'Hedwig' Wedding Dress

This wedding dress design is quite dramatic. It's based around another wedding dress, worn by Hedwig Elisabeth Charlotte of Holstein-Gottorp in 1774. The wedding dress that inspired this is really beautiful, it is a silver colour and has the most amazingly wide skirt. It's not the sort of thing that many people would choose to wear to get married in now though, particularly because the waist looks unhealthily tiny. My design uses some of the elements of the Hedwig wedding dress to create something that could be worn today.

The design is a creamy white, because although the original wedding dress is silver, I really like a traditional white wedding dress. The design has short sleeves that are off the shoulders, with a ruffle of very pale lace all along the neckline. Around the neckline there is also embroidery in a pale gold thread that follows the shape of the neckline. Other than this, the bodice is fairly plain. The skirt is very wide, and has a ruffled overskirt around the sides and back. The underskirt has lines of lace evenly spaced down the skirt. The skirt is floor length.

I hope you liked this design. For more designs, check back here next week, or visit my every-day wear blog: www.bronzedaledesigns.blogspot.co.uk/. 

Wedding dress design and images © Bronzedale Design

A Short Break...

Hi,

I've got a hectic couple of months ahead, so I'm just posting to let anyone reading know that I won't be posting any designs for the next 2 months. I'm leaving all my previous blog posts up, so feel free to look through the designs I have already posted. I'm looking forward to having a couple of months break, to give me time to come up with some new ideas ready for November. In the meantime, if you haven't already done so, please also look at my every-day-wear designs on my other blog www.bronzedaledesigns.blogspot.co.uk/, and I will be back here on Tuesday 1st November with new designs for the winter.

See you soon,

Bronzedale Designs.

Image © Bronzedale Designs

'Girl With Flowers' Cloak

Sorry this post is late, I usually try to get my posts for my bridal blog out on Tuesday or Wednesday, but I've not got around to it until today, this week.  

I found the painting which inspired this cloak on a blog post about the artist Robert Reid. This cloak is inspired by a painting by him called Girl with Flowers. The painting doesn't show much of the cloak she is wearing, but I have used the colours of the painting and the flowers that are around her in this design.

The cloak is intended to be made of a blue-mauve satiny fabric, and to use the same material for both the outer and the lining of the cloak. The outer side of the cloak is embroidered all over with purple flower shapes and swirls. The lining of the cloak is mostly plain, but has a double line of decorative stitching running down it at intervals. The cloak could potentially be made reversible with either side able to be used as the outer side of the cloak. The cloak has a short, collar-like panel where is fastens at the front. The longest point of the cloak reaches to just above the knees, but the shape of it means that the edges only reach to the waist. So it's definitely more of a decorative cloak, than one that could be worn for warmth.

I hope you liked this design. For more designs, check back here on November 1st, or visit my every-day wear blog: www.bronzedaledesigns.blogspot.co.uk/. 

Cloak design and image © Bronzedale Design

'Marie Spartali Stillman' Dress

This dress is inspired by a painting I came across by Marie Spartali Stillman called Madonna Pietra degli Scrovegni. The dress in the painting is really beautiful, and so I have attempted to copy elements of it for this design. The painting only shows the top half of the dress, so I have had to improvise the skirt.

 The dress is made up of an under-blouse and a dress over top of it, joined together. The blouse is a mustard yellow colour and is pleated along the neckline, it has long sleeves. Over top of this is the dress which is a moss green colour. It has pleats around the neckline and puffed sleeves. It has a belt in the same mustard yellow colour as the blouse. The skirt is floor length.

 I hope you liked this design. For more designs, check back here next week, or visit my every-day wear blog: www.bronzedaledesigns.blogspot.co.uk/. 

Dress design and image © Bronzedale Designs

'Fossil' Special Occasion Outfit

I drew this design after I'd shown my sister the Poiret inspired 'frock' that Lady Sybil wore in the first series of Downton Abbey. She really liked it, and so I designed this outfit in colours that she wears often.

