Marianne and Andreas, 1 September 2012

all photos by www.champar.com

Marianne was planning her September wedding that was just outside of Paris from New York. She was such a relaxed bride that I'd sometimes get confused. It turned out that one of her oldest and dearest friends is a wedding planner in France. No wonder she was so relaxed! 

In addition to going all the way to France to get married, she was willing to come to my Brooklyn studio for every fitting from the very top of Manhattan!

It was so fun working with her. She was very clear about what she wanted. Something fun and blue that she could wear again that would travel well. I love what we came up with. We reinvented the train together! (You can see it above, moving around in the front!) I also created for her a matching fascinator using the fabric, lace and buttons from her dress.

Here's to you, Marianne and Andreas! Many happy adventures!  Vivez le voyage!!


(all these beautiful wedding photos are by www.champar.com!)

Fascinating You . . .

We thought it was very light and airy but still had a nice drama.

 This is long overdue.

In April, Urban Girl Squad and I put together a Raffle to for winning a custom made fascinator. And happily, we had a winner!

Our winner, Kristen, brought herself and  her friend Adi all the way from the Upper East Side to my Brooklyn Studio (such a commitment!) on a lovely Saturday afternoon and had a little champagne, while we worked out this design.

Here's the winner with her friend Adi.

These are my new favorite kinds of feathers.

It was really fun, everything I love about doing collaborative custom work. She sent me some photos of fascinators and tiny hats that she liked and could also see herself wearing. Which is key, there are so many great hats out there, but there are some that even though I think they are amazing, I can't really imagine wearing it. She was the same.. despite our shared love of giant plumes.

And here she is in her fascinator!

And then we just hung out and looked at lots little pieces of feathers and fabric.


 So this is what we came up with, what do you think? I hope Kristen was able to wear it out for Kentucky Derby Day!

The Fascinator workshop

September was a busy month in the studio and in the middle of it, Keiko and I created our first Fascinator making workshop. Even though it's been a couple of weeks, I wanted to share some of the pictures from the day. (All photos here were taken by Joe Tanis, he also brought fresh homemade banana muffins! )

 

It was so fun to see what everyone came up with and wanted to make, everyone trying on the examples I brought of different kinds of hats to make. It was so fun for us we're thinking we should do it again...

xophae

Fascinator headband, Part 2

This sweet headband needs a new home... I just added this piece to my Etsy shop. Please check it out!

I'm hoping to add more and more fascinators to my Etsy shop in the coming weeks. I'm curious, you lovelies out there that want/wear/need fascinators, how do you like to wear them? Do you like them/want them on a comb? a headband? What would make it easier to wear? or help you to wear it more often?

I'm just curious and would love love love any of your thoughts or observations!

Thanks! xophae

Fascinator headband

This was a sweet little project I recently finished for a bride that lives out of town. I sent her some mock up-sketches and we decided on this kind of "flower", but then as luck would have it she came to town to visit family and we were able to sneak in a little "fitting".

She was wearing a headband that day to our fitting. And as we talked about her plan for her wedding it just made sense that this would be a good way to go for our design. One of the things I always aim for in these custom projects is that the client (bride or not) looks and feels like herself, in whatever we come up with. (Granted, it's also important that she feels super gorgeous.)

Anyway, I think we made something really lovely and sweet for a really lovely and woman!

I can't wait to see photos of her in it from the real occasion! In the meantime, congrats to the lovely bride! and thanks for letting me contribute to your celebration!

xophae

Susana's Mom's prom dress gets a make over

Susana came to my studio with this wonderful dress from the 50's with a photo of a modern white dress with layers and layers of Technicolor tulle under the skirt. I got so excited at the idea of this. What a fun way to update and personalize a vintage dress. Even better that it was already a personal dress inherited from her mom!

This dress had a couple issues, the waist line was authentic to the era and measured a mere 20", the front boning was wildly misshapen and needed to be replaced, but otherwise was in really good shape. Susana had a tailor detach the bottom ruffle and replace the entire back panel to make it fit correctly.

So what was left was this short scalloped hemmed, sweet cocktail dress. And that was when I went in and added layers of tulle to the skirt and a little orange tulle piping to the waist line.

We played with different combinations of colors, more colors vs less colors . . . but in the end, I think, we struck a lovely balance:

We kept the feeling of the vintage dress, but added the fun pop of colors at the hem (this must have been so fun to see her dance in!).

And then using the same tulle as her dress, I made her a fascinator, with tulle "peonies" and birdcage tulle "plumes" (keeping with the vintage feel). Her fascinator was really fun to make after we finished her dress. I pretty much made her put on the dress and sit in front of the mirror and I just put things on her head until we found the combination of flowers and tulle that we liked.

