Phoenix Dipdye Wedding Dress

I made the Phoenix dipdye wedding dress for a photoshoot. I designed a frosty sheer silver lace dress and a rose gold flowergirl dress as well for the same shoot. You can see more pictures from the entire shoot here.

The autumn colour wedding dress was a pet project I’d been keen to try for a while. I had a dress in stock I’d made for a previous photoshoot that was ripe for another outing. Adding the flame colours to the hem created a completely different look. I feel the experiment was incredibly successful and it has led to (so far) 9 years of dipdye wedding dress projects since. Both for other photohoots and for real clients.

This dress is for sale, made to measure for each bride from my Etsy shop, or direct from me for the full bespoke experience.

There were quite a few other wedding design professionals involved in the Autumn theme photoshoot. I love the rainbow florals, woodland jewellery and calla lily headdress they designed to compliment my dress.

We also had fun at the end of the shoot day with an alternative make-up design. I wanted to try some a bit fantasy Editorial and not as much realistic bride!

Suppliers for the Frost on the leaves photoshoot 2016

Photography:JessicaJillPartridge.
Dresses made & designed by Felicity Westmacott.
Styling by Jessica of www.foxandpartridge.com.
Models: Katja Cemic, Keely Simeoni and Isabella Crighton.
Hair styling by Very Bettie.
Make up by www.charlottemuapro.com
Bespoke Shoes by Marsha Hall.
Jewellery by Vicky Forrester.
Veil and headpieces by Jen Levet.
Floristry by Michelle Knibbs of Muscari Whites.
Garden wreath by The Girl who Gardens.

A real wedding with the Phoenix dipdye wedding dress

I have had real brides order made to measure copies of the Phoenix design. Below are pictures from Brianna’s beautiful wedding in Twin Falls, Idaho. Photography by @parker_jones_photography

It’s always interesting to note how much a photographer’s editing style affects the end colours of the dresses I work on. However hard I work to match my client’s colour requests, the photographer often changes the final result with a colour skewed edit! Comparing the wedding pictures above with my own non-professional pictures of the same dress below shows just how much effect this can have.

A few pictures in my studio of Brianna’s dress before it was shipped overseas. Creating dresses for clients who cannot visit for fittings is not the same process as making a fully bespoke dress. But it is a method I have fully mastered and completed to great success many times over. I will usually recommend certain design features that make the fit more likely to be right first time (for example a lace up back or making as separates). And I will make the dress (as I always do anyway) in such a way to make final alteration tweaks easy to accomplish by your local seamstress.

This dress is for sale, made to measure for each bride from my Etsy shop, or direct from me for the full bespoke experience.

Making the Phoenix dipdye wedding dress

The snowflake dress was one of the very first photoshoot dresses I made, way back in 2014. It was used for the Enchantment wedding shoot in 2014. Then was displayed in a local bridal shop (before I had my own display space). Unfortunately a leak from the flat above the shop led to water damage to much of their stock, including this dress. With a discoloured hem area adding the bold autumn dipdye colour was the perfect way to ‘save’ the dress and give it a new life.

I made the snowflake dress from layers of gathered tulle over an ivory silk base. Corded lace trim with pretty scalloped florals highlighted the waistline and softened the sweet heart neckline. Soft tulle straps with more hand lace applique floated over our models’ shoulders

Rising from the ashes: colouring the Phoenix dress

I researched and found suitable method to add this kind of colour gradient to my dress. You can’t use actual wet dye in hot pans. 1. There are too many colours. Dipping into the purple after having already dipped into yellow would make a horrible brown. And 2. The dress was too big to manage for that method. I’d have needed to be able to boil the water in a bath sized dye vat!

So I used oasis floral sprays to colour the dress. I undertook tests first and then started with the real dress.

You can see more about the colouring process for the phoenix dipdye wedding in another blog post or in this youtube video

I started with the linings layers and then worked my way up through the layers of gathered tulle. The lace trims had already been sewn to the dress but I did not want them to be coloured as strongly. I masked the lace with tape to keep it clean.

If you would like to talk to me about commissioning your own dipdye wedding dress just get in touch.