My review here is based on 27 experiences at Chandni (in a span of 4 months) which consist of mine, family and friends. The issues described here are common to ALL 27 experiences. ISSUE 1 - Chandni is notorious for being late and procrastinating up to the day of the wedding. They will lie to you and tell you it rarely happens but it will in some form - I promise. Chandni intentionally overload themselves with work, and then consequently are late on their orders. It is simply how their business operates. Some clients go so far as to lie to them on when the actual date of the wedding is in order to ensure work is done before the wedding. No business in the right mind will call their clients a liar. If so, walk away, go to a different store. I received my outfit 2.5 weeks after the initial agreed upon date. LESSON LEARNED *Lie to them on the wedding date *Allow enough time to cancel your order and get your clothes from another store. They will use excuses. Typical excuses: (1) physical accident of some kind with family or friend, (2) sickness and (3) death of a friend or family member. These things do happen, however, they've used the same sort of excuses too many times - and sometimes the same exact excuse. Each of these 27 incidents have had at least 2 of the 3 excuses if not all 3. To be specifc, they have used all 3 excuses for precisely 19 of the 27 incidents. The remaining 8 had used 2 of the 3 excuses. I ask you, how many times does the same person die? ISSUE 2 - Clothes will not fit. They take precise measurements and yet the clothes still come back larger. This is sometimes intentional since it is easier to reduce an outfit then to expand it. But they will not tell you this. LESSON LEARNED *Account for enough time to come back to the store and require additional tailoring until the outfit fits the way it's supposed to. ISSUE 3 - Prices are fair compared to neighboring stores. Men's clothes: -A plain korta pajama is approximaly $100 -An outfit with complex fabric and embroidery for approximately 37% of the surface area of the outfit will be between $150 to $200 dollars. -A shervani wedding suit that involves complex fabric and embroidery for approximately 37%: including shoes, turbine and the shervani is between $400 to $500. This is true for any store on devon street. These prices are good and fair prices. If you are paying more, well, they simply are making more money off of you. The prices listed are for 3 specific items. Of course prices will vary, but these are the most common purchases. LESSON LEARNED *Know how much the outfit really costs. Bring someone knowledgeable with you. ISSUE 4 - This particular problem happens all the time. When outfits are being made (overseas), Chandni will make an error and the outfit will come back flawed in some way. The Fabric might be the wrong color, embroidery may be missing, etc. LESSON LEARNED *On a piece of paper, write out exactly what you want. The more detail the better. Email them a copy and drop off a hard copy to them (includes pictures if possible - in color). In fact, ask them to sign the documentation. Have a minimum of 2 individuals from there store sign the document. Be sure to ask a staff member who is fluent in the English language otherwise they can plead that they do not speak English and did not understand what they were signing. ISSUE 5 - The last issue here is financial compensation. When Chandni is late or cannot perform, they will use excuses. But this is a business; there is no excuse for delays. As a business, your job is to meet or beat the deadline date. Good businesses allow for some sort of flex time to accommodate last minute issues that may come up. Chandni does not. Or atleast, they do not do it well. Sometimes they will give you a discount, but they of course will fight you on it. Typically, they will NOT give you a discount. LESSON LEARNED *Discuss liquidated damages. Basically, tell them, for every day they are late with the order - in that you do not leave with everything you originally agreed to pay for, they must reduce the price by a certain amount. Ofcourse a verbal agreement is not enough. Draft a document spelling out the details and ask them to sign it. Again, follow the same type of instruction as indicated in issue 4. You don't necessarily need a lawyer. My advice is to have them agree, on paper, the financial terms to your business. After all, at the end of the day, money is their only real motivation. If for some reason they are late with their order or do not perform exactly as drafted in your contract, you reserve the right to cancel the order and demand a full refund. Of course, this document will bind you as well. You cannot demand a refund if they have not violated anything. Chandni does not operate in "good faith" (look up the term if you don't know what it means). Protect yourself. I hope this review helps you. read more