The design is a rust colour, with green ammonite fossil shapes printed across the material. The belted middle, the sleeves and the ankle cuffs are in the same green used on the fossil prints. The sleeves are loose flowing sleeves that reach to just above the elbow, and the design uses a wide, high waisted belt panel. The ankle cuffs would be gathered and elasticated. The design would fasten at the back with a hidden zip.

Pattern made from shapes used on the design

I hope you liked this design. For more designs, check back here next week, or visit my every-day wear blog: www.bronzedaledesigns.blogspot.co.uk/. 

Outfit design and images © Bronzedale Designs

'Love Letter' Party Dress

I had the idea of designing a dress based around a letter after coming across the book (and blog) Letters of Note. I'd also flicked through a book a few months earlier about John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough and his wife Sarah Churchill. Quite how the two ended up coming together I'm not sure. Possibly because I remembered thinking that John Churchill wrote dramatic letters to his wife.

This dress is based around two letters that the John Churchill sent to his wife in 1706, from the Hague, and all the writing on the dress is taken from those two letters. I would have loved to have been able to have recreated his writing on the dress, but I don't seem particularly skilled at copying handwriting, so the handwriting ended up as a rather poor approximation.

The dress itself is a parchment colour and reaches to just below the ankles. It has plain, parchment coloured straps and would fasten using a zip at the back. The skirt of the dress is ruffled and hitched, the hitching in the skirt would be made adjustable using ribbons inside the skirt, which would mean that the skirt length of the dress could be adjusted slightly.

I hope you liked this design. For more designs, check back here next week, or visit my every-day wear blog: www.bronzedaledesigns.blogspot.co.uk/. 

Dress design and images © Bronzedale Designs

'Magpie' Evening Coat

This is quite a dramatic evening coat design inspired by magpies. It is black and floor length with a high collar and no sleeves. The magpie is edged in gold and the wings use cut outs, so that pieces of a white satin panel underneath show through. The coat fastens at the side, with the panel that features the wing and tail of the magpie wrapping round to meet the panel featuring the head. It fastens at the side with two discreet buttons.

I hope you liked this design. For more designs, check back here next week, or visit my every-day wear blog: www.bronzedaledesigns.blogspot.co.uk/. 

Evening Coat design and image © Bronzedale Designs

'Degas' Bridesmaid Dress

This is my second attempt at designing a dress inspired by Degas' ballet paintings. The first one didn't go particularly well, so I started again from scratch and created this one instead. This dress is specifically based on Degas' 1874 painting 'Stage Rehearsal' and copies the floating, full skirted white dresses in that painting.

The dress has a wide bateau neckline, with a small frill around it. The dress has a very full skirt which would be created with a net underskirt. The dress reaches to mid-calf. It would be fastened using an invisible zip at the back.

I hope you liked this design. For more designs, check back here next week, or visit my every-day wear blog: www.bronzedaledesigns.blogspot.co.uk/. 

Dress design and image © Bronzedale Designs

'Laurels' Evening Coat

I found a Paul Poiret jacket from around 1913 that I really liked, and so decided to use the style of it for a jacket design. This jacket is an ivory-cream colour, with a loose unfitted shape to it, it doesn't cling to the body at all. The jacket edges are slightly asymmetrical, and fastens with small, fairly subtle buttons. There is also a button at each cuff and one on each side of the collar. The collar is a moderate size and is embroidered either side with laurels in a beige colour which matches the buttons on the coat. The coat reaches to mid-thigh.

Close up of evening coat

Laurels were a sign of triumph and victory in Ancient Greece and Rome. I'm quite fond of laurel as I used to play with the leaves of them when I was little. The shape they are often depicted in, fit round a collar really well, creating quite a subtle design, that was still just a little bit different.

I hope you liked this design. For more designs, check back here next week, or visit my every-day wear blog: www.bronzedaledesigns.blogspot.co.uk/. 

