Calista by Cotton Cargo

With only 2 weeks left till my nieces prom, we knew we had to check Chinatown… our first stop was supposed to be Do’s, but with a line outside and doors still closed we noticed Calista across the street was open so we decided to check it out being that it was on our list of places to look. We walked in and there were 2 associates present. We weren’t really greeted, but we didn’t mind we started looking for a dress. A lady (i think her name is Terri?) then approached us as we tried to figure what size my niece was she suggested 9, so she picked a dress just to try and was too small lol. The lady was so helpful and began bringing back different sizes and styles in the colors we were looking for. After many try ons, my niece still wasn’t set on «the» dress, we placed a dress on hold and decided to look around some more. Fast forward through the day. We went to 4 other stores and there were some that caught my nieces eye… after thinking it through and looking back at pics we took of her in the dresses she decided on a dress she hadn’t even considered to begin with. The dress she wanted we did NOT put on hold. We were not gonna make it back in time to see if they still had the dress… so we went on a limb and called the store, the lady who helped us answered the phone and I explained the situation and circumstances. Explained the style and etc and asked her to put it on hold and she said YES! We prayed it was the dress we wanted that she placed on hold. Next day we were there 10 mins till opening and waited in front the doors. As soon as the sign turned to open we walked in! The dress we wanted and explained was THERE ON THE ON-​HOLD RACK!!! TYJ! Of course we had to try it on again to be sure she wanted it and without a doubt my niece said «yes to the dress» LOL. The lady even helped us pick out some nice sandals and they matched perfectly. We came back for the sandals (after searching around again) all in all. THANK YOU SO MUCH TERRI FOR YOUR HELP AND FOR HOLDING THE DRESS FOR US! We appreciate your help!!! Pricey, but worth it! Some dresses are one of a kind! Thankfully no one at her school thus far has this dress in this color. Yeeee!

Pros — Organized store and a good selection of items
Do’s fashion is across the street. My friend and I went to look for shoes for her wedding but didnt see anything we liked. We walked across the street and came across Calista. It’s prom season so there we 3 young girls trying on prom dresses in the back. We were not greeted when we came in nor did she greet us as she walked past us to grab items from the back. She didnt ask if we needed any help and when my friend found a shoe she liked she said excuse me and the lady mumbled «just a second» in a rude tone as she walked past us yet again to get something. YES I know she was busy with other customers, but arent we customers too? After 5 minutes she came up to my friend and got her shoe size. Then came back and said this is all we have (meaning she didnt have the exact shoe size she needed). I was so irritated that I told my friend lets just go, they obviously do not need our business and are banking on the parents of these kids to buy their $ 100+ dresses…
The worker was rude as hell. Point blank period.

Awesome shop with great customer service and affordable prices for prom dresses. It’s just that you kind of have to wait a long time for a fitting room, other than that this place is great!

Ruby is a great salesperson. She was very helpful and attentive. When we needed a different size, she got another. If they didn’t have it, she would offer to call their other store. She would pull out dresses similar to the original dress that I liked to give me variety. She was so awesome.
They have a wide variety of dresses and colors. This place was very organized, clean, and pretty.
I am shopping for my bridesmaids. So no headache.

Wow, we were totally ignored by the salesperson here today. She was in the back with two other customers and we could hear them chatting away but no one came out to say hi or even to acknowledge our existence. We browsed for a good 15 min but she never stuck her head out once. There were no other customers in the front. Ok we ignored that but when we picked out three dresses to try on, walked to the back, stood in front of the dressing rooms, looking hesitantly at the salesperson, she still never uttered a word to us. It was awkward because there were 3 ladies there and we could not tell which one was the salesperson! Finally my daughter just walked into a dressing room without being told to do so by the salesperson. Thank goodness the dresses weren’t that great because I would not have wanted to do business with such a rude salesperson. I overheard her saying that she also works at the kahala one, so if I ever see her there, I won’t buy a thing. It was on sunday, 12/​6, at 2:45 pm so if you’re the sales lady reading this, you just lost a lot of potential business and there is no reason to treat customers differently. We couldn’t have possibly offended you when you didn’t even come out to greet us.
On the bright side, Do’s Formal across the street have always treat every customer like they are v.i.p.

First time there and the customer service sucked. The thick lady with the glasses seemed she didn’t give a damn and talked to us in a rudely matter. It wasn’t until we left she started talking politely. I work in retail and it doesn’t bother me much if they don’t come up to you quick and kiss your butts. But, she was rude and just acted like she didn’t want us in the store.
The store was clean and organized though.

Lady with the blonde hair, wearing glasses (kinda chunky) was rude. We walked into the store and she never said anything so we kinda figure she was busy but after walking around for a while it seemed as if she was trying to avoid us i dont know why but she needs to get FIRE, she walked right pass me and she didnt even bother to say excuse me ugh shes putting a bad name to the store .Also she was on the phone with one the customer and she decided to tell her coworker out loud something that shouldnt be shared in public cause everynody in the store heard it.
Other than that the stores very organized and clean, dresses are affordable .
The short lady was very nice and helpful though :)
If youre going to shop here dont go to the lady with the blonde hair! she gives bad customer service.

I can’t believe I found a great deal here, 50% off on a beautiful elegant dress. But you need to go in first thing to beat the traffic.

Terry is awesome! She was very sweet, she listed to what I wanted and picked a bunch of dresses that I loved! Thanks to her I found my wedding dress, it is beautiful. I couldn’t be happier :)

I have never ever in my life went to a dress shop where theybrefer you to an alterations place and when they totally ruin my dress refused any responsibility not only the dress shop but the alterations place who actually took two times to alter it and both times got worst I am an employee of HIHD and am ahair instrructor and this is my first born daughters wedding and they thought I just wanted my money back so I left the dress and wasfurious the sales woman ran after me and proceeded to throw my dress on the cement I will never do buisness with them again and I will tell everyone the horrible experience I had to go through and I still ddon’t have a dress and just week as away from her wedding I will never ever shop in. a dress store in downtown ever again just because of them and I suggest if you want good service and don’t want to cry and be devastated at your event you would never even try them miss Kat ps I have tons of ugly sagging at the waist pictures of the alterations done I am very thin and it makes me look as if I weigh 180 pounds its form fitting and then flares it was was was a beautiful dress

I have to agree with Teresa L’s review: lots of dresses organized by color, not size. Parking can be hard to find if all the metered parking is taken.
The customer service was really great yesterday afternoon though. I was browsing and a staff came up to me and helped me look for the style I wanted. Unfortunately, they didnt have multiple sizes of the same dress. They had one over at their Kahala location, but I didn’t feel the strong urge to head over there.
Can be a hit or miss on finding the right dress.

Cons:
Not a huge fan of the store because the layout makes it so hard to shop. The dresses are on hung so tightly together that it takes a big effort to look at one dress. There’s barely space on the rack to slide dresses an inch to the left or right.
Another thing that irritates me about this store is that they don’t seem to have an organization structure. Yes everything is separated by color but you end up wasting your time cause you can’t find a size. I wished they organized this store by sizes then color which would make finding a dress so much easier.
Pros:
There are a lot of dresses to go through so the chances of you finding something is very high.
Parking:
Find street parking. There are some meters right in front of the store.
Overall:
Shopping through this store makes me feel like I’m digging through trash. If I get lucky, I’ll find something great, most of the time, I’ll leave empty handed and disapponted.