Design Process,  Design Sources,  Understanding Colour
: A vast range of fabrics are available including dupions in hundreds of shades, duchesse satins, taffetas, shot and plain chiffons, crushed and smooth velvets.

 

Design Sources

It is always a compliment to me when a client orders a gown from those shown on the web-site or kept at the studio, and requests no changes in colour, shape or any detail. However, if you do not wish to have an existing Rossetti design I am more than happy to work with you on a unique original order. A painting or antique fashion plate can provide inspiration for your wedding gown or period costume. Design source material is plentiful - from costume postcards available in most galleries and museums to books on the history and construction of period costume and dress. Painters of the 18th and 19th centuries provide great inspiration. These include Millais, Winterhalter, Fragonard, Waterhouse, Tissot, Fortescue-Brickdale, Burne-Jones and Blair-Leighton. Many classic texts have been made into films - you might already have a favourite, but investigate DVDs with a fresh eye. Nastassia kinski's costumes in Polanski's "Tess" are some gorgeous examples of late nineteenth century dress. If late Victorian bustle gowns are your thing also look at "Moulin Rouge" (Baz Luhrmann), "The Age of Innocence", "The Buccaneers"(BBC), and "Bram Stoker's Dracula". You love "Dangerous Liaisons" but is it actually a sack-backed ("Watteau") gown you would like for your wedding dress? Or is it the combination of yards of sumptuous satins and taffetas with a boned bodice? Do you like the ornamentation or would you like the "feel" of the eighteenth century period, in a more 21st century wedding gown? Also look at "Jefferson in Paris", "Pirates of the Caribbean", "Sleepy Hollow" and the BBC's "Aristocrats" for both daywear and court gowns of the 18th century. Some films are classic sources of costume inspiration: see "Shakespeare in Love", "Titanic", "Wings of the Dove", "A Room with a View" and "Orlando". Virginal white, while not an absolute rule,was the most usual colour for wedding dress from the eighteenth century onwards. Contrasts in texture and decoration provided the interest within this restricted palette - often ornamented with silver during the eighteenth century. Very few people actually look at their best in white, but you may still wish to stay with a pastel colour. I can obtain virtually any colour within some fabric form - there are so many to choose from that it can often be a good idea to consider your favoured colours prior to a consultation - those which predominate in your wardrobe or your home are usually the major clues! Please feel free to enquire about any styles or periods of costume/ wedding gown not included in this site. My original training was in "design interpretation" (see above). Although this is a satisfying end in itself, these days I gain most enjoyment from working on new and fresh designs of my own - developing ideas with a bride. I am equally happy constructing an exact period replica gown or mixing the centuries (and breaking all the "rules"!) The one priority is to make a bride look stunning.

16th Century

Elizabethan and Renaissance dress and costume can be very inspirational for wedding gown design. Boned bodices were quite severe and often elaborately decorated. Fashions were established at court by Henry VIII and then Elizabeth I who is said to have engendered an atmosphere of rivalry among her courtiers to be the first with new fashions. Inevitably this led to the absorbtion of foreign styles, especially Spanish and was also influenced by the availability of silks and lace from Italy. See the films "Elizabeth", "The Merchant of Venice and and "La Reine Margot".

18th Century

In the late eighteenth century England looked to France as a leader of fashion. The court of Versailles was a major influence - patterned dress fabrics were invented in France. Gowns were supported by panniers which evolved from a bell shape to a distinctly two-sided unweildy frame. (More contemporary variations on this style can utilise small panniers, petticoats and bum-rolls to achieve a comparable, yet practical shape). Gown shapes include the "sackback" or "Watteau" gown - this combined a fitted bodice, moulded to the figure with large pleats falling from the shoulders to the ground in sumptuous folds. It was worn over a decorated petticoat and with a stomacher (often richly decorated) covering the bust to waist - a style which flattened and lifted the bust. Sheer practicality led to another fashion evolution: firstly the gown was pulled up at the sides throught pocket slits to enable ease of walking around town or in the countryside, then the gown was pulled up by cords, dividing it into three parts: the "Polonaise" gown. See the films "Marie Antoinette", "Frankenstein", "The Madness of King George"; the painting "Girl on a Swing" by Fragonard; paintings by Jean-Antoine Watteau, and pictures of Madame de Pompadour by Francois Boucher. For "Marie Antoinette", Sophia Coppola is said to have given the costume designer a box of pastel-coloured macaroons to base the costume palette on. "We squeezed the essence of the period, without reproducing it" -a perfect attitude to apply when considering a period-style wedding dress.

Early 19th Century / Jane Austen

Neo-classical dress arose as a dramatic fashion change after the French Revolution. Abandoning corsets and panniers, it was a more simplistic style in comparison to the decorative rococo styles which went before and is very adaptable to modern wedding gowns. For fabrics think of sheer chiffons and georgette, muslin and gauzes. Gowns of this century can vary from the romance of a classic Empire Style "Jane Austen" costume in light cotton and muslin to the opulence of Empress Joséphine's coronation dress, complete with red velvet court train (see the painting by Jaques-Louis David).

19th Century

A combination of the Empress Eugénie and the couturier Charles Frederick Worth had a tremendous influence on fashion of the middle to late nineteenth century. Styles were rich and opulent, built over crinolines, petticoats and bustle frames and decorated with flowers, foliage lace and beadwork. For Victorian dress see the movies: "Gangs of new York", "The Age of Innocence", "Maverick", "Onegin", "Portrait of a "Lady"; paintings by Tissot, Manet Winterhalter and Ingres.