Coat design and image © Bronzedale Designs

'Fern' Evening Dress

I designed this dress around the shape of a fern. The dress has a cream satin petticoat underneath it, with an overdress on top. The overdress is made of a flowing gauze and has the shape of a fern embroidered on it in gold. The cream slip reaches to a little below the knees, but the overskirt is asymmetric, with the longest point floor length and the shortest point reaching to just above the ankle. The petticoat is sleeveless, so that the sleeves are only made out of gauze. The gauze overdress buttons up at the back, the petticoat would just slip over the head.

I designed a piece of jewellery to go with this dress, something I don't normally do. This is a hair slide which is based around the same fern design that the dress is inspired by.

I hope you liked this design. For more designs, check back here next week, or visit my every-day-wear blog: www.bronzedaledesigns.blogspot.co.uk/. 

Evening dress design and image and fern jewellery design and image © Bronzedale Designs

'Old Key' Wedding Dress

The inspiration for this design may seem a little far-fetched. I found a picture of some old keys, the kind that look quite decorative and elaborate, and I tried to incorporate the patterns on them into the lace on the sleeves and around the neck of this dress. I'm not sure how well that worked, but the dress itself was still quite pretty, so I decided to post it.

This dress has creamy-white lace along the sleeves and around the neckline. The lace forms quite a high neckline and full length sleeves. The rest of the dress is quite plain, made out of a satin of the same cream-white colour, it has a full length skirt that is light and floaty, but falls to form quite a narrow silhouette.

I hope you liked this design. For more designs, check back here next week, or visit my every-day-wear blog: www.bronzedaledesigns.blogspot.co.uk/. 

Wedding dress design and image © Bronzedale Designs

'Madame de la Chere' Bridesmaid Dress

This dress is inspired by a painting owned by the National Trust and displayed at Sizergh Castle in Cumbria. The lady in the painting is called Mary Matthews, Madame de la Chere and she is wearing a very beautiful dress. I have used the style of her dress for this bridesmaid dress, though I have used different colours.

The dress has a double row of lace along the neckline, and is off-the-shoulders. It has a simple bodice and a fairly full, floor length skirt. I originally designed this dress in a moss green colour, but once I'd done it I decided that it didn't really suit the style. I then tried it in this parchment colour and felt that it suited the style much better.

I hope you liked this design. For more designs, check back here next week, or visit my every-day wear blog: www.bronzedaledesigns.blogspot.co.uk/. 

Bridesmaid dress design and image © Bronzedale Designs

'Killerton Gown' Evening Coat

I found a picture of a 1929 wedding gown in the National Trust collection at Killerton. It is a beautiful dress with lots of beading and a typical 1920s shape. I haven't used the shape at all in this evening coat, but I've taken the colours and patterns of the dress and have used them for this design.

The evening coat is intended to be made from a soft grey-blue velvety material. It is full length with large amounts of elaborate beading in translucent gold seed beads. The only fastening on the coat is on the bronze belt which fastens using large hook and eyes.

I hope you liked this design. For more designs, check back here next week, or visit my every-day wear blog: www.bronzedaledesigns.blogspot.co.uk/. 

Evening Coat design and image © Bronzedale Designs

'Saltram Frieze' Wedding Dress

This is a design I did quite a while ago based around a picture of a frieze I found in the guidebook for Saltram, near Plymouth. Shapes used in the frieze are used for the bodice of the dress. The dress has a corset style top and uses stiffened petal shapes taken from the frieze to form off-shoulder sleeves. The middle petal at the front of the corset joins onto a thin band of material, forming a halter-neck. Gold embroidery is used to outline and emphasise the shapes used for the bodice. The skirt is kept simple, it is narrow and left plain. The dress would be fastened at the back using an invisible zip. The back of the dress would look similar to the front, but without the central petal that joins the front of the bodice to the halter-neck.

I hope you liked this design. For more designs, check back here next week, or visit my every-day wear blog: www.bronzedaledesigns.blogspot.co.uk/. 

Wedding Dress design and image © Bronzedale Designs

'Holly Blue Butterfly' Party Dress

Deciding, a few weeks ago, that I wanted to create a design based on butterflies, I googled British butterfly species and picked this one, simply because I thought it was really beautiful. This design is inspired by the Holly Blue butterfly which is native to the UK and is a stunning blue colour with grey tips to the wings.

