Sachin and Babi: Why I Finally Stopped Buying Cheap Event Dresses

I was locked in a sweltering utility closet at my cousin's wedding in East Texas, wrestling a static-cling polyester wrap dress off my milk-leaking chest while my oldest, bless his heart, methodically smeared wedding cake icing onto my only good pair of pantyhose. That was the exact moment the cheap plastic zipper on my back completely gave up the ghost and split open from my waist to my shoulder blades. I had to walk back out into a reception of two hundred people wearing my husband's oversized suit jacket, sweating profusely, looking like a linebacker who had just survived a shipwreck.

For years, I played this dangerous game of ordering a thirty-dollar dress off the internet at two in the morning while nursing, praying the synthetic fabric would somehow magically flatter my unpredictable postpartum hips, and then expecting it to survive a fourteen-hour family event with three kids under five without falling apart or giving me a rash. Don't do this to yourself because you'll end up crying in a bathroom stall while your toddler uses your skirt as a tissue.

My grandma always used to tell me, "Jess, if you buy cheap, you pay twice," and I usually roll my eyes at her because she also thinks you can cure a fever with wet socks, but honestly, she was right about the clothes. After the great zipper disaster of last spring, I decided I was completely done with disposable formalwear and started looking for actual, structured, well-made occasionwear that wouldn't make me look like I was wearing a potato sack. That’s how I stumbled into the world of Sachin and Babi dresses, and I'm just gonna be real with you—it completely changed how I handle dressing for milestone family events, even if their return policy makes me want to pull my hair out.

Postpartum bodies and fancy clothes usually hate each other

If you're anything like me, your body after having a baby is basically a stranger you're just getting to know again. Things sit differently, things squish differently, and trying to pour yourself into standard department store evening wear is an exercise in pure misery. While Sachin and Babi isn't explicitly a maternity brand, my understanding is that they do an absolute ton of business with mothers of the bride, baby shower attendees, and postpartum moms because their silhouettes are actually designed for human women who have internal organs.

When you're chasing a rogue toddler through a catering hall, you need clothes that work with you, not against you. Here's what actually makes a difference when you're wearing these pieces in real life:

• They actually leave room for your stomach. They have a massive selection of empire waist and A-line styles that give you structure in the shoulders and bust but float completely free over your midsection, meaning you can eat a full meal and bend over to pick up a dropped pacifier without passing out.
• The fabrics don't feel like a sauna suit. A lot of their stuff is made from crepe, faille, linen, and cotton. My pediatrician once mentioned that babies get heat rash when they're trapped in synthetic clothes, which makes total sense because I also break out in a furious sweat when I wear cheap polyester, so having breathable but structured fabric is a massive upgrade.
• You don't look like a chaperone. It's incredibly hard to find a dress that's modest enough for a church baptism but stylish enough that you don't feel like a frumpy afterthought, and their designs manage to walk that line perfectly.

Of course, it doesn't matter how great my outfit looks if my baby is miserable. I learned the hard way that dressing infants in stiff, scratchy "formal" outfits is a guaranteed ticket to a meltdown. Now, underneath whatever little suspenders or sweater vest my youngest is wearing to a wedding, he's always in the Organic Cotton Baby Bodysuit. It's my absolute favorite basic because his skin is so sensitive it flares up if you even look at it wrong, but this organic cotton is completely un-dyed and breathable. It doesn't have those terrible scratchy tags, and the envelope shoulders mean when he inevitably has a diaper blowout during the toasts, I can pull the whole thing down over his legs instead of up over his head. It saves my sanity every single time.

Making clothes in a factory they seriously own

I run a small Etsy shop out of my garage making custom nursery signs, so I know a little bit about how much work goes into genuinely making something by hand. When I started researching where high-end dresses come from, I went down a huge rabbit hole. Most brands apparently just farm their designs out to random sweatshops, but Sachin and Babi is different. From what I can gather through my late-night reading, the husband-and-wife team seriously owns their own family-run factory in Mumbai.

They even have this line called the Karigar collection, which I guess means 'artisan' or something, where they only make a few heirloom pieces at a time so they aren't just churning out garbage for landfills. I love the idea of buying one beautiful Sachin and Babi dress that I can wear to three different weddings and a baptism, instead of buying four cheap dresses that fall apart after one wash. It feels nice to buy from a brand that seriously cares about the people sewing the beads onto the fabric.

Looking for more ethically made items for your family? Take a moment to explore our organic baby clothes collection for pieces that are kind to both your baby's skin and the planet.

Speaking of heirloom items, if you need a gift for a baby shower where you might be wearing one of these fancy dresses, we do have the Rainbow Play Gym Set. I'll be completely honest with you—it's just okay in my chaotic house because my middle child instantly tried to use the wooden A-frame as a step-ladder to reach the dog treats on the counter, but if you only have one stationary infant, it looks absolutely beautiful sitting in a living room and doesn't scream "plastic nightmare" like the stuff you get at big box stores.

