The Wedding Coat, as promised . . .

All photos by Voeu Image Wedding Photography

It was me that insisted on a January wedding (it's my favorite month). And it was Joe that insisted we do our wedding photos outside. So I made a coat! We were lucky, it was about 35 degrees, a sunny day with a bright blue sky. (The week before the wedding it was about 10 degrees, so we were all really excited about how balmy it felt, hovering above freezing.)

I have been sitting on about 20 yards of ivory wool that Jenn gave me, left over from something, so I figured this was the perfect opportunity to use it! Since it was pretty cold in Brooklyn in January, I doubled the wool. This coat weights so much. But it has pockets! The whole thing is lined in ivory silk. I love how my shrug/shawl thing looks as a scarf! Or a collar or something, but it's actually not attached.

In keeping with my vintage inspired theme, I modified a vintage dress pattern into a full length coat. It was one of the last handful of things to get finished before the wedding and one of my moms spent nearly a day doing all the hand finishing on this coat.

 And while it seems like a good thing to have around, a full length formal winter coat, I've been thinking of having it dyed a darker color or even, someone, I think My Phung, suggested I have it painted! Would be really cool. I love the idea of getting to wear it again.

Any other ideas? or suggestions?

xoxphae

When a wedding dress designer, designs her own wedding dress...

As a designer, and one that designs wedding dresses, you might think I've obsessed about my own wedding dress for years. Surprisingly, that wasn't the case.  While I have known for years that I would design my own wedding dress, it's more because it seemed kind of sac-religious not too.

What I have wanted to do for YEARS (and always been too chicken to do) was to go and try on wedding dresses, since I'm a terrible liar, I didn't do this until I actually got engaged. And I really went everywhere. That might be another story that I'll save for another post. But where it relates to this discussion is in how surprisingly difficult it was to find a dress like I thought I wanted, even in just the silhouette. 

Trying on dresses is actually advice I give to all my clients, for exactly this reason, when I found a dress that was similar in silhouette to what I had in mind. it confirmed for me that I was going the right direction with my design. The dress I tried on, I didn't want to take off! I just felt like a film star from the 30's, I was sure that was how I wanted to feel in my wedding dress. 

My idea started with the idea of some kind of short dropped waistline with a flared skirt of some kind, something vaguely art deco maybe bias, and kind of liquid in it's movement.

The easy part was knowing what color I wanted. I wanted this color. This pale green/grey/silver color. 

Once I draped the first draft, I was actually surprised how quickly this design came up and remained basically unchanged yet how difficult it was for me to complete.  (Another post I'll have to share with you is the photos from the fittings... works in progress..)

What I struggled with was my incredible desire for sleeves. I started out wanting removable sleeves. But I started designing in July when the idea of needing sleeves seems crazy in New York. By November I was horrified my sleeves were removable. And I HATED them.

I have to interrupt myself here and discuss my design team. My team consisted of my friends My Phung (who is amazing with fancy dresses), Jenn Rogien (who is a genius at telling story's with clothes, google her, you'll see), Maggi (she's a marketing & color genius), Nicole and Daniel.... I am lucky that I have so many talented designers for friends. It's weird to say that the most compassionate thing they all helped me do was, that they just gave me permission to not like what was going on and to redesign.

So in 3 separate fittings, one with My Phung, one with Daniel and then one last one with Nicole, I totally redesigned the removable sleeves into this half shawl/ half shrug thing.

Which I totally loved!! It added to me feeling like a starlet from the 30's, it doubled as some kind of amazing scarf/collar when I put my coat on. (the coat is another post.) And it achieved what I needed, a way to be warmer and covered earlier in the day and then remove it when I was too warm and wanted to dance.

Maggi also did my make-up and lent me, my something borrowed.

She had some vintage shoe clips from her grandmother (I think) and she had worn one on her wedding. I loved the little bit of sparkle and getting to share that detail from her wedding. It was really so fun how it all came together.

For my fascinator, I made it the last few days before the wedding. With my shrug, doing a big tulle fascinator seemed wrong, and everything that looked traditionally bridal just felt wrong. In the end it's mostly dark green feathers, some peacock feathers and a tiny bit of gold silk flower petals. 

Photos by Voeu Image Wedding Photography

Photos by Voeu Image Wedding Photography

 There is about 12 yards of fabric in the skirt of this dress. Twirling in it was so really fun.

Photos by Voeu Image Wedding Photography

In the end, the dress and the sleeves/shrug/shawl was exactly what I wanted. It could have been more green, but I loved it exactly as it was.... Especially with all the input and help from my friends. They made it so much better!

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!)

Samantha in Liska! 9-7-12

Photo by me at their wedding, 9-7-12

I've known Samantha for a couple of years. When she got engaged to Alfonso, I was really excited. They are a rare couple, they're the couple that have actually been together for what seems like forever but act a little bit like they just met.

Sam is an Interior Designer and we've always had great conversations about design. So I was also really excited to discuss her wedding dress with her! She must have tried on 50 dresses. There were lots of conversations about the aspects we liked and didn't like.