I took the colours on the Holly Blue butterfly and used them for this dress, starting with a fairly vivid blue at the top of the dress, this gradually merges into a grey colour.

The dress is of a fairly simple style, it has a 'V' shaped neckline and short sleeves and then a flared skirt which should swirl out dramatically when you spin. It is intended to be fastened at the back with an invisible zip.

I hope you liked this design. For more designs, check back here next week, or visit my every-day wear blog: www.bronzedaledesigns.blogspot.co.uk/. 

Wedding Dress design and image © Bronzedale Designs

'Mirror Painting' Wedding Dress

The inspiration for this dress came from the frame of a Chinese mirror painting that hangs at Saltram, a National Trust property near Plymouth. I've used the Saltram guidebook for several wedding dress designs (see the 'Lady Catherine' wedding dress or the 'Dorchester House Chandelier' wedding dress.)

For this design, the frame that I was using had a criss-cross pattern across part of it, and I have used this around the neckline and waist of the dress. The criss-cross pattern is made up of interwoven strips of gold material which are then sewn onto the main dress. There is also gold around the short sleeves, and the main dress is a pale ivory colour. The dress has a soft 'V' shaped neckline and a loosely gathered, semi-full skirt which reaches to the ankles.

I hope you liked this design. For more designs, check back here next week, or visit my every-day wear blog: www.bronzedaledesigns.blogspot.co.uk/. 

Wedding Dress design and image © Bronzedale Designs

'Antique Hand Mirror' Flower Girl Dresses (Part 2)

This is the second part of my flower girl dresses post (for the first part click here) with the last two flower girl dresses on it. These ones are also based around the decorative antique hand mirrors that I found on several different antiques websites.

Detail of the bodice of the gold dress

These designs take the decoration from the hand mirrors and use the patterns on the bodices of the dresses. The patterns are embroidered in shades of gold and outlined in a darker brown. Both dresses have a scooped neckline which is edged with ribbon in the same shade as the embroidery. The straps of the dress are also edged with ribbon, and ribbon is used as a belt around the waist, separating the bodice from the skirt.

Detail of the bodice of the pink dress

The gold dress has a fairly full skirts, whereas the pink dress has a straighter skirt. Both skirts are ankle length, and ribbons are used around the hem. The pink dress has a single ribbon around the hem, whereas the gold dress has two ribbons around the hem.

I hope you liked this design. For more designs, check back here next week, or visit my every-day wear blog: www.bronzedaledesigns.blogspot.co.uk/. 

Flower Girl Dress designs and images © Bronzedale Designs

'Pen Nib' Evening Dress

This is a bit more modern than the sort of thing I usually design, but I was flicking through an old National Geographic magazine (the December 2010 issue) looking for ideas and there was an advert for a Parker pen. Almost all of the page was filled up with an incredibly detailed close up of the pen, and so I thought I'd have a go at using it to design a dress with.

The neckline of the dress is designed to imitate the shape of the pen nib, with a discreet thin black ribbon halter neck to hold the bodice up. The bodice is made up of lots of shaped pieces of fabric that imitate the detail on the nib of the pen. The seams where the pieces join would be painted along with black paint to emphasise them. The front panel of the dress would be sewn to a heavier backing fabric to add weight and keep it hanging fairly flat. The rest of the skirt of the dress is gathered. There is a slit to one side of the front panel, reaching up to the knee to ensure it's easy to move in.

I hope you liked this design. For more designs, check back here next week, or visit my every-day wear blog: www.bronzedaledesigns.blogspot.co.uk/. 

Evening Dress design and image © Bronzedale Designs

'Antique Hand Mirror' Flower Girl Dresses (Part 1)

Detail of the embroidery on the silver dress

I don't normally design children's clothes, but I wanted to have a go at designing these flower girl dresses. They are based on the decoration on the backs of antique hand mirrors that I found on a variety of antique websites. I designed five different flower girl dresses, but to prevent an incredibly long post, I've split the designs into two posts. I'll post the other two designs in a couple of weeks.

