Vintage Wedding Dresses at the Movies: the countdown continues...

Dear Reader,
Here we are... the second instalment in my Top 10 vintage wedding dresses from the movies. So many glorious gowns to choose from!

7. High Society (starring Grace Kelly, 1956)
Another fabulous dress by Helen Rose, one of the great Hollywood costume designers of the 1940s and 1950s. First, take a look at the designer's original sketch...

And now, at the dress itself... Perfection!

Aside from her Hollywood costumes, Helen Rose is of course most famous for designing Grace Kelly's own iconic wedding dress. What a beauty.

6. The Godfather (Simonetta Stefanelli as Appollonia, 1972)
The Godfather includes two gorgeous wedding dress scenes. Appollonia's demure head-to-toe lace dress for the simple Sicilian country wedding is my favourite. (And one of my favourite movie wedding scenes too.)

5. The movies of screen goddess, Billie Dove (1920s)
Stunning beauty Billie Dove started as a Ziegfeld Follies girl at the age of 14, and went on to become one of the biggest stars of silent film. So many of her glamorous 1920s dresses would be wonderful for a wedding... 

Some of Billie's films are lost now, so it's hard to choose a favourite. She played a bride in at least two movies. Would it be cheating to include all Billie's gorgeous dresses in my Top 10?

And remember the Juliet cap veils we were thinking about last week, here she is in a stunning example...

At the height of her fame, Billie was more popular than even Greta Garbo. Jazz singer Billie Holliday is said to have named herself after her. Let's remember her with these beautiful images.

4. Come Dance with Me (starring Brigitte Bardot, 1959)

And my last choice for today? La Bardot wearing a classic late 1950s lace wedding dress in this silly French movie...

I've had so much fun choosing. Do check back to see my Top 3, and post your own favourites on my facebook page here. And to enjoy lots more lovely original vintage dresses, click here.

Thanks for looking

Love

Helena

Heavenly Vintage Brides

If you like this post, check out

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Choosing a veil for your vintage wedding dress.

Dear Reader,

I am always on the look-out for lovely accessories for my clients, and recently I've been thinking about veils. The right veil can add so much to a beautiful vintage wedding dress. Just think of the wonderful images of Kate Moss in her Juliet cap veil. And of course, the iconic Grace Kelly.

I rarely find vintage-style veils that work so beautifully, so I have been thinking for some time of designing my own range of Heavenly veil. I'm delighted to have found a veil-maker whose work is amazing quality - and have seized the opportunity to work with her!

We're very busy designing a small exclusive range, launching in just a few weeks. The first is inspired by cloche or cap veils from the 1930s which were worn low on the forehead. These are often called Juliet caps - based on Shakespeare's play Romeo & Juliet, as the original drawings showed Juliet wearing a neat, fitted cap. 

Our updated version will be worn slightly further back, for a softer more flattering look - like the gorgeous style worn by Kate Moss.

Our Heavenly veils have a special style of lace embroidery called Cornelli and are all made by hand. (Even the delicate silk rose trims are hand-made!) I'll be launching the first two styles in a few weeks with a photo-shoot to show them off. But for now I can't resist sharing a glimpse of how pretty they are...

So keep watching this space - I want you to be the first to see them please!

Love

Helena

Heavenly Vintage Brides

If you like this post, why not try

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Lucie in her beautiful 1940s lace wedding dress.

Dear Reader,

Today, I'm delighted to hand over to real vintage bride Lucie. I'm only giving you a tantalising glimpse of her lovely wedding as it will soon feature on fabulous wedding blog LoveMyDress. (I promise to let you know, as soon as it's up there!) 

And instead, I'm very pleased that Lucie's agreed to talk us through her happy experience of choosing the perfect vintage wedding dress...

"As soon as I got engaged, I was dying to start trying on wedding dresses, but managed to restrain myself until a year before the wedding. A strapless meringue was never going to be ‘me’, and I didn’t like the feel of modern lace, so I always thought I’d end up with a vintage dress. I researched various vintage bridal shops and planned a jam-packed day zig-zag-ing across London with my sister (Maid of Honour) and mum (most excited mother of the bride in history) in tow. 

Heavenly Vintage Brides was our first appointment and, from the website, looked to be the smallest operation. However, as soon as we entered Helena’s AMAZING room-of-wonder, I knew I had stumbled upon a very, very special place. From the welcome we received from Helena, to the amazing breadth and quality of the dresses in her collection, it is definitely nirvana for any vintage bride-to-be. 

Having gone through the decade-ordered rails (all three of us ooh-ing and ahh-ing at every dress), I selected a very varied range to try on. Helena then discussed each dress with me, giving her valued, honest opinion about whether it would be likely to fit and suit my body shape. We almost discounted my dress as I was convinced it wouldn’t go over my hips, but Helena said we could give it a go.

