Retro Stage sells 1920s through 1980s style womenswear: flapper dresses, swing dresses, pin-up silhouettes, velvet jumpsuits. The designs are genuinely hard to find elsewhere at the price, which is most of the appeal.

It is also a brand where the review scores do not agree with each other at all. Trustpilot says 4.1. Sitejabber says 2.7. The German Trusted Shops profile says 1.13.

That spread is the story. This is not a brand with a consensus. It is a brand where people either get a nice dress or they get a fight, and which one you get depends heavily on whether you ordered the right size and whether you need to return anything. Here is what to know before you order.

Quick verdict

Who actually runs Retro Stage

Worth establishing plainly, because a lot of vintage-repro sites have a Western-looking front and no company behind it.

The honest read: this is a real registered company with a real US phone line and genuine US warehouse inventory on some items, flagged in product titles as [US Warehouse]. It is not a blind dropshipper. But the default fulfilment route is clearly Asia, and no returns address is published in any country.

One loose end worth knowing: Retro Stage's own terms name HONGKONG DRESSIN LIMITED, while at least one brand directory lists it as Retro Stage HongKong Linemart Ltd. Nobody has reconciled the two names publicly.

Prices and what sells

From the homepage featured block, list price then current sale price:

Notice that every single item is discounted, permanently. Nothing on the site sells at list price. Discounts run 40 to 51 percent. Treat the struck-through figure as a reference point rather than a price anything ever sold at, which is how most of this category works.

The range covers dresses, jumpsuits, swimwear, sleepwear, knitwear, plus size, coats, two-piece sets, shoes including Mary Janes and heels, and accessories like petticoats, gloves, stockings and hats. The era filter from 1920s to 1980s is genuinely useful and is the main reason people shop here.

Sizing: the section that decides your order

Here is the thing most reviews get wrong. The useful finding is not that Retro Stage runs small. It is that the sizing is inconsistent, the chart is in centimetres only, and there are two different kinds of chart.

What the site actually gives you

1. A size chart per product, published as an image, placed below the product description. There is no single site-wide chart
2. Centimetres only. Product pages state all measurements in cm and give a 1 cm = 0.39 inch conversion. There is no inches column
3. Sizes are not standardised to US or UK labelling. The FAQ says items listed as one size do not necessarily fit everyone

The trap: the FAQ itself warns there are two kinds of chart, garment measurements and body measurements, and that you have to check the chart's title to know which one you are reading. If you compare your body to a flat garment chart, or vice versa, you will order the wrong size. This is probably the single biggest cause of returns here.

Does it run small?

Mostly yes, but not reliably, and that is the problem.

Those reports contradict each other because the garments do. Listings also commonly state little stretch, back zipper and hand wash only, which removes the forgiveness that stretch fabrics give you.

What to actually do: measure your bust, waist and hips in centimetres before you shop. For every item, scroll down, find the chart, and read its title to check whether it is giving you body or garment measurements. Then compare like for like. Ignore the US or UK size label entirely. Several buyers in the brand's own Q&A give the same advice.

Shipping

A contradiction on Retro Stage's own site: the FAQ says delivery usually takes 8 to 15 business days, or 3 to 8 for US warehouse orders. The delivery-time page says 15 to 30 business days for standard. Two official pages, two different answers. Plan for the longer figure.

UK and EU shipping costs are not published at all on the .com site. The delivery page lists only US, Hawaii/PR/Alaska, Peru/Chile and Greenland/Faroe Islands zones, despite the terms running under UK law.

Customs, and one clause that should give you pause

Retro Stage's FAQ says customers are normally not charged tariffs, but stricter customs checks can trigger them, the company does not control these charges, and customers are responsible for paying them.

Then this: if a customer refuses a package over customs charges, it is disposed of and shipping is not refunded. That is an unusual amount of risk to carry as a buyer, particularly for UK and EU customers where duty on a clothing order is a real possibility.

Real-world reports back this up. One UK Trustpilot buyer's return was sent back after being held for unpaid duty, and a refund was refused. A secondary report cites a 80 euro customs bill on a 111 euro order, though we could not verify that one at source.

Returns: 15 days, and you pay

Quoted directly from the returns and refunds page:

1. "You have 15 days following receipt of your order to reach out to us to start a return or refund"
2. "We do not accept items that are sent back without prior communication"
3. "Customers are responsible for return shipping costs"
4. "The product must be unused and in its original condition"
5. "Shipping fees and discounts are non-refundable"
6. Refund processed within 5 business days of receipt and inspection, then 5 to 14 business days to appear, or up to 30 in some cases
7. If they sent the wrong item: "we will immediately accept your return and ship the correct product immediately"

Two things that make this harder than it reads

First, 15 days is short. For context, Crocs allows 30 days, most UK retailers do 28 as a minimum, and UK distance selling law gives 14 days to cancel plus a further 14 to return. A 15-day window that starts on receipt and requires pre-approval before you post anything is materially tighter than the category norm. If standard shipping took 25 business days, you have two weeks to decide.

Second, the return address is not published anywhere. The policy says only to send the package back to us, with no address and no country. You have to email or phone to get one. Buyer reports on Sitejabber say returns go to a US address, and a UK customer reported being told to ship to the US at their own cost. An Australian buyer reported paying US return postage on goods posted from Australia.

No restocking fee is mentioned anywhere, which is at least something.

