Grace first came to visit us early last year looking for a bespoke gown that would be just the right design for her home wedding on her flower farm.
Grace grows the most beautiful flowers on her farm and instead of just providing the flowers she also sells the seeds in beautiful packaging so that you can have the pleasure of growing your own stunning bloom.
Grace showed me some inspiration images and after looking through the swatches, visiting fabric shops in London, chose a heavily detailed paisley French lace. This is one of the most beautiful and delicate laces out there with an all over pattern and eyelash edge. The best laces always come very narrow and this was less than a metre in width setting a few challenges on how to create the long draped line.
A champagne colour was chosen with a dark taupe silk satin to be made into a slip underneath. The slip was cut on the bias creating instant fluidity, however the lace was really too narrow to cut on the bias without having a join across the thigh which wouldn't have looked good. Grace was looking for some sparkle and after some research into 1920s gowns where fabrics were also narrow, cut straight but had perfect drape, we realised the beading itself would create the drape by weight.
From there the design was set and after sewing the dress we set about beading the whole dress with Swarovski crystals, pearls, matte gold beads and delicate glass gold beads. After a few months of patiently hand sewing the beads the result was a beautifully detailed gown. There was a great weight that just covered Graces hands and slipped seductively off the shoulder every now and then. Just the right level of ultra glamorous and nonchalant.
Grace didn't have a photographer present at the wedding, I would have loved to see how beautiful everything looked on the day! Thankfully Grace allowed me to take a few photos at her fitting. She looked stunning!
