complete, everything fit perfectly and looked complete. She is a master at her craft. With one look at my gown she already knew what needed to be done and what fabrics to add. She actually found identical lace in her collection within minutes of first seeing the dress. I’m very thankful to God that I came to Ellen for my gown. The price was, it was fair. It was pricey for me, but perhaps not for others. Overall, the work she did made it worth it.
Some posts here complain about cigarette fingers and her serious demeanor but she is actually a very nice and chill person. She had a good sense of humor with me. Her personal smoking preferences don’t interfere with the quality of her work/​craft.
I highly recommend her.
Thanks Ellen! I got lots of compliments on my dress!
–Kassandra

I walked the red carpet for a documentary première at Lincoln Center on Feb 6 – with a crooked dress.
I chose this vintage dress from my closet shortly before my event. I had another dress on-​deck in case it was too late to get the vintage dress tailored.
I am giving 2 stars rather than 1, because when I brought the dress to Ellen’s shop the first time, the man sewing in the back (though too busy doing his work to be at-​all-​friendly) took the time to examine me in the dress and was cautious before telling me whether my dress could be ready in 24 hours before accepting my business (he deferred to Ellen).
When I returned to show the dress to Ellen, she told me that I just needed a few stitches along 4 seems and that she could have it done by 4 PM the day of my 6 PM event (the dress really needed much more to fit me well, but then Ellen could not have promised 24 hour-​turn-​around as she did).
When I showed up a few minutes after 4 PM, the dress was «not done yet», as they were purportedly «still working on it». I saw my dress hanging in their long line of works in progress, and I am really not sure that they had even gotten started. When they brought the dress out about 10 minutes later, the work was uneven. I showed Ellen that a front seem was off by about a centimeter; she called it ¹⁄₈ of an inch and said she would repair it (I hadn’t checked the rear seems). Eventually, I ran out of waiting time and needed to go back to the apartment to get ready for my event. Ellen had her delivery person deliver the dress to me (1 block away) at about 5:20, where I sat in the lobby waiting and putting on my makeup, stressed out that I had planned to depart at 5:30…
In the final result (which I measured the day after when I saw how lop-​sided my dress was in each photo from the event), Ellen had overcompensated for the unevenness in the front seems, so now the one that was too short was too long; also, the seems in the back were uneven too. The legacy of the lop-​sided dress will persist in my photos on the web.
I feel badly writing a negative review, but Ellen needs to work with greater care, so that she can use her talent (and that of the thoughtful guy in the back) to the fullest.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Ellen!
She has talent and taste! I went in a few months ago for my first wedding dress fitting. The process was simple and fast! She pinned the dress to fit me like a glove and suggested I come back about a month prior to my wedding for a final fitting just to insure that the fit stayed the same.
I went back for a final fitting with my Maid of Honor who needed to have her sash fitted and attached to her dress. Again, the process was fast and lovely! My dress was altered but the seems were not final just in case there was a need to further alterations. The dress was perfect!!! I couldn’t have been happier.
Of course I ranted and raved to my husband who ended up taking his suit to Ellen for cleaning. He was shocked by the price and quality of the service. She was cheaper then the dirty looking dry cleaning establishments in the area!
I picked up my dress and my MOH’s dress a few days before the wedding. Everything was perfect. I paid a very reasonable amount for all services and left happy and confident. I knew our dresses and suit would be perfect!
Thank you Ellen for this great experience!