I had a similar issue as Sana. My husband and I both custom ordered a sherwani and lengha for our wedding on April 14th. We gave them pictures of my lengha, and they said that the lengha they were going to make for me would be 95% similar to the picture I gave them. We were told that our outfits would arrive June 4th, for our June 25th wedding. At the time, I lived in Connecticut, so I was going to fly out to Chicago to try on my dress. On June 6th, Hamid (the owner) told my husband that my dress would be delivered June 13th (one week late from the original date). I called him to tell him this was not acceptable because I had purchased my plane tickets to be in Chicago from June 10th to the 13th. He said that he was sorry he had asked the people in India/Pakistan to add more work to my dupatta, and that he would try to get it here by the 11th. Two days later, he had a heart attack and we had to deal with his daughter, who can't keep her story straight. They had a tracking number, but they didn't know to what carrier, then, when UPS finally did attempt to deliver my dress on Saturday, the daughter wasn't there to receive shipment. The daughter offered to bring my dress to O'Hare so that I could try it on in the bathroom and see if it needed tailoring. (Trying on my wedding dress in a public bathroom????) My dress wasn't delivered until Monday morning when I was already back in Connecticut - and I tried to switch my flight to Tuesday but would have costed me $650 to change my ticket as well as my moms. Anyways, while I was in the store on Saturday evening, the daughter told me that she would send my dress no later than Tuesday if it didn't require any tailoring. Then, she talked to my husband on Monday afternoon and told him she would ship it out on Thursday evening. When I called her to tell her that she needed to send it Tuesday, she got very defensive, and told me that she never said she would send it out Tuesday. When I finally received the dress on Thursday in Connecticut, I immediately tried it on. It looked like I was wearing a potato sack! I took it to a nearby tailor and had to get 6 inches of material removed so that the lengha would be more fitted. I had been measured twice already. Not only did the lengha not fit me properly, but it also didn't look ANYTHING like the picture I gave them. And they had the nerve to tell me it looked very similar. And it had 50% less work than the original picture, so Hamid's story of adding "more work" doesn't make sense. They ended up deducting $100, and said that they couldn't deduct more because they weren't making a profit off of us. My husband's sherwani was delivered even later than my lengha. He requested that they didn't use a specific type of bead, and guess what, they used it all over. Not only that, but the shoes they made didn't match his sherwani, but they also misplaced the hat he was supposed to buy. Every time we talked to them they would say that this wasn't going right because Hamid wasn't in the store. I felt bad that he was sick, but that doesn't mean you should lose his business. If you want good service, DON'T go here. read more

I had been shopping on devon for Pakistani/indian dresses, but never shopped at Chandni before. However, this year luckily I found this place and shopped for my brother's wedding. I am extremely pleased with my experience and love all the dresses. The owner of this store, Mr Hamid is very accommodating and a pleasant person. For the wedding shopping, we end up going there several times and he has always been helpful. We bought from bride's dress to groom's sherwani and all our dresses for the wedding from Chandni. The prices are exceptionally reasonable and they have a large variety of dresses. Another very big plus is they have a tailor on site, and he can tailor your dresses till the last minute. The ladies over there are also very helpful. They can customize any outfit you want but off course it will take some times to get it done (atleast 6-8weeks). I had all my outfits customized to my size, color of my choice, and I even chose my own patterns/designs for the dresses. I went to the other stores on devon but either they try to rip you off or try to push you to buy several things at once, but I had a totally different experience here because the prices are very reasonable at Chandni and they never pushed us to buy anything we did not want. I will be definitely going there and would recommend anyone to shop here. We actually recommended my brother's in-laws and even they did all of their shopping from here. So anyone who is looking for a nice Pakistani/Indian outfit must checkout this place atleast once. P.S. I don't know why yelp has two listings for chandni as this one and with another name chandni boutique. Readers should read reviews from both places. read more

I've shopped at this store a couple of times. The first time that I bought something was a bridal dress for my wedding in 2010. I stopped by a lot of the stores on Devon and couldn't find anything that met my needs. When I came to Chandni, the staff was nice and spent time with me until I found the dress I was looking for. There is a little room in the back with a glass window where they keep bridal dresses. They did a good job altering my top and finished the alter on time. Fast forward to April, 2014 - I was looking for a nice reception dress to wear to my cousins wedding. I stopped by this store and walked around for a bit. Their display of dresses on the mannequins were really pretty and fancy. As I was walking around, there was one dress that caught my eye. It was a very pretty purple / tan color Anarkali type net dress with a very pretty sparkly design . I decided not to get it since I thought the price was a little high and they wouldn't come down much in price. So I passed and walked around to other stores. A couple of weeks later, I restarted my shopping to find a dress and came to this store again. I noticed that the same dress was on the mannequin. This time around, I decided to try it on (even though the price was a bit over my budget). When I tried it on, I fell in love with it. The color was very vibrant and looked very pretty. As I am writing this, it is currently being altered. The person who sold this to me (Huraya) gave me a nice discount since I spent a bit of money on my wedding dress. I would definitely recommend this place because they have a lot of nice choices for both men and women and the staff is very friendly. read more

