Today we’d like to introduce you to Victoria Sdoukos.
Victoria, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
After graduating from the Illinois Institute of Art in Chicago in 2002, with a bachelors of Fine Arts of Fashion Design, I moved to Manhattan to pursue a career as a bridal designer. Unfortunately, no one ever told me I would need five years experience as a bridal designer to even be considered. So after much consideration of if I should stay in NYC (my favorite city in the world) or go back to Chicago, I decided to move back to Chicago and start my own bridal shop to create my own experience, instead of staying in Manhattan, while juggling a bunch of jobs & working for free, in hopes of breaking into the bridal industry. In September of 2005, I opened Boutique Victoria in the West Loop of Chicago and started of carrying eight bridal designer lines, designer jewelry & my touch was making the veils. My vision was to be Chicago’s best bridal stylist. I put the bridal gown designing to rest and focused on my personal veil collection, while buying the gowns & jewelry from other designers. After a while of carrying the jewelry, I noticed my customers always want to change the designs to coordinate better with their gowns. So, I would send many ideas & designs to a particular jewelry designer and she would make them for me. After a while of doing this, I realized I was giving her some amazing designs & asked her if she wanted to partner up and design together & she said she wanted to stay on her own.
As I kind of understood, I thought to myself “I can do this” and so I did, I took two classes at a local bead shop, learned a couple of techniques & off I went making my own jewelry line created with 100% Swarovski crystals, rhinestones & pearls. The toughest years in the business were only two years after opening up shop with the market crashing between 2007-2008. That time was supercritical for many businesses, including mine. That was when I decided to stop carrying other designers and started creating my own bridal gowns. The reason was as the market was going down, so was the quality of the materials in the gowns I was carrying & also the designers started selling gowns online at half price just to stay afloat, which was obviously ruining my business. I knew I could give my customers, top notch quality silk gowns that were beautiful & much more affordable. Was it much more work??, absolutely but well worth it.
Now, my customers could make small modifications to their gown, veil & jewelry while working directly with the designer. So, after I started making my own designs one by one, I stopped carrying all the designers & had about a 40 piece collection of gowns that I personally made for my customers to preview. In 2009, I changed the store name from Boutique Victoria to Victoria Sdoukos Couture Bridal. Today, I’m known in Chicago for making couture gowns, veils & jewelry. Quality and construction are always number one and I’m known for that.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Victoria Sdoukos Couture Bridal – what should we know?
What sets me apart from all the other bridal shops is, the customers work directly with the designer. This process allows the client to make modifications to my designs such as necklines, skirts & color. Once the bride picks one of my designs and adds her special touches, I draft a pattern and make a mock-up sample for them to get fitted multiple times before cutting the actual gown. Essentially, all alterations are done on the mock-up and this assures me and the customer that they have the proper undergarments on and see the changed they have made to the design. No one wants surprises, so this process allows me to communicate as accurately as possible. Along with those details, my clients can also design their jewelry and veil with me or buy them just as I have designed them, which are on display in the boutique.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
My family definitely gets so much credit. There are so many details of what and how they each helped me, but what I can say is I thank the following people My Mom, Step-father, Father, Thea Eve, sister, brother & my brother-in-law. Each of them has played different roles, but all impacted the business.
Pricing:
- Gowns range from $3,500-$10,000
Contact Info:
- Address: 1423 West Belmont Ave
- Website: www.vsbridal.com
- Phone: (773) 799-8074
- Email: victoria@vsbridal.com
- Instagram: victoria.sdoukos.couture
- Facebook: Victoria Sdoukos Couture Bridal @beautifulbridalvictoriasdoukoscouture
- Twitter: Victoria Sdoukos @vscoutureBridal
- Yelp: Victoria Sdoukos Couture Bridal
Image Credit:
Amy Aiello Photography, Lori Sapio Photography
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