Getting the Name Right

Ever wondered how we come up with names for our gorgeous floral dresses?

Thinking up a pretty name that best describes the dress and also fits other criteria, such as is it too long to fit on the swing tag? Will our customers be able to easily search for the name and get the spelling correct? Because leave out one letter and there is no search result! Does the name possibly mean something else in another language? or is there a notorious person with the same name that will make our customers think badly of the style? Has another shop used the same name and think we are copying them?

We always feel that naming a style perfectly sets it on the right journey…. We called our latest best seller Henrietta because it was first put into production on Prince Harry and Megan Markle’s wedding day, Harry – Henry – Henrietta! get it? Then when we designed the short sleeve version we kept with the Royal theme and called it Lizzie! Such a pretty English country garden dress with such a great name.

We usually try to theme the names to a season so we choose cities or flowers or dances.

Last summer all our resort styles had cocktail names so we were selling the Mimosa maxi dress, the Mai Tai dress, the Pina Colada dress, the Calypso Caftan. The wrap dresses were for a time given musical names such as Symphony, Beethoven, Applause, Capella and Summer Ballad.

The other important part of naming a dress is to choose the exact right name for the colour, there are so many shades of blue! and pink and yellow…. The Dulux paint chart is a great source of names for colours because sometimes just calling it green is so boring when it could be called Lime Fizz or Parakeet. Even white has so many different shades, if you order winter white and the dress arrives in powder white that’s not ideal.  

Sometimes the name of a dress just seems to be a lucky and happy name, one of our all time favourite formal dresses was called Belle Star and what a good choice that was it perfectly described how one felt wearing the dress. We also have fun calling some of our styles after racehorses owned by good friends, we try to use the names of winners such as Harlem Shake and Princess Ashreya although we baulked at calling a dress after their beautiful horse Purple Mountain! That might not have proved a popular name!

So when you look through our Mombasa Rose website or call into the store, check and see if you love the name.