Postponements

Hi there Atelier people....

Well, it seems that something is conspiring against me to get my new website launched!
Everything is ready to go, except for new photos of my new project. I have had the photoshoot cancelled twice now due to unconnected and unavoidable reasons, and it will hopefully happen now this time next week!

Anyway, I think I may have talked about this before, but this will be a parallel line in my wedding/event dress business. It's called 'Redolent' and the designs incorporate vintage and new fabrics (mostly pure silks and cottons). Here's the 'official' blurb, which will be on the Redolent pages:

The 'Redolent' concept:

• Design: 'Redolent', a parallel line to Atelier, uses both new and recycled or vintage fabric in it's wedding and 'event' dresses, which are bespoke/custom made/ /designed and made to measure - call it what you will, so that your design can be as adventurous or as classic as suits your imagination.
• 'Woven Through' design: I design and make beautiful garments which incorporate significant or meaningful items from your life. These could include pieces of fabric, clothing or jewellery, with a meaningful connection, for example -

a piece of lace from your mother's or grandma's wedding dress, or maybe a piece of ribbon that tied a bouquet of flowers from your beloved, some beads from a pearl necklace which belonged to your mother. Text from love letters, emails, text messages, poems or song lyrics could be embedded in the design. Please contact me to see examples.

• Pattern cutting to your measurements for a perfect fit
• Making, using part recycled fabrics plus new, top quality silks, wools and cottons.
• Fabric sourcing: if you have a particular type of fabric in mind, I can find it for you at the best possible price.

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Well, the frustration is slightly aggravating (!), to say the least, but patience is a virtue, so they tell me....
In the meantime I will give you one or two 'taster' close ups........

On another note - I am about to start on a lovely commission incorporating a wedding dress and coat - the coat in lace, and you know how much I love lace...

August update

Hello Atelier people,

High time for an update - apologies for lack of a June and July blog - practical busy-ness, meant that the designing/making/teaching priorities had to take precedence, and my news and thoughts on fashion and style have had to take a back seat for a while.
However, a little breather now before a prospective new customer arrives...
Discussions yesterday with another future bride, and that 50's theme is still really popular, coupled with the shorter length, and lots of net petticoats. It's a flattering style for lots of different body shapes, unless you're very tiny, (could disappear in a sea of net!), in which case I would suggest the adorable chic 50's style a la Audrey Hepburn. To me, that look is one of the styles which represent the ultimate in femininity, understatement, and class. I also think that although the look is sophisticated, it's not serious, (think of the typical accessories - stilettos, patent handbags, cutsey little hats, corsages), and to my mind, a sense of humour in whatever you do makes life slip along nicely!!
Attempting to find the time to purchase some vintage fabric to make myself a dress that I can wear through the summer, but at this rate the summer will be gone!
Have found some amazing charity shop bargains in the last few weeks, but that's more of an Atelier classes subject, which I will write about soon on it's dedicated blog
Visited the Bath Museum of Fashion on Saturday, where they have a special exhibition of wedding dresses through history. This was interesting, though I thought that they were rather jammed in to the smallish exhibition space...quite inspirational however, and I loved the Alexander McQueen dress with hip padding, shorter at the front, and the greatest thing - a totally modern dress, made of antique lace.
Speak soon! Bobbie

ecoEureko progress

Proud to report that the first ecoEureko sample is about 50% complete, and though I say it myself, looking rather beautiful...

Just to explain, in case you haven't read anything about ecoEureko before on this blog or on my facebook, it is the name of a business collaboration I have set up with Rachel David, who is designer and maker from Leamington. She uses recycled fabrics - vintage and modern, and we are working together to produce what we think is a unique combination of old and new for bespoke wedding and 'event' dresses.

You can look at the embryonic website here, for information on 'who, where and what', but just to let you know that we aren't launching it big time until the first 3 samples are made, photographed/styled and ready to go.
However, I am so excited by the prospect of ecoEureko, that I'm putting some images up here as a little taster, and would like to explain how we work, and how it fits in with Atelier, in my case, and Skrunch, inRachel's case.

The idea is that we use at least 50% recycled fabrics in the designs, and this could sometimes be considerably more. The other fabric will be new, and this will be dictated by a) the design, and/or b) your preferences - ethical or otherwise when coming to us to design and make a magnificent bespoke dress.

So far, (and remember, this is a new collaboration), it is working thus: I design and pattern cut, then the pattern and toile (test garment to achieve the desired shape), goes to Rachel, who starts to assemble and decorate the dress using her collection of fabulous antique and modern fabrics, accessories and haberdashery. New fabric may then be incorporated according to the design, to result in a unique and 'extra'ordinary garment.

Other personal elements can be used in the fabric of the dress itself. Please see the 'What we do' page for an explanation.

Work on website development is ongoing, so if you cannot immediately access the site, it's because we're working on it, so please try again shortly afterwards!

Bobbie