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

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!

Interstellar Songbook!

Last summer, I was contacted by a friend of a friend in need of a dress to wear on the cover of her soon to be released CD.

We had such a great time working on this "costume".  Joanne Weaver is an amazing singer, I won't try to explain what her music is like because I'm not fluent in music at all. But, her fashion style is totally inspired by the sultry styles from the 40's. And that era makes my heart flutter a little faster too! So we had a great combination of using that inspiration and still wanting to make her look a little like a star filled midnight sky...... (with great legs!)

The Intersteller Songbook is now here! If your in NY, check her out this weekend in person! If your not in NY, check her out via social media from her links below..

and yep! that's the dress on the cover! :)

Joanne Weaver Interstellar Songbook CD Release Party Saturday, June 2nd Doors at 7pm Show starts promptly at 8pm Theatre80 80 St Mark's Place New York, NY $20 + $5 service fee Each guest will receive a complimentary CD and free entrance to after party. We kindly ask that you buy your tickets in advance. Buy Tickets Here
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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.

Party Hats for Party Season

With Thanksgiving this week, I keep thinking of what kind of hat I can wear to dinner. And then, what kind of hat can I wear to the Holiday parties this year... I love this one. I love the way it moves and I love the idea of wearing a pale peach hat with a navy or black dress and enjoying the contrast.

This fascinator is really bridal, and I love that about it, but I also love the idea of wearing light colored party fascinators even in the winter.

I just added both of these to my Etsy shop. The peaches and cream one at the top is a one of a kind. Ready to send out if you need something right now for you're next party. And this white petal one is made to order. So, even if you don't want to wear white in winter (it is a real winter white, no rule breaking on this one) I can make one in what ever color you fancy for your holiday party. Remember Keiko's? She wanted it in navy, black and silver with the tulle and it turned out just as festive and lovely! 

(all photos by Joe Tanis Photography)

What are you planning for your festive attire this year? 

Happy Thanksgiving! xophae

The Green Velvet Dress

Photos by Joe Tanis Photography

I mentioned in my post about Keiko's Orange dress that I would some day share the original dress that has inspired these variations.

So, this is the original dress.

This is also the dress I showed Karolina when we were talking about her Tango dress. She needed a lot of other design details for the Tangoing, but the back was inspired by this dress.

So, this dress was inspired by not having very much of this fabric. A friend of mine gave me 1 yard of this beautiful green silk velvet and I was determined to really use as much as possible of it, hence the inspiration to make a wrap dress. All the draping in the back creates the cowl. I did give it the cut away neck line in the front with the panel of silk organza.

Originally I designed this for a New Years Eve party. It was a big hit, but I'm sure you won't be surprised that I was fairly cold. Ah, winter party dilemma's ... :)

Keiko's Orange Dress with Navy Fascinator

 I just got these amazing photos from my photographer, Joe Tanis and I'm so excited to share them!

Keiko needed a dress this summer to go to a wedding in Japan, we talked about me making her a fascinator and I did (see below), it kind of inspired our Fascinator Making Workshop, but then we also got on about what she would wear with this fascinator and one thing lead to another and well, we both thought she needed this...

Someday I will make a post about the original dress that keeps inspiring new versions, but for now, I think this might be one of my favorites! This is one pattern piece, it's a wrap dress. This one is in a lovely 4-ply silk crepe.

 And I love how the orange dress and navy fascinator look so elegant on her! Really it can be so fun to wear color!

You may remember the fascinator from our flyer... :)

It's always so fun to work with clients that want a little adventure in their party clothes... I'm totally for adventurous party clothes!