Coming Soon ....

We've been so busy over the past few months that I haven't had a chance to share all of the beautiful dresses we have made. Here's a sneak peek of what's to come soon.

Anna's stunning dress for Polly ............

Photography by Latitude

 The most wonderful lady Caroline and my favourite dresses ...... this is how the glitter bags came about!

Photography by Assassynation

Photography by Assassynation

An eye poppingly fabulous and colourful wedding for Vanessa, the details in her day are just incredible and she organised and made everything with toddler in tow :)

Photography by Dan Jones

And a little something fabulously feline that isn't for a wedding but equally brilliant with a great story that will hopefully have you thinking a little more openly when it comes to the D word.

The Week That Was ...... Mainly Glitter and Bows

The  most perfect shoes to go with our dresses we have ever seen ..... and their name is Anna at Kurt Geiger. Anything that sparkles and we're happy!

And we made a bow clutch bag to match which will be coming to the shop very soon!

A whole layered cake of petticoats went to new owners ...............

......... along with a little black dress to Canada for a 'CHANEL' themed hen party!

We made matching accessories to this gorgeous Sheena Holland hair band for a bride.

A very tiny little girls first bridesmaids dress in green and pink ................

...... and another little girl named Meg became my Muse for childrenswear, she helped me design her dress which ended up  looking super amazing!

The back of a very special wedding dress.

Working out if you can hold a bouquet and glitter clutch bag at the same time walking down the aisle. We thought YES!

Anna did her first hen party workshop making ..................

....... These gorgeous silk garlands for a wedding. Now these are what you call pretty and they aren't bunting!

The end of vintage, really?

So I read the post on the vintage wedding style being over and the overdone vintage styling on the Huffington Post yesterday. You can read it here.

I partially agreed about the vintage thing and  partially thought it was a big old load of nonsense mainly about the return to formal wedding with rules.  I then really needed to ramble so bare with me here.

Thankfully with wedding bloggers like Rock n Roll bride the rules are breaking, you can get married for as little as £200 at the registry office and have a picnic after with two friends (you really can!) or you can go all out. There are no rules!

Here's my two cents worth  on 'vintage' style and weddings pressures...............

So what does 'vintage' actually mean?

in terms of clothing it covers anything over 20 years old. The dictionary defines it as 'representing the high quality of a past time' and I think it's time to be more specific and concentrate on this term quality. 

To me vintage has become an empty word that kind of means nothing and 'vintage style' is just anything that looks old ish but is new. So yes Harmony is very right it has been over-used and some people who jumped on the vintage bandwagon despise the idea of anything old! 

But, this love of historical fashions and things will never end, it's like saying antique collecting will end, museums will end, history lessons will end. We like to look back to the past, with clothing as in all design there are techniques that have changed with industry and it is important to learn from this.

Then you have the personal level, a 1930s wedding dress has a story, a romance and some of us actually get excited by that musty smell!  This silk satin dress hanging on my wall is an original 1940s evening gown, I found it in a skip. That doesn't bother me, it's beautiful.

the stunning Forties dress I found in the skip

On the opposite level there is some absolute rubbish masquerading as 'vintage' or vintage style. So yes it may be time to step away from that word, let the genuine dealers become more respected for their knowledge and carefully curated collections and let all the 'nonsense' disappear over time.

What do I know about vintage clothing? 

I know quite a lot really (not to blow my own trumpet here) . I'm very passionate about Vintage (representing the high quality of the past) clothing.

I have a BA Hons degree in fashion and textile design, a 2.1 and the majority of this was spend studying 'old' clothing.

It funded my way through Uni selling this 'old clothing' and I then ran my own vintage clothing business online.

I worked for the rag man in Bristol sourcing vintage clothing from a whole factory full of discarded textiles the charity shops couldn't sell. I got to the point when I could tell the age just by finger tip rummaging through bins of clothing.

I then worked in a consultancy role for one of the major Bristol Charities, advising for their online shop and on how to make the most from their 'old stuff'.

I did talks on Vintage clothing and eventually I saw it slowly run out. It was all hopefully in the right place, boutiques, peoples homes, being appreciated more.

I still collect and have study sessions at the fashion museum updating my knowledge and understanding.

Isn't what I do 'vintage style'? 

