Tulle Capes

We have some gorgeous capes back in stock, our cafe capes sold out very quickly and now we have these lovelies in soft ivory and an amazing polka dot lavender trimmed in velvet ribbons. They make a great cover up for brides and for cocktail dresses and look pretty cool with a vest and jeans too.
Peruse at your leisure in the shop x 
I'm still loving our candy purple back ground! 

Brides and Debs

The new bridal / debutant prom dresses and the updated, refined Debutant Debby dress. 

The prom dress is now built onto a silk corseted bodice instead of the bought in bodices I used before, This keeps it looking beautiful inside and also gives a lovely smooth back with no stretch. There is still the option for cups too if you like.

The new Ivory Betty and Betty's Big day asymmetric dresses in the lightest silk dupion which gives the full skirts a gorgeous ballet like float. Great to add detailing too in the form of veils, gloves, etc Audrey style.

And the new silk organza 'Candy' dress taken from our candy stripe floral collection with the colours de-saturated and a fuller pleated skirt added to take this design to a slightly more special level. I love the poppy late fifties feel of this dress with the strong outlines in the satin. I used to get told off for outlining everything in art class but outlines are good and I like to add definition.

The ever popular short wedding dress is a way of adding a second dress if you are having a big, big wedding or just feel the need for a costume change works especially well if you have chosen to have a dramatic full length gown with train for the main ceremony.
They also make a super chic option as your main dress and get amazingly pretty pictures too. You get to stay comfortable all day, can dance as madly as you like and depending on what you are looking for, they can be fantastic when you are on a modest budget. And there are so many things you can do to make yours unique.
A simple dress like our Betty dress  can be trimmed to the max with ribbons, vintage brooches and corsages, it's a great blank canvas. The simplicity and great cut also allows you to play around with veil options and go all out on the shoes. Then after the wedding you can take out your nets, add a leather belt and don some ballet pumps and off you go. I know there is a certain treasured feeling you get about your dress after the day but wouldn't it be awesome to just go out and wear these dresses whenever we liked?

For my own wedding I had a full length tulle number which looked fabulous in the photos but me not being used to wearing full length gowns and being a little scared of being a 'bride' on the day, I changed to a candy stripe tulle prom dress for the evening and danced away into the night very happily not feeling in slightest but wifely.
Being able to make the dresses myself did give me quite an advantage though like a kid in a candy store!

Prom Dress

Firstly I'm sorry for not posting for three weeks now. Things have been very busy in the studio with weekends of weddings and festivals and a huge private commission which has taken all my time away. 

This dress was one of my favourites recently and I have been dying to show this for a while. A really quite perfect, a gorgeous customer wanted a proper 1950s debutant prom dress for her end of school prom and I was very, very happy to accept. 

I've been lucky to have intelligent, individual prom girls who are wonderful to work with and I am even even more grateful after I read an article on 'Promzillas' and saw what most girls don for their end of school prom. It sure must give the boys a fright being escorted by brightly coloured, full length polyester and hot fix gems complete with tiara and curls.

My prom girls have been amazing with their own sense of style and have had  ideas for their dresses. 

This is the latest..........................

The dress was made just like our other classic fifties prom with the hand pleated and stitched bodice, gathered bust and its layered full skirt. The difference here was the blue hem which needed to be layered to an uneven graduated hem which required pinning and stitching in place ribbons of the blue tulle to each layer of the skirt and adding a gathered hem to the underskirt to ensure is was vibrant at the base.

You can see our classic prom dress here which is made to order

 And here is our debutant in her dress.

Vintage Bridesmaids Dresses

I'm very excited to show you these two bridesmaids dress commissions we have just completed,  both with a 1950s theme but two very different looks. 

The first is a brilliantly summery collection of halter neck fifties swing dresses with full circle skirts and blue silk pleated belts to match the blue tulle underskirts. Made in a Tanya Whelan print fabric chosen by the bride The matching flower girl dress Anna made is just adorable with the pretty ruffle hem.  I have already seen a sneak peek and one maid in her dress and they look fabulous! 

The second are a sophisticated cocktail style in a beautiful cafe tulle and lace that we sourced on our trip to Singapore. (I'm still kicking myself for not buying twenty more metres of that tulle as the colour is gorgeous, I could only fit enough for these dresses in my suitcase!) Again Anna produced the prettiest flower girl dress to match, complete with dusky pink bow. 

Floral Dotty Tulle Summer Dress

Our dotty tulle summer dress has been created once again, this time for a wedding guest in the US, she's going to look quite fabulous in such pretty fabrics.
I photographed the dress whilst making and got some good shots on the dummy next to a shadow of my old ballet shoes (this is all sounding a bit overly pretty right now, the shoes were an accident that I kept in the picture!). In my squirrelling fabrics away I forgot how vibrant the print was and how great the tulle worked over prints, will have to try and order in some more of these fabrics so we can have these to order.   I wonder what shoes she will wear with the dress?

Astor and the last wedding dress.

 Photography: Alexandra King

Model: Sian Estelle Petty

 So here is the final dress of the collection, Astor and I think my favourite and certainly the most fun to wear with all the skirts.
This dress, with it's carefully layered ballerina skirt of full circles and exaggerated bow was the first dress I designed for the collection. Originally it had petals cascading down the front but wasn't quite my style and the bow very much more me (as Anna will know! :) . The dress was made with an integrated bodice and then the asymmetric choice was hand draped over the top and the pleated hips hand stitched in place.

Available like all the others in this first collection made to order from our Somerset studio and you can view them all in our shop. Any questions please don't hesitate to ask! Contact us here.

 Working on this small yet focused collection has been amazing and the best thing was using just one colour so I could really focus on the silhouette, texture and drape of each dress. I'm really pleased with the final pieces and yes I have spent quite some time in my studio trying each dress and imagining more weddings. There's not much convincing my other half to renew our vows each year!

A final huge THANK YOU to Sian and Alisha and Wing for all of your help with this. There will definitely be more dresses coming in the future with a larger collection next time!