Menampilkan postingan yang diurutkan menurut relevansi untuk kueri the wedding blog. Urutkan menurut tanggal Tampilkan semua postingan
Menampilkan postingan yang diurutkan menurut relevansi untuk kueri the wedding blog. Urutkan menurut tanggal Tampilkan semua postingan

Selasa, 01 Juli 2014

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.
HVB vintage wedding blog, lace wedding dresses feature
On my vintage wedding blog today, I'd like to share a little of what I learned and show you some beautiful examples.
HVB vintage wedding blog, lace wedding dresses feature
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. 
HVB vintage wedding blog, lace wedding dresses feature
'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!
HVB vintage wedding blog, lace wedding dresses feature
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.
HVB vintage wedding blog, lace wedding dresses feature
HVB vintage wedding blog, lace wedding dresses feature
HVB vintage wedding blog, lace wedding dresses feature
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'.
HVB vintage wedding blog, lace wedding dresses feature
'Angel' from my Heavenly Collection of vintage-inspired wedding dresses
HVB vintage wedding blog, lace wedding dresses feature
'Angel' vintage-inspired wedding dress
HVB vintage wedding blog, lace wedding dresses feature
'Angel' vintage-inspired wedding dress
HVB vintage wedding blog, lace wedding dresses feature
'Butterfly' from my Heavenly Collection of vintage inspired wedding dresses
HVB vintage wedding blog, lace wedding dresses feature
'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'. 
HVB vintage wedding blog, lace wedding dresses feature
HVB vintage wedding blog, lace wedding dresses feature
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. 
HVB vintage wedding blog, lace wedding dresses feature - Dolce & Gabbana dresses
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. 
HVB vintage wedding blog, lace wedding dresses feature - Dolce & Gabbana lace detail
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. 
HVB vintage wedding blog, lace wedding dresses feature
HVB vintage wedding blog, lace wedding dresses feature
HVB vintage wedding blog, lace wedding dresses feature
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!
HVB vintage wedding blog, lace wedding dresses feature
HVB vintage wedding blog, lace wedding dresses feature
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. 
HVB vintage wedding blog, lace wedding dresses feature
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
Heavenly Vintage Brides 2013, butterfly logo in violet.
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Jumat, 21 Maret 2014

A Fun Day Out at the Bristol Vintage Wedding Fair

Dear Reader

On Sunday I had the most enjoyable day out at the Bristol Vintage Wedding Fair, which takes place every year at Bristol Zoo. It's one of my favourite events in the vintage wedding dresses' calendar.
Heavenly Vintage Wedding Dresses at Bristol Vintage Wedding Fair 2014
The fair is organised by Ali, a most lovely and well organised lady, and is always a great success. I took about fifty of my original vintage dresses with me, here are a few shots of my stand.
Heavenly Vintage Wedding Dresses at Bristol Vintage Wedding Fair 2014
Phew! All set up just in time for the lovely crowds to arrive...
And I was helped by my ace team: my sister Kathy who is invaluable on my stand, and my clever photographer husband Robert who took all the pictures. (You can see more of his wonderful wedding photography here.)
Heavenly Vintage Wedding Dresses at Bristol Vintage Wedding Fair 2014
A snap of me with my dresses, taken by fellow exhibitor Delia from Flo-Jo
Let me tell you about some of the nice people I met, with their quirky ideas for making weddings special. First, Steph from Sweet & Pretty who sets up sweet tables to keep your guests amused - especially the children I imagine! I was stopped in my tracks by the smell of all the delicious offerings.
Heavenly Vintage Wedding Blog, at Bristol Vintage Wedding Fair 2014
Steph had some beautiful floral arrangements on her stand done by Adele who has her own business called Tin Can Floral. I love flowers and I really thought Adele had a great touch with the delicate little grouping of arrangements.
Heavenly Vintage Wedding Blog, at Bristol Vintage Wedding Fair 2014
Heavenly Vintage Wedding Blog, at Bristol Vintage Wedding Fair 2014
Opposite my stand was a lovely lady called Delia from Flo-Jo, who had a fun idea for hen parties: lovely vintage-knicker-making parties! Here are some pretty shots of her stand and the lady herself! 
Heavenly Vintage Wedding Blog, at Bristol Vintage Wedding Fair 2014
Heavenly Vintage Wedding Blog, at Bristol Vintage Wedding Fair 2014
I then spotted a very pretty vintage-styled model and asked Robert to photograph her; it’s always good to have a bit of vintage style inspiration! I was impressed by her feather headpiece, made by Tricia Hamilton, it was a perfectly balanced little thing and suited the model so well.
Heavenly Vintage Wedding Blog, at Bristol Vintage Wedding Fair 2014
Heavenly Vintage Wedding Blog, at Bristol Vintage Wedding Fair 2014
The model is Lauren, and the dress is by Pearl Bespoke. The lovely vintage hairdo is by Fiona at Beehive Brides, and I did notice it stayed very nice all day!
Heavenly Vintage Wedding Blog, at Bristol Vintage Wedding Fair 2014
Heavenly Vintage Wedding Blog, at Bristol Vintage Wedding Fair 2014
I mentioned that the vintage wedding fair is organised by Ali, who also has a company hiring out vintage crockery. I'll leave you with some pictures of her gorgeous vintage china, and if you love them, you can find lots more on her website here.
Heavenly Vintage Wedding Blog, at Bristol Vintage Wedding Fair 2014
Heavenly Vintage Wedding Blog, at Bristol Vintage Wedding Fair 2014
Heavenly Vintage Wedding Blog, at Bristol Vintage Wedding Fair 2014
So that’s a round up of my very enjoyable day in Bristol Zoo. Thanks for sharing it with me! 
Love
Helena
Heavenly Vintage Brides