(fascinator back view)

I love this last photo of them! They both look so happy but most I love the way her new husband is looking at his bride! Like he just caught the canary . . . so sweet!

Congratulations and best wishes to the happy pair! xophae

Maggi and Dom (how my heart exploded with joy on Sunday)

So, I met Maggi my first semester in design school, it was September of 2003, and it took about 10 minutes for me to realize that we would be friends for a very, very, very long time. She's one of those friends that once you met her, you're not sure how you survived without her.

And Dom, Dom I met as a potential room mate. I kept thinking this is a great guy, then he said, he had 4 sisters and I thought, yep, he is the best kind of person. I think I even said, "I have lots of cute friends" hoping this would make me a good roommate. (It seemed too, I got the room.)

So Maggi came over to help me paint my room, we walked into my new apartment and I said, "This is my new room mate Dom, this is my friend Maggi, she's gonna help me paint."

And then life took over, Maggi ended up moving into our building, she and Dom became friends and neighbors. And I just sat on my hands thinking "would they work together? I think they would work together. Right?"

Anyway, long story short, they fell in love. They fell in love in a way that I am endlessly inspired by.

So when I found out they were getting married, I was a little (okay, totally) over the moon. Two of my favorite people on the planet have fallen in love and are now gonna get hitched. I think my response was, "I get to make the dress cause it's kind of my fault!" (I'm sure they would have met some other way if it wasn't this way, people that belong together find each other.)

This is what we made, lots of layers of peach and ivory silk organza over silk habotai, and then the fascinator with bird cage tulle and more organza.

It's funny, I've made dresses and helped with dresses for people that I'm crazy about before, I made all my siblings wedding clothes (in 2 cases also the clothes of their spouses) I've helped with the dresses of friends that are as wonderful as Maggi and Dom, maybe it's the nature of knowing them or that I just felt like I was already so glad for our friendship before they got together, whatever it was, I would just get teary while sewing. Really happy tears.

So this last Sunday, June 5th, 2011, (7 years and 3 days exactly after they first met) Maggi and Dom got married. And in September they will be blessed with their newest addition. (!!! more joy!)

And my heart just keeps exploding. Thank you both for letting me participate in the beauty of your celebration. To know you both is to love you . . . . .

xoxophae

It was a great day for a Derby!

I love the Kentucky Derby. The first time I saw the race was a couple years ago and I was totally hooked. For such a fast race, it's so worth seeing. I had no idea how beautiful the horses were when they raced until I actually saw them. I love all the festivities, the mint juleps and of course I love the hats!

(please forgive the silly look I have.)

My favorite place to be for the race and the party is at the Bell House in Brooklyn. There is always a lot of people, most of them dressed up. This year there were more hats by far then the last couple of years. (People were inspired by the Royal Wedding, maybe?) It's been a crazy week for me in the studio, so many fun projects that I'm finishing up and starting, but late the other night I made sure to make up something for my head. Because honestly, when else can you wear a big messy nest of tulle on your head and call it a hat? Not nearly often enough I say.

There were all kinds of hats in attendance, formal hats, traditional hats, men in hats, hats shaped like horses. After the race, most of us stayed around to see the live band Karaoke band, Bunny England and the New Originals play. What could be more fun then horse races and playing rock stars on a beautiful spring day?!

All the photos above and more can be found here.

Fascinators . . .

Like I said, I love making the fascinators. My (inexhaustible) photographer, said all the feathers were like little aliens, moving all about that he had to keep track of... which seems so fitting to me, given my love of deely boppers as a kid.(what do you really call those head bands with glitter balls attached to springs?) It's difficult to be gloomy with so much festiveness on your head!

Anyway, I think he did a marvelous job.

Photo credit Lee Paulson, see more of his work here.

New things in the Studio

My time in LA was well spent. As well meaning as I was to see more of LA and look for inspiration, all of my time was spent making photos...

So here's a little glimpse of what I've been working on.

Mel's veil

My friend My Phung made Mel's dress and she suggested I make her veil, since I've been playing around with festive "hats". But mostly she thought, I could use the same fabric as My Phung used in her dress. Mel was game to have another person join in on her fittings and it turned out to be a really fun and totally new kind of collaboration (just for the hat, My Phung had the dress nearly complete when I came in!). The collaboration between bride, dress designer and "hatter".

I made the veil and the flower as separate pieces so post ceremony and post wedding Mel could continue to wear the flower in her hair. I love these pieces that can be worn after the day. . . continue the celebration on into everyday life. . .

It did seem like a grand celebration! Here's to the lovely Bride!

Photos by photographer Douglas Levy, you can see more of his work here.