Detail of the embroidery on the green dress

The designs are fairly similar. They all have a decorative bodice, embroidered in gold with patterns taken from the decoration used on the hand mirrors. The skirts of all three of the dresses are quite full, though the blue dress does have a slightly narrower line than the other two. The blue and silver dresses use a rounded neckline, but the green dress uses a 'V' shaped neckline. All three of the dresses are ankle length and have gold ribbon stitched round the skirt of the dress near the hem.

Detail of the embroidery on the blue dress

I hope you liked this design. For more designs, check back here next week, or visit my every-day wear blog: www.bronzedaledesigns.blogspot.co.uk/. 

Flower girl dress designs and images © Bronzedale Designs

'Dorchester House Chandelier' Wedding Dress

Another design inspired by my Saltram guidebook (see the 'Lady Catherine' wedding dress post for a slightly longer explanation.) The chandelier that inspired this design isn't at Saltram though. The photograph which I found it in is of 'The Red Drawing Room at Dorchester House.' Dorchester House was in London and the 4th Earl of Morley sold it in 1929 to generate money to help maintain Saltram. After it was sold Dorchester House was demolished and the Dorchester Hotel was built in its place.

The chandelier, though probably no longer in existence, is beautiful. It has five tiers to it with each tier a little wider than the last, until the last tier which is much more extravagant than the others. Like the chandelier, this dress has a five tiered skirt. The tiers are made from a light, flowing material and loosely gathered. The edge of each tier is decorated with swirling gold embroidery which in places captures some of the shapes used on the Dorchester House's chandelier. The bodice of the dress is fairly plain. At the top of the bodice gold material is curled into the shape of the motif that is repeatedly used on the chandelier. The gold swirls are stiffened with wire inside them and stitched onto a very fine piece of gauze (intended to be as subtle and unnoticeable as possible.) The wire would be malleable enough that it could be adjusted to fit comfortably around a variety of body shapes. Another set of gold swirly would go across the back, with the dress being fastened down the centre of the back.

I hope you liked this design. For more designs check back here next week, or visit my every-day wear blog at: www.bronzedaledesigns.blogspot.co.uk/.

Wedding dress design and image © Bronzedale Designs

'Copper' Evening Dress

I've recently been rewatching the BBC's 2015 Poldark series, and so with all the talk of copper mining in it, perhaps it's not surprising that I ended up designing a dress inspired by copper. Searching for images of it, you begin to appreciate what a beautiful colour copper is, as is the colour it goes when it is left to the elements. I really wanted to include both of those colours in the dress as they complement each other so well. In the end I decided to use this effect, where the blue-green merges into the copper quite subtly, with no definitive line in between the colours.

Detail of decoration around the neckline

The design for the dress is quite simple: a floor length dress with quite a slim skirt and thin copper coloured straps. The only real decoration on the dress other than the colours is around the neckline, where three strands of thin copper coloured braiding have been loosely interwoven. There isn't need for anything else, the beautiful colours of copper are decorative enough.

I hope you liked this design. For more designs, check back here next week, or visit my every-day wear blog: www.bronzedaledesigns.blogspot.co.uk/. 

Evening dress design and image © Bronzedale Design

'Lady Catherine' Wedding Dress

I've got a guidebook for the National Trust property Saltram, near Plymouth (though unfortunately I've never actually been there) and I've been using it to find inspiration for quite a few different wedding dresses recently. This dress is (loosely) inspired by a portrait of Lady Catherine Parker who lived at Saltram in the 1700s. The portrait depicts Lady Catherine in a silvery dress with a ruffle of lace at a low neckline, and sleeves with lace on them. I've taken some of these elements to create this dress, though some aspects of the design are just fanciful invention and take nothing from the portrait.

