Gold Sequin Mermaid Wedding Dress

Never did I think I would be making this design for a real bride, so making this dress for Georgie was very exciting for me. It had started out as a whimsical design for a Mermaid photo shoot, (seen here). Georgie toyed between this style and a more typical lace 50’s tea dress for a while, and lucky for me Georgie’s sense of fun took over!!

Georgie was initially concerned that the style wouldn’t suit her body, and even though she is tall, slim and perfectly curved, I assured that regardless of shape and size, a bespoke dress is tailored to suit you, so most styles can be tailored to suit any figure.

One of he things I love about Georgie’s dress is that it is more reflective of my original vision of what the dress should be (compared to the ‘mermaid dress’, with a fun 1920’s drop-waist influence, that is not too obvious in it’s intentions of being a ‘vintage style’ dress. The colours however, are all Georgie’s own vision. Funnily, Georgie took inspiration from an album cover which had a digital kind of design on it, but I knew what she was saying.
Georgie hosted a festival wedding in Devon on a cliff-top for which she had made so many ridiculously amazing things in a rainbow of bright colours, but a scheme of fuschia and turquoise was highlighted by giant sequined letters spelling out the bride and grooms initials. These were the colours used on Georgie’s dress, using a matte gold sequin mesh backed with a golden green silk which reflected subtly through, and embroidering a scattering of different sized and shaped gold, green and turquoise sequins, (some with a petroleum effect), beads and Swarovski crystals to highlight the star-burst cut of the bodice which accentuates the waist. A motif of fuschia pink hand-made silk flowers, with embellished crystal centres, was attached to a simple silk ribbon belt, with the addition of gold lace leaves.
The tulle skirt layers needed to fade from the gold sequined bodice into the white hem so that contrast was not too harsh, so I cut golden layers too which where mixed under the white layers to create the blend, as well as a gold silk satin lining which would reflect through the tulle.

I made Georgie a headband too because she was struggling to find the perfect piece. She didn’t want it to ‘match’, so to tie in the colour of the dress I used a rouleaux of golden silk from the dress, and embroidered with pale golden pearls and clear swarovski crystals, as well as cutting floral shapes from several different laces and stitched them in a way to make them three dimentional, with golden lace leaves too.

I’m sure Georgie and her groom had an amazing day (I’ve seen the photo’s!!), and I only hope that the dress i made for her added to the fun of everything that she created too!

These incredible images were taken by Chris Parkes at Christophotographic http://www.christophotographic.co.uk/