eShakti: My Honest Review

Have you heard about eShakti yet? (You may have, as they've worked with a variety of different bloggers.) This clothing company, based in India, offers lovely clothing in sizes from 0 to 26W at relatively reasonable prices (dresses are normally around $50). The biggest feature of eShakti, though, is that they will customize a piece of clothing to your measurements for only a few dollars more. Even if you don't choose full custom measurements, you give them your bra size so they can fit you better. Additionally, you can pick a piece and customize other details -- hem length, sleeves, neckline, etc. I'd been seeing a lot about eShakti over the past year or so, and have spent quite a bit of time window-shopping their beautiful dresses. However, the prices were a little steep for me to take a risk on ordering something online, where I don't really have a sense of how well it will fit. So when eShakti contacted me a couple of weeks ago to ask if I'd be interested in receiving a piece to try out and review, I jumped at the chance to see if their pieces were as great in person as they looked on the internet! Disclaimer: though the dress was given to me by eShakti, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

I set out to choose a dress from eShakti...challenging, because of all the great options! Some of the ones I was considering:

Floral embroidered color block dress

Corset style embellished sundress

Ruffle front cotton knit dress

I eventually decided on this dress.

Floral hem cotton poplin dress

In less than a week after I sent in my choice of dress and measurements, the dress was custom-constructed for me and mailed from India to Massachusetts. This is their standard shipping time, according to their website. That's really impressive speed, as far as I'm concerned! (Sidenote: while I'm aware that most of the clothing/other things I own originated in other countries, it's remarkable to focus on the journey of how this one piece traveled so far to get to me). The dress was shipped in a tiny package...no frills, no extra packaging. I'm not thrilled with how wrinkled it got in shipping, but most of that pressed out fairly quickly. So here it is!


Lots of terrific things about this dress. It's lovely and comfortable, and will make a good addition to my wardrobe...a good color to wear in basically every season, I think, but especially good for spring and fall transitions. The embroidery is awesome in real life. The back has a great V in a style I adore...(I think I hadn't even noticed the back when I picked this out!) The piece seems quite well-constructed as well. Stitching seems sturdy and clean, and the pattern has nice little details in construction. There are only two details I'm not thrilled with. 1) The little pleats in the front of the bust got kind of wrinkled in shipping, and I haven't figured out how to properly press them. So they're not as neat as in the picture. 2) I, personally, tend to sweat a lot (TMI?) and am terrified of wet armpit stains. The cotton sateen in this color does show sweat pretty quickly, though it also dried out rapidly once I got to my air-conditioned lab.


And how about that custom-fitting process? Does it work? I'd say so! This dress does fit me quite well; perhaps a hair loose in the bodice and waist, though that's compensated for by the fabric ties around the waist. Even though I was going to have the dress customized to my measurements, I still picked a silhouette and cut that I thought would work fairly well for my body. Perhaps they could have made an empire waist dress work on me (that cut usually doesn't!), but I didn't want to risk it.


Dress: c/o eShakti. Shoes: Nordstrom, thrifted. Necklace: ebay junk jewelry lot. Earrings: gift. Bag, Nine West, thrifted.

So thanks, eShakti! Have any of you shopped with them? What's your experience been like?