BEHIND THE BRAND
I tend to tell people I love dressing up, which is true. Many take this to mean ‘looking nice.’ I like to look nice, but I also like to look like I belong.
Every event, and more so every place, has an associated fashion. For a night out to see Moulin Rouge, that means a deep dive into the costumes and styles of the time it is set in. Research into stage outfits and everyone I went with dressed in corsets and stockings, being mistaken for cast or crew.
When my best friend returned from Japan, she’d seen endless temples, spoke some of the language, and learned a lot about its history and cultural practises. When I took a similar trip, I came back with five styles of Kimono and a deep understanding of what sort of clothes are to be worn by whom and where. I’d missed nearly every museum to have women in small corner stores explain the different sorts of belt to me.
You get the idea. Dressing up, and history, etiquette, and symbolism are there for telling a story. For creating a character in a fantasy world that I can be for a little while.
This is why I cannot stand the Disney merchandise that sells little girls princess dresses with the characters printed on them. Talk about breaking the emersion.
You want to be a princess, not reference one.
I do like visiting the Disney parks, precisely because I enjoy fantasy worlds. And none so fantasy as the pastel hued area behind the castle where those princesses presumably live. Here, you’re meant to believe in magic, and joy, and happily ever after. There are no scary rides around, just the endless, upbeat theme song of It’s a Small World.
Which was recently renovated, by the way. To celebrate, they launched a backpack, inspired by the ride.
That backpack was ground zero for how I’d spend every free minute of my next month.
While there, I learned they'd developed a geometrical pattern for Small World, which emulates the cut-out style of the ride. To use for marketing and design.
The marquee, recently repainted, is a cartoon style collection of famous buildings from around the world, with a big sun and moon clock in the middle.
I documented what I could
And so, a handful of photos later, I was at home, copying the fresh paint colours into a repeating geometric design.
I printed the design onto fabric for the skirt and painted the marquee onto a pair of leather boots, colour matching my skirt as close as possible. One petticoat and a lot of paint later, I’d turned a theme park ride into an outfit.
It was a silly project I got overly invested in, as happens often. Anything could be a source of inspiration.
I went to school during this time, not for fashion, but for political science.
As you might expect of me, I remember little of the coursework I completed during those four years. I was busy, making vampire gowns, gluing thousands of rhinestones to dresses while my peers did internships, teaching myself how to work with every craft material under the sun to bring to life the characters I kept dreaming up. An entire floor covered in crowns, gloves, wigs, shoes, wings, armour, and a wardrobe with more ballgowns than I think were meant to fit.
The flexible university schedule allowed for lots of time spent creating, and I received my diploma with honours and the certain knowledge I would never use it for anything.
It was in the middle of trying to decide what to do next, when another long-kept dream came true, and I got engaged.
I’d thought about my wedding in the abstract before, though obviously mostly as an excuse to imagine my perfect wedding dress. I wasn’t sure what I wanted, I had so many ideas. But it’d have to be dramatic, evoke the fantastical worlds I’d grown so fond of, and top the ten years’ worth of ballgowns already in my closet. I visited four bridal boutiques and received the same advice at all of them: “You really have a vision; wouldn’t you be better off with something custom made?”
I wonder how many other people get similar comments. I wonder why, in stores that carry thousands of dresses, options still feel limited.
So, I started designing my own gown, and then a few more just in case. I decided I wanted to stick with it, to throw myself into styling and design. To create wedding attire inspired by stories, fantasy, and the bright and fun personalities of those who want their wedding to feel like stepping into a world that was made just for them.