London Celestial Winter Bride

Helen wanted a relatively understated and elegant dress to reflect her serene beauty, but also loved the idea of some subtle sequin embroidery.

The dress itself was made in a light weight silk satin with an over layer of french chiffon in a pearl tone. The silhouette was slim, with subtle flare from the mid-thigh. The bodice gathered gently at the bust and is cut with raglan style capped sleeves to emphasise the shoulder shape. The back bodice is cut to a low v-shape in a sheer layer of chiffon. The entire edge of the neckline is dotted with glass beads giving a picot edge effect.

The sequin embroidery design in based on a vintage 1920′s dress which had flame shapes that interlinked and peaked around the hem, (we went through several art deco inspired variations before arriving at the final design.) The design was reinterpreted in shades of gold and beige sequins, some smooth and some textured for extra depth. I found some particularly amazing gold embossed snake skin sequins which were an amazing find, and had a beautiful texture. The flame shapes were accented with chains of glass beads.

To integrate and merge the line between the sequin shapes and the soft chiffon I embroidered shooting stars and starbursts. I found some diamond shaped mother of pearl shell-shaped beads which were layered with variations of sequins and beads, and bordered in different combinations of seed beads, which had trails of gold and ivory beads shooting in different directions, these featured both on the raglan seams and on the hem design.
The waist seam was edged with a fine row of gold and ivory beads and pearls.

At the back opening a strung a chain of gold beads, which attached from shoulder blade to shoulder blade, from which three stands hung at different levels, again, each strung with a combination of beads.

I also made Helen a beaded hair vine of gold beads, twisted to make leaf shapes, with interspersed with clusters of gold beads and pearl diamonds.

Helen is a creative herself, and with art deco being one of my favourite design era’s, it was wonderful to explore some possibilities together and have another persons input too. Through our process I have some things in mind too for future projects!

Helen and Mike’s Wedding Photographs were captured by Caro Hutchings, catch more of her work by following this link to her website! www.carohutchings.com