Art Deco wedding dress

boat neck wedding dress bloused bodice scrunchie tie groom

A contemporary fusion of 1930’s and Victorian fantasy elements went into the design of Katherine’s wedding dress.

Official photography by Debs Ivelja

I made Katherine’s art deco wedding dress out of buttermilk coloured silk satin and ivory lace with subtle gold thread running through it. The bustle was made of silk chiffon in five subtle dusty-pastel colours and ivory tulle ornamented with a beaded trim.

I also made the groom’s scrunchy-tie in fabric to match the bride’s dress.

confetti shot art deco bride cream pale gold

The style featured a bloused bodice with boat neckline and beaded shoulder detail. I cut the main dress low at the back and filled her open back with beautiful lace. I sewed scalloped edging on the neckline and a button and loop closure.

An extra long sash wrapped around Katherine’s waist more than once and tied to one side with waterfall ends, trimmed with metallic beaded lace. The skirt was bias-cut and had a little puddle train behind. The main dress fastened with a concealed zip and decorative buttons in an Art Deco style, square with a little diamante sparkle to each.

low back wedding dress with Chantilly lace

The back of Katherine’s dress was inspired by quite a different style to the front. The low lace back balances the dramatic bustle made in layers of ethereal tulle, lace and chiffon

Thank you letter for an art deco wedding dress

Katherine wrote:
Thank you so much again for all of your fantastic work everyone just loved the dresses and kept commenting on how unusual mine was!!!
Take care
Katherine. Xxx

beaded lace applique detail mixed metallic

Detail of metallic beaded lace trim, used at shoulder, on sash and top of bustle train.

art deco church wedding bespoke dress
bloused wedding top bodice with veil
bride and bridesmaid in church wedding bias cut
victorian bustle inspired wedding dress

The bustle back was made of tulle, delicate lace and torn chiffon. It buttoned onto the back of the main dress so it was removable for later in the day.

bias cut art deco wedding dress
vintage wedding dress and car
bride and bridesmaids art deco wedding

I also made Katherine’s bridesmaids’ dresses, click here to see more pictures.

cathedral veil bride with train 1930's
made to measure wedding dress sleeveless satin
lifting the hem pale gold wedding bespoke dress
silk satin and lace wedding dress with waterfall sash

The wide satin sash wrapped twice around Katherine’s waist before draping in a waterfall to one side. The edges were weighted with exquisite metallic lace applique.

tulle and silk chiffon train bustle
tulle and silk georgette bustle wedding dress

Tulle bustle train

The amazing bustle train was removable, though in then end Katherine loved it too much to take it off on the day! She could have unfastened the buttons and loops hidden under the sash leaving just the dress beneath to have a simpler look. I made the bustle to look like ‘something found in grandma’s attic’ – clouds of ivory tulle with waterfalls of torn-edge silk chiffon in palest pink, cream, grey and mint. I used lace left over from making the back bodice tucked into places between the tulle. This brought the bustle together with the rest of the dress, despite disparate design inspirations! I timmed more of the metallic beaded edging along the top of the bustle and onto the two ‘bow loops’, which I padded out to be really ‘bustley’ for the luxurious look Katherine craved.

ceilidh wedding dress dance groovy bride

I make sure it will never be said that I let one of my dresses get in the way of dancing!

bride dancing in satin and low back dress
bride and bridesmaids dancing train hookup

Making Katherine’s Art Deco wedding dress

original design sketch by Felicity Westmacott

Original design sketch

calico fitting picture toile practice run

Pictures from the toile (practice run) fitting.

bias cut wedding dress fitting picture made to measure

An intermediate fitting in a partly made dress

tulle bustle wedding dress torn edge chiffon

Fittings with the tulle bustle, before and after adding the torn silk chiffon layers.

fitting picture tulle bustle sash and trim

Detail of the bustle with lace applique pinned on

Detail of the beaded lace trim to the shoulder and art deco button fastening in the delicate chantilly lace.

shoulder applique detail bespoke wedding dress
art deco button and loop detail

To see another wedding dress with a tulle bustle-train you can take a look at this photoshoot for which I supplied several bespoke wedding dresses.

To get in touch to talk about having your own art-deco bespoke wedding dress made to order

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Felicity Westmacott

I write about all aspects of weddings, dressmaking, fashion history, and the human relation to clothing. I welcome comments and debate.