Heavenly Vintage Wedding Blog, at Bristol Vintage Wedding Fair 2014
Photography by Robert Lawler, www.robertlawler.co.uk
Bristol Vintage Wedding Fair, www.bristolvintageweddingfair.blogspot.co.uk
Sweet & Pretty, www.sweetandpretty.co.uk or 07725 656682
Tin Can Florals, www.tincanfloral.co.uk
www.facebook.com/tincanfloral.co.uk or 07722 383601
Flo-Jo, www.flo-joboutique.co.uk or 01179041498
Tricia Hamilton, www.triciadesigns.com or 07826333103
Pearl Bespoke, www.pearlbespokedressmakers.co.uk or find her on twitter
Beehive Brides, www.beehivebrides.co.uk
Bristol Vintage, www.bristolvintage.co.uk
And not forgetting Bristol Zoo! www.bristolzoo.org.uk
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Minggu, 12 Agustus 2012

Weddingness- Top Ten Wedding-related Websites for Planning

10. Emmaline Bride-Emmaline sometimes has cute posts, but mostly they schlep for a bunch of independent (read- mostly etsy) sellers. If you have something in particular in mind, sometimes you will have better luck starting here and then getting linked over to Etsy.
9. The Perfect Palette- This blog is the best for the very beginning of your wedding planning, when you are trying to figure out exactly what you want the feeling to be. She even organizes her blog by color, so if you have one color that your really love you can start thinking about combos. I personally think that color is the heart of all happiness, so people should really keep it in mind when they are making those big picture decisions in the beginning.
8.WeddingBee-I have to say, I never really navigated WeddingBee as I site on its own, but if you type in an angsty question on Bing, often weddingbee chats will be the first thing to come up. It is nice to realize that other people are going through the same thing, hearing these things won't matter in the long run, and even hearing actual solutions! It helps for making decisions and moving on.


7. Style Me Pretty-  Pretty classic WeddingPorn. Nothing too outside the box, but the photos are beautiful and they put up more than anyone. You can definitely identify the trends by going through the pictures.

6. Love my Dress wedding blog-Great British wedding blog- since they are European, you of course can count on them to be super fancy and fashion forward. This blog also is great because it offers a lot of different body types without congratulating itself for doing so. If I wanted to see what a dress looked like on a model, I would just look at the pictures with models. I like seeing women with curves- even more so, I feel like this blog is encouraging because it is mostly women who are genuinely cool with who they are and choose dresses that correspond accordingly. They show off their bodies and personalities in a way that you can go through the blog and see a ton of women who look amazing, but you don't want their look, because they totally look like themselves.
5. Ruffled- Wedding Porn if your favorite store is Anthropology. Also, if you want all of your wedding pictures to look like instagram. In all seriousness, their photographs are often so pretty. They also talk about people's song choices and which have reminded me that we will never be cool enough to be on this blog.

