Vintage Latte Dream

This week I have a vintage-inspired wedding gown to share, made for the lovely Leah.

As vintage is so huge in the wedding market these days, you would think it would be easier to find something less "bridal", something more unique. But unfortunately, like most wedding trends, the originally fresh idea gets watered-down, over-used and sold-out: think mass produced vintage trinkets from China, polyester "old-fashioned" lace dresses and the general glut of hideous pastel-coloured junk that now passes for "antique" or "retro". 

That said, I think you can still successfully incorporate a vintage-y flavour into elements of your wedding successfully, it's just a matter of using some taste, and discretion to choose where this will shine through. A lot of brides get this really right, and I think "vintage" is a great way to cut through the inherent glitz and shmack that can secretly work it's way into your wedding design. 

Vintage has a real place for this reason: like a lot of old things, we find integrity and charm in styles past, even if, at the time, they were as tacky as Hello Kitty is now. Thats the joy of nostalgia. 

When it comes to clothes, this is often an extremely personal reaction.

Vintage fashion is great because it acknowledges a style when women were not encouraged to look like twiggy, 12-year-models. The most referenced periods (1930s, '40s, '50s, '60s) are now so appealing because women dressed up, as women. 

The vintage styles we love now require (relatively) massive amounts of 

underwear, styling, shopping, preening and general time-wastage that modern women can't be doing with: except on yer wedding day!

Underwear really does need to be kept in mind when you choose any special dress. There is no way any glamourous look is achieved without foundation garments: whilst a boned dress will hold your torso in, every (un-boned) dress will look better if you choose the right bras, shape-wear, and slip. Ask your Nanna. You aren't actually expected to be anti-gravity on your own. (see below)

Dior dress, 1952, via Fifties Wedding
These designs famously incorporate a heavily constructed bra,
and girdle with extra hip padding, to create this extreme shape.

So this week's bridal creation was along these lines: feminine, nostalgic, emotive, unique.

Leah wanted, as many clients do, something "different, personal, with a touch of vintage about it". She had a nice collection of inspiration pictures and some good reference points regarding features she really wanted to incorporate:

• Waisted design with belt, perhaps and a full but short skirt, 
• Texture: lace, tulles, fabric with grain, jacquard or hailspot. 
• Cap sleeves

Her wedding was to be a modern, understated urban affair, and she set about organising it in a tight timeframe, so there was to be nothing too over-blown about the dress. A city cocktail reception set the tone, as well as Leah's desire for something she might wear again.

Its also really important, when using "vintage" as inspiration for your wedding, to choose your angle, and focus on what's relevent. Just choosing "lace", or "vintage" won't necessarily result in an elegant party or dress:

• Do you like a certain decade? What stands out about that period to you? Colours, lines, shapes.
• Choose a limited range of colours and textures and stick to it. 
• Cut out white, and replace it with creams, off-white and dirty, tinted colours like beige, lemon, browns, duck-egg blue, pink. 
• Keep the textures natural and old-fashioned: cotton, porcelain, wicker, glass, silk, linen; not shiny, polyester or plastic. 

These kinds of guidelines will direct your choices to create a nice look, not an op-shop explosion.

I designed a range of options for Leah, as she gave me a range of source material, and I wanted to keep the design open for her to choose whatever really struck her. These were based around dresses referencing the waisted 1950's line, but with a more reduced silhouette, to keep it modern. We talked about fabrics like linen, silk tulle, spotted voile, lace. Geometry and simplicity were key guidelines. 

The key was to make it "vintage", but not too frilly. A fine line to walk, or sew.

We ended up going with a layered design of two dresses, a spotted cream satin sleeves princess-line dress, under a latte-coloured georgette over-dress. This would have the details of lace inserts and add to the soft flowing look of the dress.

The under-dress was made of very soft cream silk satin, with a self spot, which was really cute, especially on the diagonal across the skirt, as below.

Spotted silk under-dress with cream belt and blue belt.

