Vintage Wedding Dress of the Week: 1950s-style Chantilly.

Dear Reader,
Today I'd like to show you 1950s-style Chantilly, from my Heavenly Collection of vintage-inspired wedding dresses.

Chantilly is based on a classic 1950s silhouette, with its slim-fitting lace bodice and beautifully swishy skirt - elegant, feminine and fun to wear at the same time!

What really sets Chantilly apart is the gorgeous quality fabrics that give it such great fit and movement. The skirt is made in a specially-sourced Italian silk organza, and the bodice is made from the finest French Chantilly lace (shown here with a mocha lining for a pretty vintage colour effect).

I've shown it here in tea length. But it looks equally stunning in ballerina length or for a really dramatic look in full length.

And just to round off this post, here's real vintage bride Sophie looking fabulous in Chantilly on her big day!

If you'd like to see more of this gorgeous 1950s-style dress, check out my Heavenly Collection here or just make an appointment to visit my London studio. 

Love 
Helena
Heavenly Vintage Brides

If you like this post, see more of vintage bride Sophie here

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Introducing new DOROTHY, 1940s wedding dress in fine Chantilly lace.

Dear Reader,
Ah, September, and back to school for us all... I hope you enjoyed a delightful Summer. I've saved up something rather special to show you for the new season: My new 1940s-inspired lace wedding dress. Ta-dah, here she is..!

...As you may remember, I'm loving all things 1940s at the moment. (I'll be doing a little round-up later this week, just to remind you!) And so, I've updated my Dorothy wedding dress with some gorgeous 1940s-inspired details...

The original Dorothy is so so pretty, with its fitted bodice, A-line skirt and lace overlay. It's a very flattering and elongating combination, and always a popular style with my girls...

This classic, flattering silhouette lends itself very well to more sophisticated and glamorous 1940s styling. For the new dress, we've added long elegant sleeves and a chic V-neck - giving a very different feel... 

Perhaps you've already noticed the gorgeous Chantilly lace we've used for the new dress? It's wonderful quality - very fine. And it has a beautiful border, which makes a stunning feature on the sleeves and the base of the skirt... 

The V-neckline is finished with a delicate French lace trim too. And the full-length skirt dips slightly at the back, giving just a whisper of a train.

For the lining, we've chosen a pale apricot/champagne silk. This colour gives the dress a warm and flattering glow, perfect for pale English Rose complexions. And it looks equally beautiful in the classical ivory silk option.

We're delighted with our new movie-star-glamorous dress. I hope you love her too. Dorothy is available now, priced £1595 with apricot silk lining, or £1495 with ivory silk. 

If you like Dorothy and would like to see more vintage-style wedding dresses, do check here. And I always have many fabulous original vintage 1940s and 1950s dresses here. 

And of course, I'd love to see you in person just contact me to discuss your needs!

Meanwhile, thanks for looking - and see you later this week.

Love

Helena

Heavenly Vintage Brides

If you like this post, please also try...

1940s Lace Wedding Dresses

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A GUIDE TO VINTAGE LACE WEDDING DRESSES Part 2: the story of modern lace

Dear Reader

I didn't realise how much I love vintage lace until I started sourcing the perfect fabrics for my own collection of vintage inspired wedding dresses. 

My search took me to specialist ateliers all over the world, where I became completely absorbed in the beauty of the vintage and reproduction lace I saw.

On my vintage wedding blog today, I'd like to share a little of what I learned and show you some beautiful examples.

The best lace is a blend of cotton and synthetic fibres. Cotton keeps its shape and colour over time and gives a firm feel and structure. Synthetic fibres add strength. This marriage of beauty with strength is perfect for recreating vintage wedding dresses. 

'Audrey' lace cover-up, from the vintage-inspired Heavenly Collection

Lace first became fashionable during the 1500s, when all lace was handmade, and was highly prized for both men and women as it was so labour-intensive. An extravagant gentleman's lace ruff (popular in Elizabethan times) required over 40 metres of lace, which would take one person a whole year to make. No wonder it cost the equivalent of several acres of good land!