4. Green Wedding Shoes-A little bit quirkier than Ruffled, and they often feature cool how to's which are very simple and useful.I have so many pictures saved from that site. My favorite part is where you hear the couple's favorite memory and advice for the big day. So important to see what people can come up with while simultaneously maintaining having a life and being a couple.
3. The Knot-sign up. If nothing else, you will love actually getting to check things off their online task list. It shouldn't be as satisfying as it is, and yet, I love it. Also a good choice for etiquette advice. Or you can read some of their chatboards if you want to feel better about your dramas.
2.Pinterest- Pinterest is a clear window into every woman's psyche, but it also can be very useful in early brainstorming phrases. My main advice would be to use the search as much as possible, rather than just browse the wedding section. That area gets repetitive (really, how many of the cutesy picture of bridesmaids butts do I need to see? definitely between 0-1), but if you use it to look up retro hairstyles or wedding shoes, you will be impressed with things you find. Remember, it's all about maintaining inspiration!
1. Offbeat Bride- When you are going through the heavy blog, always always always check Offbeat Bride. First of all, some of the ideas there inspired the ideas we are most proud of in our wedding. Way more importantly, you need to see the 99% of the content you would never use, because it is totally them, not totally you. I mean this as much as I have meant anything in planning- the more you can throw out what you should do for what you want to do, the happier you will be not only with the wedding but just enjoying the planning itself. Even if you don't want a super retro backyard lesbian polka dot wedding (I mean, I do, but I get not everyone does), this blog and all of its super fun posts serve as constant reminders and inspirations to do what is actually true to yourself and your relationship. They also write great, very thoughtful posts on everything from brides who want to wear their glasses to secular wedding readings and more. Plus, it is just way way more fun than other blogs. If you want to wade in, try following them on Pinterest, and just see how many of their ideas you love, you closet nerd!
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Senin, 07 April 2014

HAIRSTYLES for VINTAGE WEDDING DRESSES, Part 3: 1970s, and short hair.

Dear Reader

In the last of three posts about hairstyles to suit vintage wedding dresses, I'd like to finish with 1970s-inspired styles, and some gorgeous looks for short hair.
Heavenly Vintage Wedding Blog: vintage-inspired hairstyles, 1970s style braids

1970s 
For me, Farrah Fawcett typifies the 1970s look, with her tumbling sexy curls. But a literal interpretation is not what this is about, and I think the more relaxed dresses of the 1970s look great with softer styles in general. Plaits and braids are everywhere on the catwalk at the moment, and really work with this look. 
Heavenly Vintage Wedding Blog: vintage-inspired hairstyles, Farah Fawcett with tumbling curls
Heavenly Vintage Wedding Blog: vintage-inspired hairstyles,1970s style loose waves and braids
So to complement a 70s vintage wedding wedding dress, I'd recommend a combination of different sizes of plaits combined. And adding fresh flowers is very hard to beat for a boho 70s vibe!
Heavenly Vintage Wedding Blog: vintage-inspired hairstyles, 1970s style braids
Lots of lovely inspiration for these loose sexy styles below...
Heavenly Vintage Wedding Blog: vintage-inspired hairstyles, 1970s style braids
Heavenly Vintage Wedding Blog: vintage-inspired hairstyles, Farah Fawcett with tumbling curls
Heavenly Vintage Wedding Blog: vintage-inspired hairstyles, 1970s style braids
Heavenly Vintage Wedding Blog: vintage-inspired hairstyles, 1970s style braids
Heavenly Vintage Wedding Blog: vintage-inspired hairstyles, 1970s style braids

SHORT HAIR
In a complete contrast to the length of 1970s boho styles, short hair can be super-stylish too - and can work with vintage wedding dresses from any decade. 
Think of Anne Hathaway channelling Audrey Hepburn, for inspiration...!
Brazilian-American actress Morena Baccarin always knows how to wear her gorgeous short hair, dressing it up with waves. Here she wears it softer in the first images, then more retro and longer in the second. Both looks are very glamorous and would work beautifully with many different vintage wedding dresses. 
To end my post, one lady who really knows how to make an impact with short hair is Lupita Nyongo. These three red-carpet looks are all very different and each is quite vintage in feel. 
Thanks for stopping by to look at these lovely styles - I hope you've found some inspiration! I'll be back later this week with a post on gorgeous real vintage bride Molly.
Love
Helena
Heavenly Vintage Brides

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