In April my beautiful friends Annie and Tony married outside Canberra.
Annie and I have known each other since we met at ANU in 2004 and have spent a lot of years sharing a passion for vintage clothing, sewing, millinery and beautiful things in general. Depsite being a solictor, she is a creative wiz and we spent many hours making together when I had my shop in Flemington.
So when Annie commissioned me to make her wedding gown, I knew she would have a strong sense of her own style and romantic ideals for the event, which was always going to be a bit of a big deal.
Annie presented me with a polyglot of source material, based most essentially in a sense of place and season for the wedding; being the autumn countryside outside Canberra, on her family farm. This pushed us towards a unique earthiness which is rarely explored in bridal design, and I was really excited that Annie wanted to be that brave. We also noted a sense of nostalgia, and classical elegance as over-arching principles in the design of the gown. Annie’s style has always been first and foremost, one of classicism and elegance. She is the kind of person who says things like “classy girls don’t look cold” and I love her for it.
So we worked through a range of colour palettes and fabrics options before settling on a classic ballerina skirt and structured bodice onto which we could applique embroidered tulle. Annie's penchant for whipping up retro patterns in crisp spots or ginghams inspired me to follow this classic line, but to break the stuffiness that could possibly be with a more organic draped boatneck. I also aimed to allow the fantastic embroidery we chose to speak for itself in the final design.
We chose a French embroidered net that had a colour way of gold, lavender grey and wheat, on a coffee-coloured base. From that decision we were able to choose three other colours to layer into the full ballerina skirt, which would be raised at the front, for dancing, and in some deference to the terrain of the venue. We used cream, coffee, and a fleshy pink nude tulle net to to create the luxurious skirt, over a base of coffee duchess satin. Her gown also had a simple petticoat underneath all that, to create form and prevent the tulle from folding in on itself, and the satin skirt from buckling. The satin skirt was mounted on shapewell and the bodice was a fully boned corset construction.
The embroidered tulle was in a large scale repeat, so we had a lot to work with. It is truely my favourite part of any job, to drape a delicious fabric onto a bodice and be free to work with how the fabric presents itself. Annie was on hand for the construction of her gown as we were on a tight timeframe. She spent a couple of days in my laundry sewing her huge tulle circle skirts together. I think we had ten layers in total.
In the end we decided to let the lace be itself, and to not over-work the skirt section, so I just cut back into it in a way that allowed the volume to support the line of the lace edge and we judiciously tacked it were necessary. -
I just adore the combination of huge skies and autumn landscapes that formed the backdrop to Annie and Tony’s special day, and that Annie chose a gown which reflects the earthy honesty of this richly heartfelt wedding.
Photography by Hilary Wardhaugh Photography