Ornate lace ruff, from a painting by Spanish Renaissance artist, El Greco

Fashionable ladies made their own, and the skill of lace-making was a very desirable attribute in a wife! It continued as a rich lady's pastime or a 'cottage industry' for over 300 years, until the Industrial Revolution.

In the 1800s, lace-making machines were invented in England. Suddenly lace was available on a wider scale, and Nottingham became the lace-making centre of the world. My Butterfly and Angel dresses, below, use lace made specially for me by one of the oldest family firms in Nottingham. This original vintage style from the 1930s used to be called 'English Net'.

'Angel' from my Heavenly Collection of vintage-inspired wedding dresses

'Angel' vintage-inspired wedding dress

'Angel' vintage-inspired wedding dress

'Butterfly' from my Heavenly Collection of vintage inspired wedding dresses

'Butterfly' from my Heavenly Collection

By 1809 new machinery could replicate hand-made lace. But in 1813 came the biggest change of all: John Leavers invented the 'Leavers machine' in Long Eaton in the East Midlands. Lace became affordable, and a thriving industry sprung up making 'Leavers lace'. 

Leavers lace is still the kind most used by couture houses, notably Dolce & Gabbana, Christian Dior, Etro, Yves St Laurent, Paul Smith and even Vivienne Westwood. 

Lace dresses c. Dolce & Gabbana

The next development happened when the Leavers machine was smuggled to France - broken up in parts disguised as scrap metal! This made lace even more popular as the French competed with the English lace industry, and created an amazing variety of patterns. 

Detailing on lace dresses, c. Dolce & Gabbana

Today the French lace making industry is still centred around a small area of Northern France, in towns like Chantilly, Valenciennes, Alencon and Cluny. The industry has been kept alive by the passion of its local workers, who have stepped in to buy the machinery themselves when faced with closure. 

In turn, the machines were sold to Far East producers and lace production in France was scaled back. Now the Far East creates wonderful lace too. Amazingly, all modern Leavers lace is still produced on the same machinery, invented 200 years ago!

And English lace has become a luxury once more, with just a handful of small companies producing it. For more on the modern English lace industry, there's an interesting BBC feature here. 

For my Heavenly Collection of vintage inspired wedding dresses, I use lace from all these different sources - choosing the best from ateliers in Nottingham, France and Japan.

I've included some of my original vintage wedding dresses above, too, to show a variety of lace. Some of these are no longer available - but I always have lots of beautiful lace vintage dresses at my studio in West London (as well as my own collection of reproduction vintage dresses). Do come and have a look! To make an appointment, just contact me here. 

Thanks to Abby at Cherished for the loan of her beautiful headwear, to the lovely Robert Lawler for photography. And to you, dear reader, for stopping by today!

Love

Helena 

Heavenly Vintage Brides

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Real Bride Sophie shines in a 1950s-style wedding dress, 'CHANTILLY'

Dear Reader,

Remember I promised to share more pictures of Heavenly bride Sophie, and her wedding to Jeremy...?

For her city wedding in Ealing, Sophie looked fabulous in 'Chantilly' - a 1950s inspired lace wedding dress from my Heavenly Collection. She teamed the dress so prettily with silver Jimmy Choo 'Luna' peep toe pumps, a sweet veil and gorgeous bright Spring flowers.

Husband-to-be Jeremy looked dashing too, in a blue Reiss suit, Thomas Pink dress shirt and Alexander McQueen tie and cufflinks...

And their whole happy day was filled with wonderful personal details, from the 'Molly Bakes' cake-pops to the London Bus tour!

"Many of our guests travelled to London for our wedding from all over the world, so we hired a routemaster to take them on a tour of London before arriving at our reception at The Amadeus in Maida Vale."

 

Thanks so much to Sophie for sharing for her super-stylish day with us (and for her kind words!) If you've enjoyed this post, check out the nice feature in Brides Magazine, here.

"I just wanted to share some pics from Saturday - I felt wonderful in my dress and received so many compliments, so thank you for all your help and support in making my dream dress!"

See you all later this week, for another inspiring Real Vintage Bride!

Love

Helena 

Heavenly Vintage Brides

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