Anne has over 30 years experience of designing and making handsewn bridal gowns, mother of the bride or groom outfits, occasion dresses and accessories. She can also design dresses for the bridesmaids, flower girls, wedding guests as well as clothes for your evening party, going away outfit and accessories.
If you are looking for dresses made of natural fabrics such as silk, cotton, wool, linen and others such as organic cotton lace, GOTS certified Silk and fabrics made from recycled sources, these are fabrics Anne specialises in working with. She is happy to show you swatches she has of these and to source more if needed.
She creates classic and contemporary styles as well as simple dresses or suits for a registry office wedding or civil partnership as well as dresses inspired by “days gone by” and wedding dresses that can be worn again for other occasions, or dresses that just don’t look like a wedding dress but are a style that you want to wear on your special day, bearing in mind that Anne’s designs are inspired by elegant, subtle, sensual and “demure” modest styling.
She has a collection of gowns and dresses you can choose from: wedding gowns, evening dresses and occasion wear. Some of these are on her website but when you make an appointment to visit her you can see the whole collection as well as browse through her sketch and photo portfolios. You may find something amongst those designs that is right for you or that Anne can adapt to your taste, or Anne can sketch out ideas to create a unique design. She can prepare preliminary sketches of ideas to send to you by e-mail before you visit so you have somethings to think about before your appointment, she can also sketch these out when you visit or combine the two approaches to creating a design.
She also has some ready made sample and one-off dresses, accessories and hand painted silk scarves for sale. You can see some of these on her website, or make an appointment to view them.
Anne has many trade suppliers of fabrics for you to choose from. She buys cut lengths for each dress from these large ranges of silks in bridal shades as well as a vast array of colours. Her suppliers also include companies who stock wools, cottons, linens, laces (both French and English) and “fancies”, as well as tulles for veils. A very few laces are made of 100% Silk, most laces are a mix of cotton, viscose and other fibres. and some organic cotton lace is available. Hand woven vegetable dyed dupion is supplied by some companies she uses. She can source both Indian and Chinese Dupion (less slubby than the Indian variety) as well as GOTS Certified organic natural white silks. Anne mostly buys from stock supported companies, but some companies can also dye or weave to order.
One of Anne’s specialities is designing unique hand stitched embroidery and beadwork for the clothes she designs. She has several portfolios of designs you can choose from or Anne can create you a unique design.
All the dressmaking patterns are made by hand by Anne, all sewing is by hand and she charges £25 per hour. She will give you a written estimate for the fabrics, haberdashery and the approximate labour costs to create your dress.
Please look on her website for full details of how dresses are created, or contact her from this website to ask for a leaflet and terms to be e-mailed to you. This information includes a rough guide to starting prices for different types of garments. To give you an idea, wedding dress prices can range from anything from £800 for a sleeveless short shift dress, £1,000 to £2,000 for a suit, £2,000 to £4,000 for a gown and £5,000 or more for a very intricate design.
Anne is also a visual artist and this part of her work includes her embroidery designs as well as handmade cards and original artwork.
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