 I went with a simple circle cut for the skirt, as the fabrics were so soft, I wanted a bit of volume, and "swish", which is always fun. This is the sort of thing that can make you love a dress, no matter how adult, or rational you think you are... I've had many grown women dancing around the shop during a fitting, unashamedly swishing.

I dyed the lace to match the georgette, and made three belts: one cornflower blue, one in the spotted cream silk and another to match the latte dress in georgette.

Leah loved the beautiful soft latte colour, as the whiter tones where too conventional and stark for her taste. A gorgeous colour, made even more interesting by the layering textures to pick it up. And by being a more natural, neutral colour, it also emphasises the antique influence in the design.

Latte wedding dress with lace insert panels, and bow.

Layered silk satin and georgette wedding dress.

Leah can now wear these dresses alone or together and has a couple of accessories to make it new and fun each time.

So, here are some of the photos from Leah and Casey's wedding in Melbourne. I love the church setting, and Leah's excellent accessories really finish her vintage-inspired look: pearls, netted fascinator, and amazing shoes. But as you can see, she still looks like a completely modern bride.
 These lovely photos are by Jacinta Benne and Bec Gallaher.

Thank you to Leah and Casey for sharing their photos and beautiful wedding.

How to design your wedding dress, part 3.

Third instalment...

This week is a very fun wedding dress conversion.

One day the client, Kathryn, came into the shop with her Mum's wedding dress from the 1970's. It was a sweet, but very '70's dress with a lace high - necked bodice and sleeves, and polyester A-line skirt. She wanted to wear it to honour her mum, and to hopefully get an original dress for her own wedding.

1970's wedding dress

Back 

Kathryn said she wanted to transform it into a modern dress for her beach wedding. She wanted a strapless, boned bodice with the lace extended down to the hipline, and a slimmer skirt line. I suggested a a silk lining and possibly an over-lay on the skirt in order the cover the polyester. For her budget I needed to "retro-fit", not deconstruct, then re-construct the entire dress. 

So the three "S's" for Kathryn were;

1. Setting: Beach

2. Season: Autumn

3. Style: Contemporary

We integrated these through the modern strapless design, and the softness of the overlay, which created a more organic, flowing silhouette, to suit the beach setting.  

First I cut back the bodice and took it in to fit Kathryn's shape, marking the new design lines around the hip and necklines, shown below.

Then, onto the dress, I draped the corset shape in calico, extending from the new neckline to the hip line. I then transferred this and made the corset pattern in paper.

Then I made the corset "insides'' from Shapewell and polyester boning, to sit inside the shell of the dress.  There was also a silk lining, from the same (tightened) pattern. 

Then we came to a fork in the (design) roads; once I had a basic re-modelled dress, I started playing with how to adapt these features Kathryn wanted into an original, and appropriate dress.

There were two main directions:

1. As Kathryn had directed, lengthening the lace bodice to the hips. As she is a petite bride, I was concerned about the 1:1 proportion of this design, as it could make her torso look too long. In other words, she would be half torso/half skirt, which is not a great ratio. 

I added the overlay here to soften the sad old polyester skirt, and added a silk petticoat with a duster hem (ruffled). 

2. The second option was this more classical, empire-line design, below. This worked with the original line of the lace, and had a more flowing look to the skirt, which I felt suited her setting better, as well as her figure.

Ultimately, Kathryn and I devised a combination of the two. 

She wanted a fitted form over her tummy, and hips, and felt the softer design wouldn't suit her, so we went with the longer lace to the hips. But I added a belt to raise her waist visually, and we draped the chiffon over her shoulder and across the skirt to get some dynamism into the silhouette, with drape and asymmetry.

Finished gown, with lace to the hip, built in corset,
satin belt and chiffon draped skirt.

Back view

Draped side view

Front; sweetheart neckline, asymmetrical strap and skirt drape.

Again, Kathryn had a great time in her dress, and loved that it was handmade for the occasion. It was a very personal and very cost effective way to create an original wedding dress, and I had a great time doing it. Thank you Kathryn, for thinking outside the box!

Next week, a wedding dress inspired by red carpet glamour.