 

I usually detest the whole fitting room experience, but trying on dresses with Helena was like being a kid again, playing dress-up. Before ‘the dress’, I tried on a 1950s full-skirted gown, some cute 1930s button-front lace dresses, and a tiered-skirt Victorian dress, all of which were beautiful. However, when it came to my dress, once I’d got over the amazement of it fitting like it had been tailor-made, I could see from my mum and sister’s faces that my search was over – it was perfect. 

My advice to any bride-to-be is to ignore any part of you that’s inclined to play the whole thing down and play it safe. Before I reserved my dress, I had a niggling doubt that it was too glamorous for me (I’m usually quite understated) and ‘too much’ due to the very long train – in most scenarios I cannot bear to be centre of attention, so thought a simpler, plainer dress might be better. I’m so happy now that my mum and sister managed to persuade me that, if I was going to feel glamorous and amazing on just one day, it should be my wedding day and that I would be an absolute idiot to even consider looking at other dresses. 

Another piece of advice for anyone buying a vintage dress is to see if you can find anything out about the history of your dress – knowing some of the story behind it will make it even more special. After I’d left Heavenly Vintage Brides, I Googled ‘1940s wedding dress’ (it wasn’t an era I knew much about) and was absolutely amazed when my actual dress appeared on the first row of the image results. Clicking through to the page, I found a listing from when the dress was sold a few years ago and found out that it had been made by a designer store in New York where Marilyn Monroe used to shop!

 

Our wedding day was EPIC and I surprised myself completely by how much I loved the attention – mostly from everyone complementing me on my dress. It felt amazing to be wearing such a unique dress with such an amazing history and I’ll treasure it forever."

Thanks so much, Lucie. From the little glimpses we've seen, we know you look stunning. But wait... I can't bear it...! You know I just can't keep a secret...! So here is Lucie looking absolutely beautiful and radiant in her 1940s dress with long train.

Big thanks to Lucie for her great words, and to photographer Mark Tattersall for these lovely images. For more pictures, you'll have to keep watching my blog each week!

Love

Helena

Heavenly Vintage Brides

Martina in vintage lace wedding dress and traditional Swedish bridal crown.

Dear Reader,

Our Bride of the Week is Martina, who married in Sweden...

Martina already owned an antique lace overskirt, which she wanted to incorporate into her wedding outfit. So we found a beautiful vintage lace wedding dress that worked perfectly worn together with the overskirt. 

To tie the two together, my seamstress Katie also made a pretty sash for the waist using more antique lace and a pale duck-egg blue ribbon.

Martina matched these with an antique lace veil, and the traditional Swedish Brudkronan - an antique bridal crown which is held in the local church for all brides to borrow on their wedding day.

Martina was an absolute joy to work with, and I was delighted when she sent me this charming note...

"Each time my husband and I attend a wedding now it brings us back to our magical wedding day, and makes me think of you and how grateful I am for all the help with my dress!"

Thanks for sharing your pictures with us Martina. We love your look! And thanks, readers, for dropping by today. Have a wonderful weekend.

Love

Helena

Heavenly Vintage Brides

PS If you like this post, please try:

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Original lace wedding dresses for sale

A classic 1960s wedding dress by William Cahill, and gorgeous flowers.

Dear Reader,

Today I'd like to show two of my vintage wedding dresses in a lovely photo-shoot by new Floral Designer Aisha Vohra.

The first is a late 60s dress by American designer William Cahill - famous for his exquisite craftsmanship and elegant design. 

Cahill of Beverly Hills was one of the finest names in wedding fashion throughout the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. And with its long lace sleeves and sweeping lace train, this is a particularly beautiful example of a Cahill dress. 

This gorgeous Cahill dress is a size 10 / small size 12, and is available now priced at £1100. The lovely floral crowns and rose bouquet in these photos are by newly launched Aisha Vohra and you can see more of Aisha's work here.

The second dress is Angel from my Heavenly Collection of vintage-inspired wedding dresses. Angel's pretty 1930s-style features include a low back, a lovely fitted shape, a small train and flutter sleeves. It is made to order in the finest quality traditional Nottingham lace, priced at £1495. 

You can see my Heavenly Collection here, and do please contact me if you'd like to know more. 

Love

Helena

Heavenly Vintage Brides

PS. If you like this post, please try

A Guide to 1930s wedding dresses

A Guide to 1960s wedding fashion

Photographs by T-Two Photography
Flowers by Aisha Vohra Floral Designer
Make-Up by Uzma Beauty

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. 

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. 

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