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!

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!