The patented corset, and what it solves
Allure holds a patent on a corset built into the gown itself — not a lace-up back, but an internal structure that shapes and supports from within. It is a legal patent, which means no other house can build it. What it does is remove a whole category of wedding-day worry: most brides find they need no separate bra and no shapewear, and that a fitted silhouette stays where it was put through dinner and through dancing. It is one of the few things in bridal you can feel in the first thirty seconds of putting a gown on.
A Tennessee family that started with a fabric store
Allure began as a fabric shop run by William and Joan Crum, where brides came to choose the cloth for gowns that would be made by someone else. In 1998 the family turned it into a bridal store; in 2000 their son Kelly turned that into a manufacturer. The order is worth noticing: this house spent years standing beside brides choosing fabric, and years fitting them, before it ever made a gown to sell. Kelly Crum runs it now with his own son, and it remains one of the few bridal houses of any size still manufacturing in America.
Allure Bridals silhouettes and styles
Allure cuts its own version of every key shape — A-line gowns, grand ball gowns, sleek sheath shapes, and modern mermaid designs — in everything from clean crepe to elaborately beaded lace, with corset bodices, basque waists, and dramatic sleeves. The range is wide enough to hold a soft bohemian gown and a regal ball gown in the same season.
Why the corset changes the alterations
A gown built around an internal corset is opened and refitted differently from one without. That is not harder, but it is specific: the structure has to be worked with rather than around, and a seamstress who has not met one before will fight it. Our master seamstresses bring 40+ years of alterations expertise, in-house, and they know where this corset wants to sit, what it will forgive, and what it will not. Our senior bridal consultants have spent 20+ years at Dimitra Designs.
Designer options versus in-house alterations
Two different things get called personalization, and they happen at different moments. Designer-ordered options are chosen when you purchase your gown — we request them from the house when we place your order on your behalf — and the list runs deep. A neckline or a backline can be redrawn. Sleeve length can be changed, or non-beaded cap sleeves added. A lace-up back can become a zipper, or a zipper a lace-up. Buttons can be added or removed, beading and embroidery taken off, fabric added or taken away, and a pattern reworked. A train can be re-lengthened, and a color changed where the style offers one. What matters most here: availability is style by style, not label-wide, so your consultant checks your gown with the designer at the time you purchase rather than promising it in advance.
In-house alterations are ours, once the gown is here: the fit, the hem, and the internal corset worked so the gown sits correctly on you. Either way, the gown is ordered in a standard size from Allure’s own size chart and fitted to you in-house, never made to your exact measurements.
Everything on one floor, and someone to narrow it
Most brides arrive with a phone full of saved gowns and no idea which of them will suit her. That is the useful problem. With 1,000+ bridal gowns in stock, Allure can be compared against every other house we carry in a single appointment — not across four websites and three Saturdays. A senior consultant’s job is not to show you everything; it is to watch what you respond to and take away what you do not need, until what is left is three gowns and a decision you can actually make.
Allure Bridals and Madison James
Both labels come from this house and share its construction standards. Allure Bridals leans classic and glamorously romantic; Madison James is the modern, architectural one. Because both hang here, a consultant can pull them together and let you compare them on your own body rather than across two websites.
Dressing the rest of the party
Once your gown is settled, the rest of the party can be dressed under the same roof — Alexander by Daymor mother-of-the-bride dresses, blue bridesmaid dresses or whatever color the day asks for, and a modern-fit tuxedo for the men. One set of appointments, and the fabrics held beside each other before anything is ordered.
What brides ask about Allure Bridals
Will I need shapewear under an Allure gown?
Usually not — that is what the patent is for. Bring what you would normally wear to your appointment anyway, and a consultant will tell you honestly whether the style you choose needs anything under it. Most do not.
Are Allure gowns made to my measurements?
No. We measure your bust, waist, and hip, order the size that best fits your largest measurement from Allure’s own size chart, and our master seamstresses complete the fit in-house. A gown drawn and built from scratch is a separate service, and one we also offer.
I have hundreds of gowns saved. How do I narrow it down?
Bring them. Screenshots, a Pinterest board, a photograph of your grandmother — all of it is useful. A consultant reads what the saved gowns have in common, which is usually not what a bride thinks it is, and narrows from there. Trying on three gowns you did not save is often what clarifies the ones you did.
I have a short timeline. Can I still get an Allure gown?
Possibly. A special order takes months, but we keep Allure gowns on the floor and some can be bought straight off it. Bring your date to your appointment and a consultant will tell you what is realistic and what can still be altered in time.
Feel the corset before you decide
For 30+ years, Dimitra Designs has dressed three generations of families across the Carolinas. The thing that makes an Allure gown different is inside it, which is the one place a photograph cannot take you. Put one on in Greenville, SC and feel what it holds, or browse all wedding gowns.