We started really excited about the fabric we found, this amazingly light ivory hammered silk and the shape, a simple strapless trumpet shape. We thought this would be really flattering on her petite frame and make her feel like a bride.

 As we went along, it felt like there was something missing, something to make it more specifically her and this is what we came up with, an asymmetrical pleating that starts at the neckline and turns into a side train.  When we started this we loved it, and then thought it was too much across the body... Late one night we went back and forth via text messages looking at photos from our last fitting, until finally we both realized we were describing the same thing. I sketched out the little drawing above and sent it to her. I think I might have even said, "You sleep on it and make sure it's right. But as your designer, this is the perfect solution!"

Photo by Joe Tanis

Photo by Joe Tanis

There's a moment designing a dress for someone when you know it's exactly the right thing. In our next fitting when she could see the way the side train fell, it was so exciting, we all had goose bumps!

Photo by me

Photo by Joe Tanis

Technically, this dress is the Liska dress from my You Will Have Your Cake and Eat It Too line. And this is exactly the kind of customizing I get really excited about. Changing the fabric and adding these details, the lace at the waistline, it's really exciting to see something come up that looks so perfect for one woman.

When she came to pick up the dress, Joe was able to do a Wedding Portrait of her. (The beautiful studio shots are all his!)

It was so fun to work with you Samantha, congratulations to you and Alfonso! I'm so excited for you both! I know you'll have many many years of happiness ahead, and I did promise to baby sit your future children at least once! :)

xoxphae

Christina's Fourth of July Wedding!

I'm not always invited to the weddings I design dresses for, in this case however, the Bride is a good friend of mine and Joe's (who took all these beautiful images!). For this wedding, not only were we invited, I was also invited to help her get ready. 

Their love story is really so touching. Christina and her now husband John, met in the 80's, back then, they were together for years and John actually proposed. However, she said no. They broke up, John moved away. Then 25 years later, they were back in touch, and he proposed AGAIN! and this time, she said YES!

Really it was such an honor to be present for a day that was so long in coming.

Anyway, since I was going to be there, we decided to put the final ironing off until the day of, so her cotton sateen dress would be as fresh as possible. Since the groom was still present when we arrived, I was ironing in her bathroom so he couldn't see the dress! (You know this is a nice New York apartment when there is room for an ironing board in the bathroom! Christina is an architect.)

And I was able to add the last finishing detail, a silk organza and haboti flower to the neckline/collar.

Here's her dress, a beautiful lilac cotton sateen with cotton voile sleeves, the collar and cuffs were silk organza.

The Bride! We choose cotton for this dress since they planned their fourth of July wedding in Central Park. It's always a challenge to be comfortable and look lovely when it's hot outside, but I think we found a great balance.

Jessica the hair and make-up stylist and I collaborated on fixing Christina's veil, sometimes the best thing for veils like this is to just work the tulle into the hair style and fix it with hair pins. For her veil, somehow I'd found vintage silk birdcage tulle the exact color of her dress. We decided to layer this lilac tulle on an ivory tulle and keep them together. It really created a great color. I love layering tulles, it reminds me of watercolors.

You can tell Christina trusted me, as I cut away the ends of the tulle while it was already fixed in her hair!

And here is the happy couple! before and after the wedding! It's true that when you're truly happy, it doesn't matter how hot it is outside! It also seems to be true, that when two people belong together, they will end up together... :) Don't they just look so lovely?! 

Then a few days later, they hosted a lovely reception. For this, we took some pieces she found and rebuilt them, they turned out so well. This outfit is almost like an old fashioned trousseau, now she has some great summer pieces to go out on the town with her new husband!

Here's to many years of much joy and love to come! Cheers Christina and John!

Real Wedding on Snippet and Ink!

I just discovered one of my favorite Brides from last year was listed on a wedding blog and it really show cases how lovely the bride and groom really are!

They danced a Tango! so beautiful!

See the whole post and they're story (which is so lovely and romantic) here. They're actually coming up on their first anniversary, what a nice way to revisit such a beautiful wedding and joyous celebration . .  Happy Anniversary Karolina and Wayne!

Figure Flaws: a Rant.

Having recently gotten engaged, I have a whole new perspective on my job. It’s part of my job to read and look at bridal magazines. But now that I’m looking at them as a bride, I started seeing things I’ve previously dismissed: all the articles about hiding my figure flaws and finding the right dress to hid my figure flaws. Yuck. Figure flaws. That does not sound fun.

I don’t like the term ‘figure flaws’. In fact, it offends me.

Now, I understand that not all women are 100% in love with their figures all the time. But figure flaws? That's just rude. It assumes that it’s a given, it assumes the viewer doesn’t accept her figure. It assumes there is something about the bride that is flawed and must be hidden. There are so many beautiful women in the world, for what reason are we focusing on flaws? And why do we even call them that?! What’s with the implication that having curves or not having curves or being tall or short is a flaw? The only thing inclusive in that kind of thinking is that we are all flawed. This is just an observation but even women that don’t look like Gisele are beautiful.

