The Pandora Dress

Finally the seventh dress, the Pandora. This little pop rocket of a dress is my personal favourite for its electric personality and illicit thoughts that filled my head whilst designing her.

A single scenario repeated in my imagination for which this dress would be worn .........................

It's a cold, crisp, dark night in New York city and Pandora is entering the premier of her latest film. The flash bulbs are cracking all over the red carpet, paps are shouting her name 'Hey Pandora, look over here for me!', fans are squealing with desperate joy flapping their autograph books and Pandora's porcelain face glows as her eyes sparkle in the light. 

The most famous starlet of our time is bundled into the theatre where she takes a deep breath and flicks her brunette hair back into perfected place. 

The gentleman on her right takes her over sized platinum coat and checks it in, the one on her left goes to announce her anticipated arrival. For just a moment Pandora stands alone in the foyer awaiting the overwhelming fuss that will be made of her in just two minutes time.

A tap on the shoulder startles her, 'he's waiting in the alley' a tall figure whispers closely. 

Her heart pounding and butterflies whirling everywhere Pandora turns on her sparkling heel and move swiftly towards the fire exit. Busting the door open the cold air freshly hits her skin as steam billows from the subway grates. The single light coming from the doorway catches the sequins of her dress shimmering as she opens the heavy black door of the car. In a split second she is free, gone. Leaving just a sheer glimpse of an image.

The Pandora is a coquette of a dress. The sweetheart of the neckline that molds over the smooth bust, the wrapping of the silk chiffon tightly around the waist and the dense sequins that shimmer over the bodice as it moves. The plunging back of the dress reveals all, with long drapes hemmed in indulgent marabou feathers fit for the finest courtesan.
Cut in an hourglass highlighting the curves and falling to the calf I wanted this dress to be both as sexual and ladylike as possible.

For more info on the Pandora in the boutique please click on the photos.

Bespoke Gown for the Barbican

This dress was made for a wedding at the Barbican Arts Centre this September and was commissioned as a bespoke piece for a bride looking for something to fit perfectly with the venue and her style.

Based on our Christy dress the French corded lace used was a deep champagne colour to match the dark ivory of the silk duchess satin. Once again we turned the silk on it's back to give the lustrous depth of sheen without the high shine.
This fitted design with its dramatic low back, smoothed hips and feminine sweetheart illusion over the bust gave a beautiful balletic quality. Contrasting with this delicate fit the double full circle skirt drapes in dramatic curls to the hand bound hem made from the matching silk satin.

The bride chose a fabulous pair of spectator shoes from Chie Mihara with a lemon yellow bow which we picked up in stripes over the finely beaded belt.
Each of the covered lace buttons was hand beaded with Japanese foil lined glass beads in a mix of champagne and cream tones. This design matched the edging of the neckline also adorned in subtle beads.

It has been an honor to design a dress to be worn at the Barbican surrounded by so much inspiration and style.

Beautiful Blue Bride

 PHOTOGRAPHY BY LINSE 2 

www.linse2.at

 PHOTOGRAPHY BY LINSE 2 

www.linse2.at

PHOTOGRAPHY BY LINSE 2 

www.linse2.at

PHOTOGRAPHY BY LINSE 2 

www.linse2.at

I love receiving wedding photos especially when they include a beautiful bride wearing one of my dresses! 

This little blue silk dress trimmed in silver sequins with a full deep hemmed tulle skirt looks absolutely stunning on bride Georgie in Melbourne. Congratulations to the happy couple! x

For more info on having this dress made to order please click here. 

Green Deco Wedding Dress

It's always a heart in your mouth moment when the words design change are uttered, but I'm so glad this dress managed to pull through the all the nervous 'will it work?' worries. Going from a classic fifties full skirted design to this elegant and sophisticated take on the 1920s, the dress most definitely worked.

The dress emerged as an art deco, modest twenties stroke fifties cocktail hour design with a sweetheart fitted bodice in silk duchess satin to match a pencil skirt of the same silk. The bodice was then hand draped and overlaid in fine silk chiffon with beautiful deco inspired bead detail.

I always say I would be happy sewing beads for the rest of my life and this is why when you look at the waistband peeking out from the bodice on the dress. To be able to say that all this beading is hand sewn in the UK is something I am also very proud of, no childrens fingers were harmed in the making of this dress!

The subtle glimmer of the frosted metallic seed beads dotted over the bodice and the eye catching shoulder motifs all embellish the dress like jewels. Fine silk covered buttons trim the spine each individually encrusted with the matching silver and green glass beads.

Worn as a demure wedding dress this Summer and a design to definitely influence pieces to come. Fingers crossed this dress makes it to a museum one day.

The Meg in Photos ...

The Meg dress photographed last year at Goldney Hall for a wedding fair we attended.  I couldn't quite believe this huge beautiful house and grounds was completely hidden in Bristol city.

The gorgeous model Freya was so lovely to sit atop my pink beetle and looked stunning waltzing around the place all day with her long waves styled by Beehive Brides (this lady ALWAYS does fantastic hair!).

I love this last image by Dawn Wilkins showing off the grandness of the building.

We teamed the Meg dress with our silver glitter clutch bag and glitter bow belt and Kurt Geiger Anna shoes. See them all in the shop. xxx

Caroline and her dress ......

