Woman Turns to TikTok to Find Mom’s Long-Lost Unique Wedding Dress (Exclusive)

Sarah Robertson always loved her mom’s wedding gown — a unique, polka dot dress with a sweetheart neckline.

She wore the black-and-white showstopper during her wedding in Lake Como, Italy, in the early ’90s. After returning home, she asked a friend to hold onto the dress since she was living in a small New York City apartment and didn’t have much space to store it. Her friend agreed, but the dress was somehow misplaced in the years that followed.

When Robertson’s mom later asked her friend for the dress, they couldn’t find it. Since she “never thought” her future daughter would be interested in rewearing the gown, she let it go. However, she thought wrong.

Now, three decades later, Robertson is using TikTok to track it down for her own Italian wedding next year.

“As I’ve been searching for my own wedding dress, looking for something unique and different and exploring vintage options, I thought about my mom’s dress and thought, ‘Wow, it’d be so amazing to be able to wear it for something special during my wedding, and I wonder if I can find it,'” Robertson tells PEOPLE exclusively.

Robertson posted photos from her parents’ wedding on TikTok, asking people to help her find the dress or a similar replica. The video quickly went viral, amassing 3.7 million views.

The comments section was full of people trying to identify the look, which Robertson believed was designed by Victor Costa, but others suggested may have been a Valentino Garavani or Jessica McClintock design.

Robertson says she was “surprised” by the outpouring of support and dedication from strangers to try to fulfill her dream.  

“I was not expecting so many women to come together and be invested in finding the dress and like really trying to help me,” she says. “My mom has been overjoyed at the response in a really nice and special way. A lot of people have sent similar dresses or other ideas.”

One company offered to make a similar dress for Robertson, while another woman mentioned a friend of a friend who knew one of the designers in question, offering to ask about the dress.

“One person sent the actual dress; it’s an old eBay listing showing that the dress had already been sold to someone else,” Robertson says. “I tried to look up the listing to see if I could contact the seller or find out who bought it. I haven’t been successful yet.”

Robertson’s “preference is to find the actual dress” her mom wore, as it holds a special significance to her, but she may be willing to pivot depending on how her search unfolds.

She notes that her mom bought the dress in 1989 while trying on dresses at Bergdorf Goodman with her cousin. When she told her mom, Robertson’s grandmother, that she wanted to wear polka dots, she initially shot her down — until she saw it on. The second Robertson’s mom put on the gown, her grandma started crying, giving it her stamp of approval.

Robertson’s grandmother has since passed, but she hopes finding the dress will give them a sense of connection on her big day.

Robertson hopes the virality of her mom’s unique wedding dress will inspire other brides to incorporate polka dots and personality into their wedding day looks.

While Robertson hasn’t found the dress yet, she hasn’t lost hope, but the countdown is on.