my wedding dress >> before and after

Well before Robbie proposed, I knew that someday, I wanted to incorporate my mother's beautiful 1960's mod style wedding dress on my wedding day.  I wasn't sure if that meant designing a dress from scratch and just using some of the fabric, or wearing the actual dress and modifying it.  I just knew I wanted to find a way to bring it back to life.

Once I got engaged, my friends kept asking me what my dress looked like.  They were usually somewhat shocked when my response was "I don't know" - up until just a couple of weeks before the wedding.  Instead of deciding on a dress first and foremost like most brides do, I focused on designing the invitations and decor, the food, the flowers, and the music.  I assured myself repeatedly that because I design clothing for a living, that vintage gown on the dress form in the corner of the room was the least of my concerns.  Looking back, I know that my dress procrastination was more realistically a result of good old-fashioned fear.  This dress was so special, and I was scared to change it. My mom had it custom made when she married my dad, from silk that my grandmother had brought her from China. I just couldn't bring myself to take a pair of scissors to something so important until I knew exactly what I was going to do.

As it turned out, that "ah ha!" moment where I was to have a brilliant epiphany about what to do with the dress never came.  I sketched and sketched.  I thought about it in the middle of the night on a regular basis.  But my fear of destroying something so sacred prevented me from getting started.  Eventually, a little over two weeks before the big day, I gave up on making that decision.  Instead, I just sat down and started cutting.  I had no plan. I just cut, tucked, folded and pinned.

And in the end, it was exactly what I wanted - even if I didn't know what that was until it happened.  I ended up basically taking the entire dress and lining apart and starting over, knowing only that I wanted the overall style to remain, but with an entirely different design.  I removed the collar and cut several inches off the hem to make a facing for a new boatneck-style neckline. I created a more modern, fitted design by repositioning the darts in the bust and taking in the side seams at the bust and waist.  I removed the buttons and pleating from the sleeves, shortened them, and took in the arms.  I raised the hem, and removed a couple of buttons.  I tried it on over and over along the way, and took baby steps tweaking until it was just right.

I didn't let my mom see the dress until the wedding day.  She got tears in her eyes the second she saw me.  Robbie had seen the dress as I worked on it, but he teared up too.

I worked on it literally until just a few minutes before we had to leave for the venue, and it was a lot more work than I'd anticipated.  But it was perfect.  And now, as it hangs in the back of my closet, I daydream about giving the same incredible gift to my nieces or future daughter that my mom gave to me: a chance to redesign and wear the most important dress of my life.

Photo credits, from top: Bliss Studio, my grandmother/me, Ray Williams/Bliss Studio, Bliss Studio, Ray Williams