Well yes and I this article made me think a lot about what I do. I need to be more specific. My designs are inspired by dresses of the late 1940s to the early 1960s. It's the techniques and quality that mainly inspires me, the fact that during this era dresses were made with craftsmanship, couture wasn't loosing brands money and having a dressmaker was quite normal. Factory made clothing wasn't here yet so finishing was more hand made. I love this quality and want to bring this to my dresses.  I'm not just designing and making with the style because it's fashionable, it's what I love.

I'm guessing that these 'vintage' photographers, don't learn to use an Rolleiflex properly just because it's on trend, nor do they shoot beautiful, personal images, it happens to be their style.

the details and fabrics that are so important

How important is trend to a wedding? 

It's not or at least it shouldn't be to the bride and groom, it needs to personal to their style whatever it may be.

This sounds really, really silly but Sex and the City the movie did actually have quite an intelligent message when it came to weddings. It's easy for it to be all about the bride and the wedding styling instead of the couple. Big didn't turn up when it got out of control and the city hall wedding at the end was so romantic and most importantly meaningful to the couple. Still in a gorgeous dress too!

My friend just said to me 'do us modern girls really need weddings?'  I'll leave this one to you.

Coral Pink Grecian Bridesmaids

 

Italian Actress Sophia Loren wearing Bvlgari jewelry and photographed by Richard Avedon.Vogue,December 1969.

Anna has been very busy over the past few months working on these beautiful Grecian goddess dresses for Lisa's bridesmaids. The colour is bold and when Anna showed me the silks in the stunning colour soaked chiffon's and crepes from Beckford Silks it confirmed that this was a geat choice. (Beckford silks fabric selection is small and perfectly formed with the highest quality silks and dying service that is second to none.)

The dresses were custom made to the brides specifications and made to measure with a few fittings for the bridesmaids to make sure the length and fit was perfect.
A full length design was requested and the flowing skirt was created by hand draping from the empire line giving the lean line to the dress. Anna trimmed the dresses with a contrasting gold metallic ribbon which works well with the coral and she hand stitched the amazing silk chiffon roses on the shoulder.  These would also look gorgeous on a belt or as vintage style wrist corsages and the finishing touch is the adorable neat bow to the back.
The gold and corals remind me of fabulous 1960s Italian evening gowns worn with gold heels and wonderfully plaited hair, think Sophia Loren.
Overall the look will be four statuesque Grecian Aphrodite's accompanying the beautiful bride on her wedding day. I can't wait to see the pictures!

Creating a Wedding Dress

I usually work on bespoke dresses where the bride has a very individual idea and then I design her dress specifically for her, instead of picking from a collection of set dresses. I now have quite a few designs I've been dying to create so it's time to release my own collection which should be ready early next year.    

This dress was a first sample trial run so I thought I would share the process of creating a wedding gown from start to finish.  I haven't included everything as we would be here forever!

We start with a basic block for the bodice to make the foundation of the dress and make a muslin toile to make sure the bodice design will work and fit correctly. We next cut out the foundation bodice in the silk once the pattern has been cut correctly.

Next the foundation bodice is made up and then boning is inserted where needed whilst checking the fit all round.

The next stage is to build the lining of the bodice, this is the inside of the dress pictured down to the hips and again it's checking the fit and how it lies with the foundation bodice. 

This dress has so many full circles for the base lining, the lining and the tulle skirt which is made up of metres and metres and metres of full circles, all layered and draped to create the full skirt. 

The best way to cut a full circle is with a tape measure and a pin, measuring the same distance all around to make a perfect circle.

The the base lining is attached in silk and I start to build up the layers of the skirt carefully hand stitching each piece in place and checking the fall all the way around. 

I always check the dress in the mirror as I'm working, it's something I picked up from art lessons at school and I think it gives you a new perspective so you can see if anythings not quite right. It's definitely needed after working on the same dress for 10 hours a day!

(please excuse my messy studio, I'm a hoarder!)

Then the bodice is draped onto the foundation in stages constantly adjusting the folds in this particular design until I've got then just in the right place and then hand stitching in place.  Then it's time for the finishing touches in the way of details, sashes, beading, etc. The total time amounts to over fifty hours but the finished piece is always worth it.

The most exciting part is being able to walk into my studio the morning after I've finished the dress to see the design I sketched weeks or months before in real life. xxx