Styled Shoot behind the scenes

duke of york steps purple wedding coat and teal petticoat

August 2016, welcome to a styled shoot behind the scenes.

London, shot on The Mall, Horse Guards Parade and Brick Lane

Jess (photographer) and I (dress design) know each other from way back, we met at an acting club! When we bumped into each other quite randomly at a soft play centre, each with toddlers in tow, we agreed to work together on something before the summer was out. We both wanted to do something a bit edgy, not your usual “woodland wedding, soft pastels” shoot, which are done to death these days! I remembered I had some gorgeous purple silk on a roll back at the studio, half an hour on pinterest and some dress ideas followed and we had our theme!

You can see more of the final edited photos from the shoot on this page.

Below: pinterest mood-board for the shoot

original dress design by Felicity Westmacott off the shoulder wiggle wedding dress

Original design sketches for the dress and coat.

original wedding coat dress design by Felicity Westmacott

Colours

We chose the colours, Cadbury purple, rich ivory and touches of gold to bring out the glamour in the theme and compliment our model’s beautiful skin. If we’d had the time to go the ‘whole hog’ with table settings and stationary too, be sure they’d have been a lot of peacock feathers!

back of camera sneak peek wedding dress coat purple
london eye photoshoot early morning light
styled shoot behind the scenes shoes and skirt

Above and below: the same moment from two different angles, through the lens of our official photographer and from my own camera! I think I had better stick to making dresses!

made with love leather shoe soles made to measure

Dress Design

Creating a dress design for a City Burlesque theme was fabulous fun. I wanted the dress to have a vintage, showgirl feel. To be really sexy but still realistic as a bridal dress, as not many people actually get married in a leotard and feathers! The wiggle skirt with a boned bodice hit all these marks showing off our lovely model, Vanessa’s curves and cinching her waist. I added a teal net petticoat that would show when the high/low hem moved and delicate gold lace detail with Swarovski crystals for showgirl glamour!

vneck wedding dress full skirt cadbury purple silk

The coat is made in striking Cadbury purple silk dupion with a vintage 1950’s off the shoulder collar neckline. Demure, elegant and still very sexy. The sweeping skirt and train mean than even with a short dress this bride gets to SWEEP into the ceremony and swoosh up the aisle. It also means she can do ‘the big reveal’ burlesque style without actually taking off her dress!

We chose our locations to showcase both sides of our beloved London Town, the city of our hearts! We started the day on The Mall, near Buckingham palace at 5.30am to avoid too much many people being around and got some greats shots just across the road at Horse Guards Parade too. The morning light was so beautiful and meant Jess could capture some really atmospheric images.

Styled shoot behind the scenes: locations

Horse guards parade London wedding mini top hat and off the shoulder collar
brick lace photoshoot wedding dress graffiti alternative

Some of us were more nervous than others about the guerilla style of our shoot in London. But we did our research first and confirmed you really don’t need any permissions to take pictures on the street, so long as you don’t create an obstruction and have permission to publish from everyone shown in the pictures. I hope you are enjoying your tour of a styled shoot behind the scenes.

paper flower andpeacock feather corsage by muscariwhites
shoulder corsage bridal detail inspiration

Floral design

Michelle of www.muscariwhites.co.uk had created the most amazing bouquet for us with orchids, feathers and trailing colour. She also surprised us with an extra creation, one of her amazing paper corsages. She christened this style the ‘burlesque’ corsage in our honour and we loved the way it could be worn so many different ways, with the larger part placed as a traditional corsage and the ‘echo’ over your shoulder, or in your hair! It’s amazing how these details can bring a theme to life and take it beyond what we’d originally planned.

black african skin tone wedding makeup beauty

Millinery

Jen made the mini top-hat and elegant calla-lilly headdress. She used fabric to match the dress for our styled shoot behind the scenes.

Jen says “This photoshoot was unusual for me because it allowed me to be a bit naughty and creative making shapes when making the headpieces. For the purple hat I didn’t just want to do a traditional straight mini top hat, I wanted to make one more unique with curves. So the brim is actually one of my mini button hats. I have turned it upside down and cut & wired & the crown of the hat I blocked or made using a glass candle holder that had the right curvy shape. So when put together the shapes are a bit more sweeping & striking.

bespoke shoed bridal ivory gold and teal leather

Shoes

And Marsha’s bespoke shoes (she sent us three pairs as they all seemed ‘right’!) completed the picture. All the details matter and without the perfect accessories no bride can feel complete!

Marsha says “The gold peep toes fit the burlesque theme beautifully. With a hint of gold for decadence and glimpse of flesh from the peep toe. For the traditional something blue: I created a beautiful pair of heels with contrasting textures of patent and suede with gold straps.”

team in the cafe

Styled shoot behind the scenes: a few pics

After a break for coffee and breakfast (with poor Vanessa in full bridal get-up in a local Costa) we headed back out. A change of hair and makeup, by the talented Charlotte, perfectly suited the new location. In Brick Lane, with it’s graffiti backdrops and cobbled streets we got started on part two. A random shopping trolley we found made carting all our gear and the coat (when not being worn) much easier. Of course we had to abandon it again eventually. We finished just before midday with cake in a cafe and winding down.

city wedding ivory silk dress graffiti bridge

Some of us shared a taxi back to the flat where Vanessa had got ready. On the way we were already firing out ideas for our next collaborative shoot (Titian Red anyone?), watch this space!

bride with a shopping trolley behind the scenes photo
brick lane photoshoot trolley bag lady

The other side of the camera is less glamorous, here is me with the trolley of paraphernalia on brick lane!

Credits:

Photography by Jess Partridge www.jessicajillphotography.com

Dress design and creation by Felicity Westmacott www.felicitywestmacott.co.uk,

Make-up by Charlotte Light 

Flowers by Michelle Knibbs www.muscariwhites.co.uk

Model Vanessa Asare

Bespoke shoes by Marsha Hall www.marshahall.com

Hair accessories by Jen Levet www.jenniferlevethats.co.uk

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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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Here are just some of my creations from the past year! I feel so lucky to get to make such interesting and varied garments as my job 🥰 colourful wedding dresses, unique mother of the bride ensembles, as well as alterations to make a dress feel more like home.

If you used my services (as a bride specifically) between Oct 1st 2024 up until now, I have a little favour to ask...
I've been nominated for the 2026 Wedding Industry Awards, in the "Independent Dressmaker/Designer" category and the people in the time period above are the only ones who are eligible to vote for me. 

So, if you have a spare few minutes, and you enjoyed both working with me and the outcome, then you can vote for me via the link in my bio. There are different voting links depending on whether you were a bespoke or dipdye booking, or an alteration booking. 

Industry recognition is one thing, but recognition from the people I work with is even better 💜
(and if you've already voted for me, thank you!! It means the world!)
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
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