This place is absolutely terrible. For my sister's wedding, they were incompetent and flat out RUDE and disgusting. They misplaced several of the bridesmaid dresses for the wedding. They gave my sister broken jewelry and refused to fix it. And to top it all off, their attitude and appropriateness while providing a fitting was disgusting. The (male) tailor had the nerve to tell me that my "bra was bad" and my "breasts are all over the place". The (male) tailor then ordered my sister's friend to take her pants off and measured her upper thigh without asking for permission to touch her there. He made the rest of the women feel uncomfortable and belittled their questions/complaints about the fit of the dresses. Then, they shortened my pants (by about 4 inches) and took them in (by about 2 inches) for no apparent reason. They mixed their notes up. And when it was discovered the week of the wedding... refused to fix them. We are forced to alter the pants ourselves (and it is not an easy mistake to fix). DO NOT GO TO THIS PLACE if you are planning an elaborate wedding or in general like being treated with dignity. We gave them hundreds and hundreds of dollars and this is what happened to us. They will take your money, insult your body, and make your poor bridesmaids feel sexually assaulted. I am calling to demand a refund, but I am fairly certain that won't happen. We gave them hundreds and hundreds of dollars and this is what happened to us. ALSO, DO NOT believe half of their positive reviews. They tell you that they will give you free things if you post a review. I am sure most of these people did so to compensate for the large amount of money they wasted here. read more

Every aspect of my shopping experience at Chandni Exclusive, both times I have been a customer, was wonderful. I was introduced to this high quality boutique by one of my best friends, who is getting married tomorrow. I live in Ohio, over 350 miles away from Devon St., and could only manage to come into chicago once prior to her valima. I am pleased to say that Chandni Exclusive was extremely accommodating. I am also a plus size woman, and had some anxiety about finding an appropriate dress in my size that would be flattering and comfortable. Once I picked out the design that appealed to me the most, Hamid took my measurements, and Huriya guided me through the thread color choice. The dress that I liked best would not be quite modest enough for the occasion, so Hamid and Huriya worked with me to design a modified version of the dress style, adding sleeves and an empire waist in replacement of a more diaphanous midriff section. The dress was more than reasonably priced for the size, modified design, and fabric quality, and arrived quickly to the shop, in plenty of time for adjustments, if necessary. And while I did need an adjustment to the skirt part of the dress, Hamid took care of it perfectly on this busy Friday in July, in the height of wedding season. By the time I walked out of Chandni Exclusive, I felt very beautiful and confident in my outfit, and so very grateful for the kindness, creativity, and high quality design and customer service I received from Hamid and Huriya, as well as all of the family and staff whom also helped me at every turn. read more

My brother's wedding was a week away and the outfit I had ordered through another source had not delivered. I was really upset and on the hunt for something suitable for the occasion. After visiting a few stores on Devon, I walked into Chandni. I will be honest, the pieces in the window had not impressed me but as I walked further into the store, each selection was prettier than the last. After discussing what I was looking for and my exact range, the staff pulled outfits for me. Most of them had been from their new shipment which hadn't been unpacked yet! I was so pleased with everything - the clothes, service, and willingness to match my range! Also, the complete honesty the staff had with me was great. They were not just trying to sell me any product. They took the time to tell me whether the work on the dress was suitable for the occasion, the color brought my features out, and the overall look. If something didn't look good, they were honest. Finally, we were able to decide on an outfit and I bought it instantly. It was the easiest and most pleasant shopping trip I had. Thank you for those who helped me! I would highly recommend Chandni Exclusive for a painless shopping trip! read more

I needed a new dress on short notice and was weary of putting in a custom order 2 weeks in advance, as I have had bad experiences (not receiving my order in time) at other places. I decided to take a chance with Chandni, as the staff assured me they would have my order completed on time and to my satisfaction. Everyone was very kind and friendly, and when I was designing the dress they really worked with me to assure I was going to get exactly what I wanted! Mehvish took my order and walked around the entire store with me to clarify I was getting the exact fabric, design, color, and style that I had envisioned. When I went in 2 weeks later, much to my surprise, they actually had my dress ready and packed for me to try on! The dress was gorgeous and exactly what I had asked for, to a T. I was unhappy with the fitting as it was quite loose, and they altered three times, until I was 100% satisfied. While my friend and I were waiting in the store they were even hospitable enough to share their lunch with us, not taking no for an answer. All in all, Chandni was honest, genuine, and meticulous. I had a great experience and I will definitely return. read more