Caroline first came to me last year looking for a bespoke wedding dress. I immediately wanted to make her dress within seconds of meeting and when I closed the door to the studio I kept my fingers crossed that this better than Audrey Hepburn lookalike would be wearing my dress on her big day.

So lucky me, it turned out good! I worked on the designs with Caroline so that we could have a dress that not only looked spectacular on the day but could be worn again. As we speak I am just finishing a blue lace over dress for her Christmas party.

This post is going to have to span a few weeks long as there is so much to show you. The first pictures are of the engagement shoot which made it to the Times engagement section with my tie dye and black lace dress. How society!

Times Newspaper - Photography by Assassynation 

The initial sketches for Caroline's dress 

 Here is the first design of the dress and the development pictures. The dress was made from silks from Caroline's very local supplier in Gloucester, Beckford Silks. They dye all of our silks in Gloucester and are a brilliant company who print, dye and make sure all our silks are top quality.

One of the fittings at the studio.

So we had a few fittings at Caroline's Mums house and at the studio, it was always so lovely to see her twirling around whilst I pinned and gave my usual critical glare over the dress. (this isn't ever me glaring it you it's me checking the dress is just right!) Caroline couldn't have been a better bride to work with, always positive, gorgeously ladylike and wonderfully relaxed whilst knowing exactly what she wanted. It's also a great help having a super lovely family and friends to bring along too.

 And this is what the dress looked liked in the end ..........................  silk duchess satin, silver lace removable jacket and a huge detachable bow.  There will be lots of photos of the wedding coming up soon, after I share the bridesmaids dresses. xxx

Anne's Dress

 Anne's dress was made earlier this year for her May wedding all the way in Australia. This is the version 2.0 of the Betty in a silk taffeta with Anne's choice of the gorgeously green silk sash tied into a big bow.

I love this combination of ivory and emerald, this style sash with the dress is a great balance and the emerald silk, as always is an eye catcher.

Images by White Tulip Photography, Australia.

Images by White Tulip Photography, Australia.

Images by White Tulip Photography, Australia.

Images by White Tulip Photography, Australia.

Anne kindly send me her wedding snaps of her looking beautiful and oh so chic on the day, such a magical looking backyard marriage, it looks like a perfect setting to get wed. Beautiful images by White Tulip Photography, Australia.

Customer Pics - Vicky and Mike Grace

 

I have been meaning to blog these pictures for such a long time but this was a case of sitting down properly to write the tale of Vicky and Mike and the wedding dress that was made just in time!

I first met Vicky at the Bristol Vintage wedding fair. I was in my full swing of saying yes, yes, yes we make wonderful dresses,  wearing my elephant dress and feeling sooo nervous inside like I always do.  Vicky said that she would like a dress and I booked her in for an appointment at the studio. She said the wedding was in May and I was "yes that's all great".

Vicky arrived at the studio on the 7th April a little nervous and she bought with her, for the first time EVER her husband to be Mike. It was so wonderful that Vicky could involve Mike in her dress, it made me a little nervous myself having a Man in the studio ( men can be weird around dresses when they don't want to wear them ).
Mike was not weird and the couple sat on my sofa and explained that the wedding was in less than a month and would it really be possible to make a dress in this time? My head was a little WTF me and my big mouth saying I could do this when I am so busy?

But, "YES" it would be fine. From the start I wanted to make the dress for Vicky and was more than happy to work a little harder to do this in time. So we started discussing the dress design, fabrics etc.
The couple had been through a really hard time personally hence why there was a delay in organising the dress, it had been the last thing on their minds. It was emotional first appointment with a few tears and so much loveliness with Mike saying to Vicky " I'll be blown away seeing you in this dress". Vicky understandably shed a few tears and how I didn't bawl my eyes out at the love between these two I don't know!

So the dress was set, I had the challenge of being super focused and making the dress in two weeks and all was sorted. Or so I thought .......... I ordered the silk the day of the appointment and to my horror the supplier emailed me a few days later to say that they only had one metre left and they weren't getting any more. I needed four metres to make the dress!
I emailed Vicky saying how sorry I was and that we would need to use a different print.

The next morning Mike text me saying PLEASE CALL ME. I was terrified thinking he would actually come down the phone and strangle me, but thankfully no. Instead he had rang round suppliers and gave me a really clear list of samples to order for Vicky's dress and who to speak to. I did as I was told and ordered the samples so they would arrive with Vicky the next day for her to choose from.

Meanwhile ......... Mike frantically cycled around Bristol to every supplier in his book (he used to be a curtain maker so knew his stuff!) and found the exact print of the Lily dress in a little shop in Bedminster. Where I used to buy fabrics at Uni and the last place I would have looked!

He reserved the silk for me and I speedily drove up to Bristol to collect it. Yes people there are diamonds of men out there and Vicky has one very sparkly 100 carat man in Mike! He saved the dress!

Vicky collected her dress two weeks later, trying it on at the studio and looking beautiful. On the 5th May they were married in Bristol. Vicky looks soooooooooooooooooooooo stunning and the vintage faux fur jacket is perfect for the dress along with her classic black Prada shoes.

So all was well in the end. The dress was made, the couple were utterly gorgeous and for me at a super stressful  time, I couldn't have asked for a more perfect couple to work for.
Congratulations to my very favourite couple who made my job so rewarding and thank you also for the holiday treats which went down very well! x

P.S the photography is by a very talented Flora Symons who is just 15. Me thinks she will go far in photography!