What the reviews actually say

Read the one-star column, not the average. A 4.1 with a 29 percent one-star share is not a consensus, it is a bimodal distribution. Nearly a third of Trustpilot reviewers give it the lowest possible score. The two independent platforms land at 2.7 and 1.13. The honest summary is that experiences split sharply rather than cluster.

What goes wrong

1. Returns and refunds. The most common Sitejabber complaint. Refunds refused, slow or partial, with partial-refund offers of 10 to 30 percent offered instead of accepting a return. Unanswered emails. Difficulty getting a return address

2. Sizing wrong or not matching the chart, including one report of an XS arriving instead of an XL

3. Non-delivery and long waits, including tracking marked delivered for packages never received

4. Fabric quality. Cheap fabrics and trim. A dress that feels like plastic. Thin polyester with no hope of holding shape. A swimsuit with pilling and colour bleed after three wears

5. Garment versus photo. Looks nothing like the picture. Dresses are not the shape in the pics. The gap is silhouette and fabric weight rather than colour

One nuance worth being fair about: the complaints concentrate on shape and fabric, not colour. The only verified colour complaint was dye bleed on a swimsuit. Do not expect a colour accuracy problem; expect a silhouette and drape problem.

What goes right

1. Era-specific designs that are genuinely hard to find elsewhere, which is the main reason to shop here at all
2. Good value at the sale price for a sizeable share of buyers
3. Responsive customer service and well-handled exchanges, reported by a real minority of reviewers
4. Some reports of items arriving identical to the photos and of faster-than-expected delivery
5. Comfortable material on the better items

Red flags, listed honestly

None of these individually means avoid. Together they are the reason to order one item rather than four.

1. Two different Hong Kong company names in circulation, unreconciled
2. Three jurisdictions for one company: Hong Kong registration, UK governing law, and a Chino, California address on the Trustpilot profile. No physical address on the site itself
3. No returns address published, and the registered address expressly disclaimed as a return destination
4. The delivery-time contradiction between two of its own pages
5. No UK or EU shipping cost table despite marketing to those markets under UK law
6. Permanent discount pricing with a struck-through list price on everything
7. Review platform divergence of 4.1 versus 2.7 versus 1.13, plus an on-site review widget the brand controls
8. Partial-refund buyouts of 10 to 30 percent offered instead of accepting returns, a recognised pattern in Asia-fulfilled e-commerce
9. Refused customs packages destroyed with no shipping refund

What we did NOT find: no proof of fake reviews, no evidence of non-existent inventory, and no pattern suggesting the company does not ship. The complaints are about quality, sizing, speed and refund friction, which is a different category of problem from fraud.

How to order sensibly

1. Measure yourself in centimetres first. Bust, waist, hips. Write them down

2. On each product, scroll to the chart and read its title. Is it body measurements or garment measurements? Compare like for like

3. Ignore the US or UK size label entirely

4. Look for [US Warehouse] in the product title if you need it in under three weeks. Everything else is 15 to 30 business days

5. Order one item first. Treat the first order as a fit test for the brand, not a wardrobe

6. Check listings for little stretch and hand wash only, both of which are common and both of which matter

7. Diarise the 15-day return window the day it arrives. Email service@retro-stage.com immediately if it is wrong, because you cannot post anything back without prior approval

8. If you are outside the US, assume you may pay return postage to a US address, and factor that against the price of the dress before you buy

FAQ

Is Retro Stage legit?

It is a real registered company, HONGKONG DRESSIN LIMITED, with a working phone line, genuine inventory and nearly 5,000 Trustpilot reviews. It ships and people receive dresses. The problems reported are quality, sizing, long waits and refund friction, not fraud.

Where does Retro Stage ship from?

US, Europe and China warehouses, with each order sent from the nearest one holding stock. Items flagged [US Warehouse] arrive in 3 to 10 business days. Everything else is 15 to 30 business days on standard shipping.

Does Retro Stage run small?

Often, but not consistently. Buyer reports contradict each other, with some saying three sizes too small and others saying far too large. The real issue is that charts are in centimetres only and come in two types, body and garment measurements. Measure yourself in cm and check which chart you are reading.

What is Retro Stage's return policy?

15 days from receipt to contact them and start a return. You pay return shipping. Items must be unused and in original condition. You must get approval before sending anything back, and the return address is not published, so you have to ask for it.

Will I pay customs on a Retro Stage order?

Possibly. The FAQ says customers are normally not charged, but stricter checks can trigger duty and you are responsible for it. If you refuse a package over customs charges, Retro Stage disposes of it and does not refund the shipping.

Is the quality good?

It splits. At $25 to $55 a dress, some buyers get something they love and some describe thin polyester that will not hold its shape. The designs are the draw. Judge the fabric expectations against the price, not against the photos.

Bottom line

Retro Stage sells designs you will struggle to find anywhere else at this price, and a clear majority of buyers end up happy with what arrives. That is not nothing, and the 4,900 Trustpilot reviews are not all fiction.

But the structure of the business puts the risk on you. Sizing is in centimetres across two chart types, standard shipping takes up to 30 business days, the return window is 15 days from receipt, you pay return postage to an address they will not publish, and refused customs packages get destroyed.

None of that is a reason not to order. It is a reason to order one dress rather than three, measure yourself properly in cm before you do, check whether the item ships from the US warehouse, and open the parcel the day it arrives rather than the week after. Do those four things and you have removed most of what the one-star reviews are about.