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It's giving bridal Sun Goddess 🌞 Just look at that colour!

One of my favourite bespoke wedding dresses to date. I made this opulent bronze gold look for an equally gorgeous bride who wanted something a little different for her wedding day. 

My favourite features have got to be the statement bow on the shoulder and the cartridge pleats around the waist. This style of pleating helped add volume to this unbelievable iridescent dupion silk. Cartridge pleating was popular in the first Elizabethan era and always gives a touch of the historical to any garment on which it's included.

I also included a bustle hook (you can see what the dress looks like up in the last clip), which totally transforms the dress and makes it much easier to move in when it's time to dance!

This is bride was a dream client - elegant and adventurous, with a touch of the dramatic 😉 drop me a DM if you've got wedding dress dreams that you're dying to bring to life!

#weddingdress #ukbride #bespokeweddingdress #bridetobe
I thought it would be fun to see the differences between various bridal petticoats and hoop skirts. Meet the Aurora wedding dress, she's one of my favourites, especially because of the excellent dramatic vibes she gives. So she felt like the perfect dress to experiment with.

The Aurora dress already has some layers of netting built into the dress, so she's already got a bit of volume from the get go. But I wanted to see what difference adding more underlayers would have.

The first addition was a single hoop skirt. Hoop skirts come in all sorts of variations - the single hoop is pretty much what it sounds like. There's a single hoop at the bottom of the skirt, translating into more width at the bottom of the dress.

Then I took off the hoop skirt, and put on a 5-layer petticoat. This thing is a monster! But adds so much more airy, fluffy volume.

The second hoop skirt I tried was a bell hoop skirt. This one has hoops built in all the way up the skirt, creating more of a...you guessed it...bell shape.

And then finally, for the ultimate princess vibes, I tried both the 5-layer petticoat and the bell hoop skirt together. It's giving fairy tale bride, for sure. Perfect for twirling in whilst you dance with your prince, princess or princep.

When ordering a dress from me, talking about what kind of silhouette you want is really useful. And I've got loads of seamstress secrets to achieve pretty much anything you can imagine!

#weddingdress #dipdyeweddingdress #seamstress #pinkweddingdress #princessweddingdress #balloonsleeves
"I cannot begin to put into words how thankful I am that I found you to make my wedding dress of my dreams. The dress was perfect in every way and the colours looked glorious in the Cornish sunshine. Everyone fell in love with the dress and I even got likened to the Porthleven mermaid! It even stood up to rambling down cliffs. You truly are a genius and I can never thank you enough."⁠

Nicola wanted an elegant and figure-hugging mermaid wedding dress made in pale ivory lace. To add colour to her look, she chose a vibrant yellow, orange, red and purple dip dye skirt. 

If you want to see how the dress looked on the day of Nicola's wedding, have a look at my previous post. I love how the colours of the dress really stand out against the dramatic setting of the Cornish coast.⁠
⁠
If you're also looking for a completely unique wedding dress, then you've come to the right place. Starting with your ideas and working together during the entire process, I'll design and make your dream wedding dress. Drop me and DM and let's have a chat!
⁠
~⁠
Photography - Thomas Frost - @t.frost.photography⁠
Venue - Beacon Crag B&B, Porthleven - @beaconcragweddingvenue⁠
Flowers - Fullers Flowers - @fullersflowers⁠
Hair & Makeup - Amy Needham @amyellenhairandmakeup
Part 2!

In Part 1 I spent all day prepping my bridal window display. There was a looot of dismantling and tidying involved before I could even begin to start thinking about which wedding dresses I wanted to include in my Pride themed window. Now that's all done, let's just enjoy all this glorious colour!

Which outfit is your favourite? I would love to see a bride wearing both the skirt and veil in one, fabulous, rainbow look.

And, of course, happy Pride 🏳️‍🌈

#pride #bridalboutique #surreybride #sussexbride #altbride #alternativebride #colourfulbride #bespokeweddingdress #weddingdress
emailme@felicitywestmacott.co.ukTEL 07762 543230TOUCHGet in
from design to completionbespoke wedding dressesFelicity Westmacott
Dorking, RH4 1RT241 High Street• Visit the Studio •
Dorking, RH4 1RT241 High Street• Visit the Studio •
emailme@felicitywestmacott.co.ukTEL 07762 543230TOUCHGet in