This bespoke wedding dress photoshoot in Kent absolutely bursts with colour, style and fun! Inspired by the 1950s and the quirky Rockabilly style, we went big with our bold accent colours of fuchsia pink and navy blue, the whole shoot was full of retro elegance and mid-century charm. This shoot was all about 50s fun....
For this bride, I created a Chinese fusion wedding dress with red dip dye. The result was a bold and beautiful bridal look, with lots of eye-catching details. There are two ways I can dip dye dresses. One involves spraying the fabric whilst gently overlapping and blending the colours, I do this as the final...
I’m very lucky that I attract the kind of brides who often want something that varies wildly from the traditional long white gown. So, when I met Maggie (virtually) and she told me that she was getting married in the summer and wanted something fun and bright, I was very excited! So I designed for...
I made this couture wedding dress in Surrey for Toni (during the dreaded Covid times). We went for something romantic, feminine and whimsical, in layered silk organza and soft satins. For this design, I chose a boned bodice with a straight neckline that then dips at the back. The top layer of this dress is...
For this bespoke wedding dress in Guildford, I used a beautiful beaded antique-silver lace for the body of the dress, with the lower skirt being made in a silk chiffon and a silk lining. It’s the perfect combination of elegant and sexy. Depending on how much skin you want to show, you could choose to...
Danielle wanted a pretty and elegant dress with applique lace and subtle sequin sparkles on a nude base. We were aiming for something lightweight, feminine and figure-hugging. So I designed a dress that was a little soft romantic, a little boho and a little sexy, accentuating Danielle’s hourglass figure. This bespoke nude lace wedding dress...
For Bride, Chrissy, I made a fully bespoke backless wedding top with latkan. Chrissy ordered the top from my ‘Evie’ Indian fusion wedding set on Etsy. These bridal separates are becoming some of my bestsellers – usually they’re bought by couples having a mixed culture wedding. Chrissy chose the silk satin top in white, and...
For this bespoke wedding dress photoshoot in Hertfordshire, we created an autumnal woodland wedding. We chose a colour palette of burnt orange, red, burgundy and pink, with accents of white and gold. Everything was handmade including the bunting, macrame and tablescape, for a truly bespoke feel. This wedding is for the kind of bride who...
When Iram saw the custom Asian fusion wedding trousers and top that I had made for a bridal shoot, she decided she had to have them for her own London wedding – and I don’t blame her! This outfit looks perfect on her. “I fell in love with Felicity’s design from the moment I saw...
Photography – Andrew Brannan Real bride, Janet, had been following me on Instagram for a few years before she got in touch. When we had our first Zoom meeting, she said she had been waiting for the perfect moment to be able to have a dress designed and made by me. I think a wedding...
Posts from Felicity Westmacott
Ooh, I love a good before and after!
Two dresses for two very different occasions. One upcycled from the other!
Eleanor`s original wedding dress (which I also made) was perfect for her more opulent, formal wedding day. But like so many wedding dresses, once the day is done, it never gets to see the light of day again.
Unless it does 👀
Taking a dress and giving it a new life is such a joy, and now Eleanor can wear her much more practical dress for many more special occasions.
As well as the original wedding dress, I also upcycled the Christening gown I had made from off-cuts from the first round of dress making. With these, and the scraps from this transformation, I made her daughter a summer dress to match too. You can see that dress in the final photo 🩵
Would you trust a seamstress to transform your wedding dress?
Isn`t this transformation so satisfying? 😍 I love giving wedding dresses a new life! I originally made Eleanor`s bespoke wedding dress for her in 2010. Fifteen years later, she came back to me asking whether I could re-imagine her dress into something new for her wedding anniversary. Of course I said yes.
So, we went from a full length dress, inspired by Victorian and 18th century fashion, to a tea length 1950s look. The only extra fabric I used was for the new petticoats I used underneath the shortened skirt, to give it that classic 50s silhouette. Making this was a very satisfyingly sustainable project.
Which version would you wear?
A few months` ago, you all helped me choose what colours to dip dye a sample wedding dress I`d bought. The winning vote was for pinks and purples, so that`s exactly what I`ll be doing!
A bride-to-be has actually claimed this dress now, so you won`t be able to see what it looks like until after her big day 👀
But I have a few more sample dresses to play around with. I want to try some colour combinations I don`t usually get asked to do by brides, to really illustrate just how wild you can go with your choices.
So, which combo do you think I should do?
1. Desert at dusk 🩵💚💜 pale blue, shifting into dusty turquoise and green, and finishing with an undersaturated aubergine.
2. Spice of life 💛🧡❤️ cream that quickly amps up to yellow, orange and red. Nothing subtle, just bold, bright colours!
3. Alpine escape 💚🩵💙 all the most calming colours. Mossy green
and the deep teal of a glacial lake.
4. Distant storm 💜🩶🖤 the colour of lightning in the night`s sky. Lavender, soft grey and blackest of blacks.
Vote in the comments!
#dipdyeweddingdress #weddingdress #colourfulbride #bridalboutique #colourfulweddingdress
Even though Rebecca lives in Germany, she sought me out specifically to make her bespoke wedding dress. She had seen my colour work and fantasy-inspired designs, and decided I was the perfect fit for her (pun intended!).
She wanted a wedding dress fit for an ethereal princess, complete with this stunning pastel rainbow gradient. This kind of effect can`t be achieved with dip dye. I had to use a different technique; ombre-dying.
If you feel like you should have been born as an elven queen in a romantasy novel, then I might just be the right person to bring that dream to life ✨
After Rebecca decided I was the right person for the job of making her wedding outfit, I began work on this gorgeous, floaty dream of a wedding dress.
However, we had an additional challenge to overcome...Rebecca lives in Germany. (there`s something about me and German brides - we just get along. This is my second bespoke order from Germany!) But we found a system that really worked for us during this process.
So if you`re an overseas bride, looking for the complete bespoke experience (as opposed to `made to measure` which is what we do if you can`t visit for fittings), take note.
The dress was made over the course of six months. Rebecca first visited in May for 4 days, during which we had three separate fittings. Then I worked on the dress, including the intricate dye techniques required to achieve this pastel rainbow. In September she visited for another three days (three weeks before her wedding), with a fitting every day. After the final fitting, she took the dress back to Germany with her.
I`ve had many other overseas brides, and they often choose made-to-measure: where I make the dress according to their measurements (following my strict instructions on how to take those measurements). This process leaves less space for changing the design, and always requires some additional work from a seamstress once it has been sent.
For Rebecca, having the full bespoke experience was absolutely the right choice. During our fittings she changed her mind on a few design elements - including removing the sleeves - meaning that by the time it was finished, it was exactly what she wanted.
You just can`t beat bespoke 💜
~
Photography - @pesto_fotografie
"The dress got so many compliments and it was so nice to be able to wear something that felt so much more like a reflection of who I am."
Look at this beauty!
I`ve made a lot of custom dip dye wedding dresses, and many of them have been the Phoenix colourway. But somehow Jess made it feel brand new when she asked me to add blue to the bottom, and lower the saturation on the colours.
So instead of bright sunflower yellow, we went with a buttery pastel yellow. Instead of vibrant orange, we chose a warm coral. Followed by dusky pinks and muted purples, right down to that faded navy.
The effect turned out looking like like watercolours 🖌️ I love how it turned out and I`m so glad Jess did too 💜
Photography - Craig Foreman Photography