I have had multiple experiences with Chandni exclusive. I have known them since they owned a small boutique by the name of chandni boutique. The product that is on the shelf is always qualitative and their prices are very competitive. One thing that has been a constant is that the owner Mr Hamid always takes on more than he can handle, which is why sometimes he falls short of customers expectations. Mostly he is on top of his game, as far as keeping the customers happy and also offering them with quality sherwanis. Ever since he opened the bigger boutique which is known by the name of chandni exclusive he is able to offer a larger variety of sherwanis, which is why I am absolutely in love with this place even with all its imperfections. 2 times in the past 8 years they have messed up my order which is not a lot since I order at least 4 times a year from them. The two times was when there was a strike in Karachi, which is why my order got delayed. However Mr Hamid was kind enough to take care of me and he replaced the orders with what he had at the store. He has almost always gone that extra mile to take care of me. read more

I have dealt with several desi (Pakistani/Indian) clothing businesses over the years, and I can say that Chandni Exclusive is by far the best experience of shopping I have had. We shopped here for my engagement for the first time. That was almost 10 years ago (They used to be at a different location then). I was so delighted with the customer care and the overall experience that by the time it was time to shop for our wedding, my whole family shopped here including my parents, uncles, cousins, and even friends. Everyone was happy with their purchases. Hamid Mirza adds a personal touch to the whole shopping experience that I have never found anywhere else. He makes you feel like family. I can see that some people probably had bad experiences here, but I can only speak for myself. All our clothes arrived on time, and they matched our specifications. I originally didn't want a Kulha (turban), but he matched one with my sherwani and gave it to me anyway without charging me. Needless to say, we have been regular customers at Chandni Exclusive. Whenever we are visiting family in Chicago, we always stop by here. read more

My cousin order her wedding dress from there recently, and it turned out great! There were few things that were different from what she had order but over all it turned out great. I know the Uncle who owes the store has been sick lately, but it did not have negative impact on my cousin's dress. Anyway, my in-laws also shops there and they I find everyone who works there to be very helpful and friendly unlike other stores on the street where they seem to be pushing you to buy something if you don't they insult you. My wedding dress was from there, they have reasonable prices and quality. I got so many compliments on my wedding dress that it forced me to write a review about the store here on yelp. P.S I went there for my Eid outfit there over the last weekend, and again I got compliments on the outfits. They seemed carry very nice collection with reasonable prices. If you're planning to shop there, I would highly recommend talking to girls who were very knowledge of the products and trends. I would recommend people to shop there and see it for themselves! read more

This place is disgusting. I went back with my fiancé to be. We ended up buying a sari dress. The owner there is supposedly tailor as well. Took my fiancé in the fitting room. I sat outside for 20 minutes. Which was oddly a long time to adjust the shirt of the sari. When she came back out, as we exited the store. She began to cry. I came to learn that the digesting owner/tailor or whatever he is Hamid. Who clearly is a molester. I called the store immediately to report the issue. The lady who answered stated that, tailors have to be thorough with the measurements. That is the most dirty thing I have heard. So "Thorough" that he asked her to take her bra off and measure her breast bare. He squeezed her waist to take "thorough" measurements. This place is extremely disgusting. He uses his profession as a way to Sexually assault clients. Read all the review before anyone walks in to get assaulted. The whole team backs this nasty man. This place is garbage. Will never go there again. read more

I really enjoyed my experience at Chandni. After multiple unfortunate experiences with different Indian clothing vendors I braced myself for another unprofessional customer service experience. In an attempt to create my dream ivory dupatta for my Christian/Jain wedding I ordered fabric, beads and border material from India. One week before my wedding (stressed out of my mind) I looked at the material that I intended to sew together myself and decided to see if I could find a tailor that could complete the task for me. Walking into Chandni I was immediately greeted by a male tailor. He assisted me in measuring the proper size for my dupatta, found additional material to add to my dupatta and reassured me that he could have it completed within 3 days. Three days later I picked up the dupatta and it was perfect. I couldn't believe how seamless the process was. Next time I have an event that requires Indian clothing I will start my shopping at Chandni. read more