Freedom of Dress

woman wearing blue burqua veil

Without going into too much detail on the whole Britain first’ awfulness I wanted to comment in particular on one image making its rounds on facebook recently, in the days since the terrorist attacks, as below.

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I equate freedom of speech and freedom of dress. Banning any element of religious dress gives fuel to the few racists and bigots who unfortunately will need little enough encouragement to verbally or even physically attack people ‘breaking the law’ by choosing to wear particular clothes. Banning the burka would also mean that those forced to uncover themselves (and those who support them) might feel persecuted by the state fuel for the extremists fire!

I vehemently disagree with the philosophy behind wearing the burkha but banning them is not the answer. Should we ban balaclavas because a few criminals choose to wear them? People have as much right to wear a bikini without being hassled as a burkha and I will defend their right to that choice.

My university dissertation was in part about how ‘Modesty’ is relative and respect for such choices should be encouraged. Victorian anthropologists insisted on uncovering the genitalia of some near naked African tribes with the idea that their being so nearly naked meant uncovering the tiny bit they chose to cover was no matter; no one would argue now this was not offensive in the extreme. In the 18th century it was unlawful for women to cover their cleavage at court, low necklines (amongst other things) were mandatory; that seems fairly crazy to us now! Forcing any one to uncover, or cover anything they prefer not to cover, should be what is banned.

We should lead by example by showing respect for the human body, for the owners of those bodies and for their right to express their beliefs outwardly in a harmless manner.

I recently spent 7 Saturdays with 4 young moslem women, (students aged 15-21). They chose to wear hijab and were eloquent about their reasons why, but if one had come in a burka I would not have felt threatened. If the negative reasons behind some women’s choice (or pressure) to cover themselves more than conventionally for our society, need to be addressed it should be on an individual or at most community level, not by a law. And remember some women wear it genuinely through positive choice, they feel safer and happier, and who are we to judge them?

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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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@kathykyle_studio is a local artist who walked into my shop one day and asked me to make her a dress. She's a textile artist, and she was having a launch party for her latest collection, and wanted something extra special for the occasion.

Kathy makes wearable art. She paints beautiful, intricate designs and has her designs printed onto silk scarves. Her pieces are full of meaningful motifs about feminism, life and so much more.

Making this dress was such a wonderful collaboration. Kathy created a new design (5m x 1.5m in size) to be printed onto fabric, and brought me a vintage pattern she wanted to use. The pattern was actually reversable, with options for both a V-neck and boat neck. It was very cool to see Kathy switching her dress round for each part of her launch day.

I love working with fellow artists!

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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!

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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
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