The return policy that almost gave me a stress ulcer

Alright, let's get into the messy stuff. You will see gorgeous Sachin and Babi gowns all over the internet, and you'll see they've a pretty solid Trustpilot rating, but I'm begging you to listen to me before you just start tossing things into your digital shopping cart willy-nilly. Their return policy is stricter than my grandmother's Sunday school class.

First of all, you can't treat their website like your personal dressing room. When you're dealing with a postpartum body, it's really tempting to order three different sizes of the same dress just to see what zips, but you only have a 14-day window to initiate a return. If you buy a dress in March for a wedding in May and decide it doesn't fit right in April, you're completely out of luck and stuck with a very expensive piece of fabric.

Then there's the refund trap, which honestly made me lose my mind for about a month. If you do manage to return something on time, they take up to 30 business days—which is sometimes two full billing cycles on your credit card—to genuinely give you your money back. I run a business, and if I held onto my customers' money for a month after they sent a sign back to me, they would show up at my Texas driveway with pitchforks. I was checking my banking app like a crazy person every morning while feeding the baby, convinced they had just stolen my money.

Also, and this is big: don't take the red tag off. Every dress comes with a specific red security tag attached to it. If you cut that tag off so you can take a cute mirror selfie to send to your sister, you void the return entirely. Leave that thing on until the morning of the event.

If you do get stuck in a weird return situation because a pre-order shipped late or something, I read a hack online that genuinely worked for me. Call their customer service number directly and politely ask for Daisy or Jasmeen; they're apparently actual humans who have the power to extend your return window if you aren't a jerk about it.

Shipping times are fine, whatever.

Are these expensive outfits honestly worth the headache?

honestly, yes, I think they're. The quality of a real Sachin and Babi dress is just unparalleled, and not having to worry about my clothes falling apart while I'm wrangling my kids at a formal event is a massive weight off my shoulders. You just have to be incredibly careful, measure yourself properly, and read the sizing charts so you don't get caught in their return process.

And if you're bringing a baby to these events, do yourself a favor and bring backups for their comfort, too. During a very long, very quiet baptism last month, my youngest started doing his angry pterodactyl screech right as the priest was talking. I was wearing my nice gown, sweating bullets, and desperately digging through my diaper bag until I found the Panda Teether. I bought it because it was cute, but it ended up being a total lifesaver. The silicone is food-grade and super durable, and he just clamped down on those little textured panda ears and instantly quieted down for the rest of the ceremony. It's flat enough that he can honestly hold it himself, which means I didn't have to keep picking it up off the church floor.

Motherhood is messy, and trying to look nice while doing it's even messier. But finding a few reliable things that genuinely work—whether it's a beautifully made dress or a silicone panda—makes the whole circus just a little bit easier to manage.

Ready to make your next family outing a little less stressful? Shop our complete collection of soothing teethers and organic essentials today to keep your baby happy while you handle the rest.

My messy answers to your questions about buying formalwear

Will these dresses really fit a postpartum belly?

Honestly, it completely depends on the silhouette you buy, but generally, yes. I avoid anything that says "sheath" or "column" because I just don't have the mental energy for shapewear right now. Look for their A-line or empire waist options. The fabric is heavy enough that it drapes really nicely over the squishy parts without clinging to every little bump, which is a massive relief when you're three months postpartum and nothing in your closet fits.

Can I nurse in a Sachin and Babi gown?

I'm not gonna lie to you, it's not the easiest thing in the world since these aren't dedicated maternity clothes with those sneaky little hidden zippers. If you're exclusively breastfeeding and don't want to pump in a bathroom stall, look for their wrap styles or the dresses with deep V-necks. I managed to make a wrap style work at a wedding, but I definitely had to employ my husband to stand in front of me as a human shield while I rearranged myself.

Is the 30-day refund policy genuinely that strict?

Yeah, bless their hearts, they're incredibly slow with the refunds. I thought people on the internet were exaggerating, but it literally took 28 days for the money to hit my credit card after the tracking showed they received my return box. Just factor that in if you're on a tight budget. Don't buy three thousand dollars worth of dresses thinking you'll just return the ones you don't like and get the money back by Friday, because you won't.

How do I know what size to order online?

Get a flexible tape measure and seriously measure yourself. Don't go by the size you wore before you had kids, and don't guess. I had my husband measure my bust, waist, and hips in our kitchen, and then I compared it to their exact size chart for the specific dress I wanted. Every fabric has a different amount of give, and their crepe has zero stretch, so if you're between sizes, definitely size up. You can always have a local tailor take it in, but you can't magically add fabric.

Are the fabrics prone to wrinkling when sitting?

The crepe and the faille hold up remarkably well. I sat in a car for two hours with a baby car seat digging into my hip, and when I got out, the dress still looked completely fine. The linen blends, however, will wrinkle if you look at them wrong. I love linen, but if you're going to be sitting down and standing up constantly to chase a toddler, maybe stick to the heavier fabrics so you don't look like an unmade bed by the time the cake is cut.