Detail of the bodice

The dress is moderately full skirted, with a loose natural waistline. The dress has a fairly low rounded neckline with a frill of lace behind. Lace is used across the top of the bodice, and is also used on the sleeves. The sleeves are loose and gathered and reach to about halfway between the elbow and the shoulder. This dress would be fastened at the back.

Detail of the sleeve

Detail of the lace on the bodice

I hope you liked this design. For more designs, check back here next week, or visit my every-day wear blog: www.bronzedaledesigns.blogspot.co.uk/. Please feel free to leave any questions or comments, feedback is really appreciated.

Wedding dress design and image © Bronzedale Designs

'Sunset Over the Sea' Prom Dress

On my list of possible ideas for prom dresses was written, very vaguely 'the sea' so I was thinking of something calming and blue when I searched for images to work from. Instead I ended up with a beautiful image of the sun over the sea in which a reasonable amount of the picture was not blue, but gold. This dress took quite a bit of playing about with necklines and draping before I felt I had it right, and then a lot of experimentation with colour.

I'm really pleased with the end result and the way that the blue fades quite subtly into the gold. I wasn't intending to do so, but out of curiosity I tried out a glitter brush over the dress, with the glitter fading away higher up the dress. I thought the effect looked something like pictures you see of sunlight from beneath the waves, so I decided to keep it.

The plain creamy yellow narrow underskirt of the dress makes the outfit appear more formal, and contrasts nicely with the decorativeness of the main dress. However, it could be made without the underskirt for a less formal look, or to show off a particularly nice pair of shoes. The dress fastens at the back and features a thin gold halter neck.

I hope you liked this design. For more designs, check back here next week, or visit my every-day wear blog: www.bronzedaledesigns.blogspot.co.uk/.

Prom dress design and image © Bronzedale Designs

'Cloths of Heaven' Wedding Dress

I'm running a day late - sorry about that. I was supposed to post this yesterday and then one thing rolled into another, I got loads of other things done, and then suddenly realised today that I'd completely forgotten to put this post up! So here it is:  

'He Wishes For The Cloths of Heaven' by W. B. Yeats is among my favourite poems (and according to the BBC Book 'The Nation's Favourite Poems' it's Britain's 10th favourite poem) but aside from that it is a poem that seems to sum up what marriage, or any kind of love really, is about. How do you turn a poem like that into a sketch for a wedding dress? I'm not exactly sure, but this is what came to mind when I decided to have a go at it.

It is a simple design, using a cream silky material that falls reasonably loosely. The only real decoration is in the gold satin twist that outlines the neckline and then continues round to form off-the-shoulder sleeves. This design is intended to be made out of a very lightweight material with a slip petticoat underneath, as such it should swirl beautifully during dancing and would suit a late spring or summer wedding when the weather is warmer.

I hope you like this design. For more designs check back here next week, or check my everyday-wear blog:  www.bronzedaledesigns.blogspot.co.uk/

Wedding dress design and image © Bronzedale Designs

About This Blog

Hi,

On my other blog I post designs for clothing inspired by history, nature, art or literature each week. I try to design clothing that is not only beautiful, but also wearable in the real world - the sort of thing that you'd actually keep in your wardrobe. Unfortunately, this means that I don't get to design a huge amount of ball gowns and wedding dresses. That's where this blog comes in, because where my other blog focuses on the realistic and the everyday, this blog is an escape into the world of weddings and proms, which the majority of us rarely get more than a glimpse of.

As such, this blog isn't quite as structured as my usual blog. The inspiration for these designs tends to be whatever I come across - which is still mainly history, nature, art and literature, but other things may creep in. I've called it Bronzedale Bridal Designs, but the designs for this blog really just focus on most special occasion wear, so that's including prom dresses, evening gowns, wedding dresses, bridesmaid dresses, that sort of thing.

I'm really looking forward to working on this project, and sharing some of these designs with you. I hope you enjoy the designs that follow. I'm posting the first of my Bronzedale Bridal Designs on Tuesday, so please check back here next week, or if you'd like to see my designs for everyday wear go to www.bronzedaledesigns.blogspot.co.uk/
Image © Bronzedale Designs