Pre-Raphaelite / Mediaeval

Pre-Raphaelite paintings provide wonderful inspiration for mediaeval-style wedding gowns - either bias-cut soft slimline gowns in crepe or velvet, or corseted bodices combined with flowing bell-shaped sleeves and skirts in chiffons and georgette. Gowns can be totally unadorned; this is though, a style which lends itself to dramatic trimmings at the neckline, hem or as a girdled belt at the hips. Celtic embroidery is very popular as a trimming. Look at paintings by Elanor Fortescue-Brickdale, Frederick Leighton, Burne-Jones, Rossetti and Waterhouse. Films using this theme have an inevitable fantasy basis: "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, "First Knight", "Dragonheart", "A Knight's Tale", "Legend", "The Lion in Winter", "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves".

Ballet and Musicals

Ballet costume can provide many clues to a wedding gown design which might be appropriate for you. If you find it irresistible as an overall style it could indicate a sweetheart-necklined boned bodice with tulle skirts (nylon or silk) might be an ideal starting point for you. Or it might show you are drawn to elaborate and dramatic ornamentation. I have in the past designed a gown to an "Odette" theme, complete with "swan" feathers and silk tulle skirts. Several alternative wedding gowns on a ballet theme are held here in the studio (they are yet to be displayed on the web-site). They include "Sugar-Plum Fairy" in shades of pale pink and champagne; "Odile" - a dramatic gown in black, purple and peacock blue and "Titania" a glittering gown in irridescent blues and pale greens.

Flowers

If you are in any doubt about the colours which go well together - whether as a highlight for your own gown or to harmonise bridesmaids - then always resort to the natural world. Hence such classic combinations as pink with green - in all shades and tones. Likewise, lilac combined with the palest cowslip yellow is found in crocus, freesia, iris and many other spring flowers. Take these pale shades to their greatest intensity and you have purple combined with gold. Basically the same colours, but at different extremes of intensity. And both work extemely well together, whether you are considering pastels or vibrant shades. Stunning combinations of blue with pink, purple and lilac can be seen in sweetpeas, delphiniums and penstemmons. This is a reliable system of colour-theory! Please do not feel you need to have settled on your chosen colours before we meet. Absolute colour choices are only usually made when we start to look at fabrics at the consultation stage (and sometimes not then!). However, few brides can resist planning a colour scheme, for herself, groom, bridesmaids and even the reception. It is an ideal place to start - even if you have no idea of the style of wedding gown you will eventually wear, start to think colour!

China and Porcelain

China and porcelain can inspire paricular uses of pattern or colour combinations. Spode's infamous "Blue Italian" shows how shades of blue and white combine so well together - for you or your bridesmaids?

Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau is characterized by flowing and undulating "whiplash" lines, based on plant forms, leaves and vines. It can be seen in art and architecture - from jewellery by Lalique to the famous iron metro entrances in Paris by Guimard. For art sources look to Charles Rennie Macintosh, Klimt, Gaudi, Toulouse -Lautrec and Alphonse Mucha. Tiffany glass, The Ballet Russes and Liberty and Co - all were part of the "New Art". Art Nouveau sits comfortably with Pre-Raphaelite, Mediaeval and thoroughly contemporary style of wedding gown.

Glass and Textiles

There is no obligation to connect your wedding gown to other decorative tastes in your life, but if you are at the point where you really do not know what style of gown you would like, a fondness for example for Tiffany glass, mosaic or embroidery might be a starting point for colors or actual gown decoration.

Fairies

Illustrations from a 1960's fairytale book include shapes translatable to a 21st century wedding dress. The fairy's headress/ crown has been duplicated by many a bridalwear designer in past years - a shape which may have lasted subconsciously from childhood. Wings are not a necessity but perhaps diaphanous and iridescent sheer fabrics appeal. With a little sparkle?

William Morris

William Morris can still be appreciated in the 21st century although these patterns were designed in the 1870's and '80's. If you warm to these designs (found in furnishings, wallpapers, stained glass and tiles) you might appreciate one of the many brocades, damasks or "all-over" embroideries as your wedding gown. (See "The William Morris Collection" on the menu).

Decoration

Decoration is available in a huge variety of forms, from man-made laces and trimmings to original antique pieces. Vintage lace, diamanté and mother-of-pearl buttons, ribbons, chantilly and guipure lace can all be used as decoration to create a unique order. An original piece of antique needlework can form the foundation of an entire gown or your own embroidery can be created to your specifications (see Prizma Embroidery.)

Fabrics

A vast range of fabrics are available including dupions in hundreds of shades: plain and embroidered. Also available are duchesse satins, taffetas, shot and plain chiffon, crushed and smooth velvets, organza, lace and zibelene.

Shown above from left to right: silk taffeta, crushed velvet, gold metal embroidered dupion, beaded dupion,duchesse satin.

Design/ Mood Board

It can be extremely useful both for you and for me if you can actually represent your tastes visually. You may not have access to fabric swatches but you can indicate the kind of colours, tones and shades you might have in mind for your wedding gown in a variety of ways. Take your time to look for shade cards for paint, sweet papers, postcards,"Google" images, postcards, book covers, architectural shots and interiors, film stills and pieces of jewellery. Anything which tells me what you like and what appeals to you. Even if you do not actually make a board, simply considering what you might include can help to clarify your tastes.

Design Process,  Design Sources,  Understanding Colour

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