Introducing Cheyne, the most awesome bride, beautiful, smiley, upbeat
and kind-hearted. At first, her wedding dress dreams were nearly
thwarted by rude wedding boutique shop staff (lone rangers I’m sure!)
before coming to find me.
A clear vision of a golden sequined dress for the golden sunshine of New Zealand where she was to be wed.
The
fabric chosen was commissioned and provided, at somewhat short notice,
by The Silk Society on Berwick Street, London. A textured cupped sequin
bronze/gold sequin sewn in dense rows on a strong chiffon base.
Knowing
that there would be a ‘stripe’ to the fabric, we factored this into the
design, with subtle, but (I think) necessary pattern cutting, creating
diagonal cross sections at the waist of the body - meaning that the
sequins dissect the body at different angles, which is subtly flattering
and interesting.
Since the sequin design was based onto chiffon
which is not strong enough to hold a sculpted shape on it’s own - we
were always going to have to base it on a stronger silk - so we may as
well have fun with it! The sleeves were a simple, but effective capped
shape.
Cheyne asked for a daring thigh split (actually, probably a
genius idea in the New Zealand heat with a heavily sequined skirt). At
the front hip, the sequined fabric was draped and pleated into the seam
for extra texture and detail.
A small train gave more of a bridal
feel to the dress (though not so big that it was heavy to carry around -
on account of the heavy sequinage). As an added ‘bridal feature’,
Cheynes mum was keen for her to wear a veil. Being unsure if a
traditional ivory veil would be too stark, I found a golden champagne
coloured veil fabric, and made a simple, long and straight cut veil.
Although
- a quick note for brides wanting to stray away from traditional white
and Ivory colours: A lot of brides ask me “will I still look like a
bride if I wear colour?”, and my answer is always “Yes!!!” - because you
are the bride, and without getting too silly and whimsical - on your
wedding day you will have a little extra special smile and a glow that
always transforms you into the bride!
I love Cheyne’s combination of the purple and pink flowers in her hair
and bouquet, they work so wonderfully with the gold of the dress.
Seeing
Cheyne with her husband Richard in her wedding photo’s is really
lovely, with each meeting I could see Cheyne’s excitement building, and
her wanting to share all the fun stuff with Richard as she usually would
(except the dress stuff was a secret to keep!). I hope he loved it as
much as I loved creating it!