Svenja and Seb

This week's bridal gown is a wonderfully unique one. Svenja and her husband Seb were married at King Parrot in the Otways this autumn.

They chose an intimate event, with everything from the food to the decorations made by them, and their family and friends, many of whom came over from germany for the celebration.

Svenja wanted an non-traditional wedding gown that was all about her personal style, not the "bridal look". I love this kind of client who knows themselves and allows me to go a bit wild designing them something exciting and unexpected.

Svenja had a strong idea of her references and had collected a good range of inspiration photos including:

Fabric look and movement...

Voluminous grey silk chiffon layered over another colour..

Dress style and lines...

A-line full skirt with Celtic references, off the shoulder bodice and low-waisted line.

Textures and decoration...

Organic, layered, high-contrast,

Bolero jacket....

cropped, cut-away, in strong colours/ textures...

 

I developed three very different styles of gown using these reference points, and Svenja chose a three-piece ensemble, because she really wanted to be able to wear parts of it again, and she also liked the "casual" element this bought to her look, in contrast to a highly constructed "gown".

We worked through a miriad of colour ways from greens and greys, to blacks, blues and finally warm flesh and pinks. 

Svenja had a preference for black, grey and red, high contrast combinations with maximum impact, but we worked away from that and into the world of shades of grey, with warmer highlights.

The important thing about choosing colours for such an event is that even if your preference for a colour in day-to-day life is strong, these may not be appropriate for your wedding day: you want to be the focus of your outfit, not the the clashing colours in your dress. 

Design and colour concept sketch, for Svenja's wedding dress..

In the end, Svenja's wedding outfit was made up of a full circle skirt, layered in grey chiffon shot with silver, over a "cameo" pink crepe underskirt. With this she also had a black lace bodice with dusky pink underneath the lace, and then also a cropped jacket. Made from a grey silk/linen blend, and lined with the dusky pink silk, this jacket also had a hood and black cornelli worked around the bottom hem.

All-in-all, the skirt used about 8m of fabric and was pretty heavy. The lace is a Leavers lace from France, very slightly stretchy, and quite flat texture. The grey chiffon was from Tessuti, as well as the silk/linen for the jacket.

I have previously posted some up-close shots of this ensemble, at Texture Texture, but here are some more.

And here are some shots form the Big Day. Their wedding photographer was Kate Smethurst, at
Ms Jane.

Thank you to Svenja for her beautiful and unusual commission, and to both Seb and Svenja for sharing  their goregous wedding day.

Daylight Save-d My Life

Happily the sun is returning to my world and it really looks like winter may finally end.

Latest creations are delightfully breezy; no more tweed please!

With the Racing season approaching fast fast fast, I'm getting into the mood with printed cottons and classic lines.

This linen and printed cotton dress was ordered way back at the beginning of the year, for Derby Day. It is an adaptation of a dress I made when Lissom Yarn opened and I didn't have a lot to do.. the original skirt was a full circle.

The back of the skirt is longer than the front and the bodice is lined and bound with my old favourite, black satin bias binding.

The cotton print came from the ends bin at Tessuti, back in February. I wish I had 5 more metres!

Next is a lovely thing made for a client with fabric she supplied, a very interesting printed silk chiffon.

The client was inspired by my awesome "How to be a Fashion Designer" book from 1979 in my studio; lots of drawings of rip-offs of Yves Saint Laurent's bohemian Russian gypsy collections.

So we decided on bell sleeves and a little peplum, that she can add a thin leather belt to at home.

I'm rather proud of this little blouse, mostly because the construction is largely french seams on four layers of chiffon; quite a challenge. But it looks great inside, so it was defiantly worth it!

I also love the "pussy-bow", and the way the print worked out; the blue section only ran along one selvedge, so cutting was slow and cautious!

Again with the self - covered buttons, which were desperately fiddly with two layers of silk chiffon.

But hooray, it all worked out in the end.

Coming up this month are some outrageous race dresses and hopefully some hats...Stay posted!