Swanson the star dress of the show

The super beautiful Claudia played by Nicole Kidman in Nine if you like Moulin Rouge and beautiful vintage women you will love this. Also check out 8 1/2 for good measure along with La Dolce Vita

The incredible Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard

Here is the 'Swanson' dress again named from the cast list of Sunset Boulevard, this the star Gloria Swanson.
This dress is designed to be the show stopper with influences coming from the red carpet, old Dior and Nicole Kidman in Nine. I watched it over and over and over again just to see the dress and the lines were just mesmerizingly elegant.
The dress she wears has a very pointed bust and I wanted to keep this line on my 'Swanson' dress but the mini Madonna points weren't going to work quite as well off screen. This is where the pleats and folds came in creating strong lines with similar angles.
The dress is cut on the bias at the skirt giving hourglass silhouette and flares at the hem to give a statuesque appearance.
I chose to put a bow at the back (I know the 80s cliche bum bow!) but this is with the 1950s in mind, used to add shape to the back and wraps around the waist beautifully making the dress that little more sultry.
Available made to order here in our online shop.

As always ask if you have any queries, I'm always happy to hear from people. 

Also this week we opened a shop at Wedzu which is full of amazing handmade wedding items. Just like Etsy but for weddings and super awesome. They check out all the sellers before they can open a shop so there's no nonsense there.  And I have made some gorgeous dresses for races and weddings which I will update next week. One particularly lovely Audrey-esque navy blue and white lace dress.

Faye's Art Deco Bow Dress

Photography: Alexandra King
Model: Sian Estelle Petty
Pearl beaded Pill Box Hat: Alisha Petty

The 'Faye' dress is the 1930s glamour gown, sleek, sweeping and fit for an art deco, silver screen goddess. I love using crepe and this is a very fine wool crepe that drapes beautifully and feels gorgeously soft. 

We designed and hand beaded the bow after researching more art deco, 1920s and 30's flapper dresses and motifs, the glass rhinestones are extra sparkly too.

Bows are a recuirring theme in my work, hence our logo and I'm thinking of this panel cut design for a tea dress and a flapper dress in a future collection.

Christy, The 50s Satin Bridal Gown

 

 

The Christy Dress. Audrey Hepburn is a slightly obvious inspiration here but I needed to do my take on the classic 50s wedding dress.
Made in a gorgeous, heavy silk duchess satin which creates beautifully smooth bold lines and stays very clean without too much shine in the satin. Designed to be elegant, chic but a whole lot of fun to wear and swirl around in. The bodice is cut with princess seams and an integrated corset inside the lining to create the cinched waist. The hips are fitted with a graduated skirt seam to show off the pulled in waist and move the fullness away from the waist area. This gives a beautiful line to the back and the skirt as you can see is supported by many layers or nets.
Trimmed with hand beading (see note below)and satin covered buttons all the way down the back to finish. Looks amazing with Alisha Petty's Veil.

Onto my soap box............
The beading around the neckline and cuffs is hand beaded at my studio. I adore beading just as much as the next girl, in fact probably more and have bought cheap beading in the past but, when I see complete, bead encrusted dresses on the high street it drives me mad.
There is only one way to bead a dress and that is by hand, one by one and it takes days. The beading the Christy dress took two full days to complete.
So next time you look at a heavily beaded dress on the high street for £100 ask yourself this. Who hand sewed all these tiny beads one by one for such little pay? I know this is the way or the world and if people didn't sew beads they would probably sew something else but beading is labour intensive, far more so than a plain dress for the same price and someone (be it adult or child) is being paid less that £1 a day to do it.
................And off again.

Here is the Christy Dress in full spin!

Scallops and Tulips, The wedding dress and Coat

 Photography: Alexandra King
Model: Sian Estelle Petty
Hats: Alisha Petty

 I now have the chance to say a little more about the bridal collection and will post each dress in detail over the week. 

The capsule six look collection was inspired by the women that kept asking for our cocktail dresses in white and the reason I have eventually produced this collection. Always being inspired by vintage dresses, the golden age of couture mainly Christian Dior and Jeanne Lanvin and old Hollywood movies, these dresses are the first expression of all of this inspiration in my head directed to Bridal wear.
 

The dresses had to be wearable, there are already many designers creating wonderfully extravagant, long strapless white wedding dresses and I wanted these to be different. These are the dresses that if I was to get married another six times, I would want to wear! 

So, they had to be light, not bulky, not trapping (I had a horrible experience when I was looking for wedding dresses years ago and felt physically ill being trapped in a this huge wedding dress, like being forced to get married and there would be no running away or moving in the huge skirt that surrounded me!)

These are for the bride who loves a bit of vintage, old movies and wants a dress that's for and about her not just her wedding. 

The 'Dew' and 'Dalzell' (names taken from the Sunset Boulevard cast list) dress and coat are inspired by those 1950s and 60s Hollywood weddings where the stars have a low key and terribly stylish marriage at the town hall or in Vegas. Think Jackie, Audrey, Elizabeth and Mia. 

The dress is made in a silk duchess satin with an integrated bodice and dramatic folds in the tulip skirt to create the strong lined hourglass silhouette. This is designed to be clean and simple with just our hand beaded belt at the waist.
The Scalloped coat again works well with the simplicity or the shift dress with echoing curves at the centre front and cuffs. This was also designed to be quite a princess coat with the rhinestone trim at the cuffs and the pleats at the back of the full skirt. It's softly tailored with no shoulder pads and just a little structuring in the bodice with boning like a Victorian made jacket. 

I imagining new brides in Vegas and at gorgeous old Town Halls in this with a killer pair of kitten heels and a vintage clutch to match. And maybe just a very chic fascinator from Alisha Petty.

Alisha Petty Hats

 I was very fortunate to be able to work with Alisha Petty and her gorgeous hats whilst shooting the bridal collection and they were the perfect finishing touch to the dresses. 

My favourite was the beautiful hare ear fascinator on a dark green wool base and vintage roses, it's perfect in every way and so very soft. It reminded me of surreal 1940s hats from Schiaparelli and Dali with that same design quality.

The veil is a soft asymmetrically cut tulle with a fine feather crown and rhinestone detailing and the two pearl beaded fascinators and incredibly demure. Thank you very very much to Alisha for bringing these along x

Contact Alisha Petty here. and Here

Spring Summer 2011 Bridal

Here is the lookbook for the long awaited Spring/Summer 2011 Bridal collection. I have loads more to tell and say about the collection but first need to share these pictures of the gorgeous Sian Estelle Petty modelling with hats by Alisha Petty. The Petty Sisters are a fantastic pair and thank you very much to them and their talented ways. x