Your figure isn’t flawed.

There might be things you love about your figure more then other things. Okay. So instead of calling the things you like less ‘flaws’, can we all agree to discuss instead the things you want to show off, the things you love? I’m completely in support of finding the dress that works for your body, we all look and feel better in some things then other things. Let’s talk about what you feel awesome wearing. Do you feel like Joan Holloway when you wear a pencil skirt? Fantastic! Do you feel feminine and sexy in a ball gown? Fantastic! Let’s start there.

I’ve had well-meaning friends suggest that I wear a padded bra to my wedding, thinking I guess that a padded bra would create some kind of cleavage. Um, I don’t have cleavage, with or without a padded bra. I know this kind of discussion comes up among friends even if there isn’t a wedding coming up. I would just like to suggest a different perspective in this conversation. My fiancé knew what I looked like when he proposed. He accepted me ‘warts and all’, as the saying goes. I would like to suggest that yours did too. And wouldn’t this whole process be more fun if the conversation was about what makes you feel the most beautiful? And happy?

Women of all shapes and sizes and backgrounds fall in love and get married everyday. Love doesn’t discriminate against different bodies types. Wedding dresses shouldn’t either. Love is inclusive.  Dresses can be too.

I saw a quote in the April issue of Vogue from Alber Elbaz, the fabulous designer of Lanvin in Paris that said, “When I think of women, I don’t think of size or age, I think of beauty.”

I say yes, of course, exactly! And thank you.

Happy Valentines Day!

Well hello strangers. I've been neglectful of this blog. So where to start to sum up?

Basically, I fell in love. Am in love....

December was a wild kind of month, I was working on a bunch of custom projects and I launched and completed my You Will Have Your Cake and Eat it too Campaign on Kickstarter. As soon as that finished, I went with my most amazing boyfriend to meet his family for the holidays. We came back to Brooklyn and as I was mulling over my New Years ideas and new designs, my most amazing boyfriend put a ring on my finger.

 (Photo by Joe Tanis)

We met at my sister's kitchen table. But we became friends working on photo shoots together. See above.

(me plus Joe!)

I'm now finding myself in the most interesting place as a wedding dress designer. I've been designing and sketching lots of dresses for the You Will Have Your Cake and Eat it too collection. But now, I'm also thinking about what a bride might want from a brand new place.

Will I design and make my own dress? Yes. Will it be white/ivory/cream? No. One of my top commitments in designing dresses for weddings, has always been that people end up feeling and looking like themselves, their very best selves. I don't feel so much like myself in white/ivory/cream. It has also been lovingly pointed out to me that because I am so pale, I look terrible in it. So there's that.

Am I telling what color it will be or will look like? No. You all will have to wait same as the groom to see it. :)

My theme this year is You Will Have Your Cake and Eat it too! (Its also the year of the Dragon. (I'm a dragon!)) I'll keep you all posted on the collection! and on all the Cake!

Wishing you lots of love for Valentine's day! xoxophae

Karolina and Wayne, Part 2: TANGO!

I mentioned that Karolina had more then one project. Well her other project was a very specific kind of reception dress. She and Wayne were going to Tango at the reception, she needed a Tango dress!

I grew up watching muscials and I love to dance so I loved the idea of this kind of project! (And not just because I loved her shoes!)

Based on some ideas she had and some ideas I had, this is the dress we designed for the dancing.

What's tricky about this kind of dress is, how to make a backless, cowl necked dress stay on when dancing the Tango? Well, you can imagine it took some engineering. But it seems, it worked!

Don't they look amazing? They just look so happy and beautiful! Makes me want to learn to Tango, badly!

Cheers! xophae

Karolina and Wayne, Part 1!

This is Karolina and her new husband Wayne.

I'm not sure how to sum up. This project was such a joy to be apart of, Karolina was really clear about what she wanted. And what she wanted was this beautiful dress, that was very simple looking, but actually incredibly interesting and complicated to make. It was much more complicated then I thought when I first said, "I love that, I'd love to make that!"

Karolina, in addition to having an amazing eye for what is lovely, is also very very patient! She spent hours standing in my studio with me walking around her with pins in my mouth.

I loved every minute of it! It's so fun to have a project that is interesting and challenging in a good way. And it's such a joy to work with a bride that loves design as much as I do! (She's an architect.)

I was so excited to see the photos from the wedding because everything I saw that they did was so thoughtful and lovely (their wedding invitations were so amazing!) I just knew it was going to be a gorgeous celebration all around!

It was a little sad for me when we finished all her projects, part of me felt like, wait you're not gonna come hang out here anymore? Needless to say, I felt like she was an old friend when we were done...

Thanks so much for letting me contribute to your day! It was such a beautiful celebration... Congratulations to you both!

xophae

p.s. Next I'll post what we made her for the reception!