The Dress

I've been bad with the blogging as of late. The whole job search and pick-up shift schedule has kept me a little busy and with no real job prospects in sight, I'm thinking about going back to school for a Masters in a completely different field. More on that later, maybe. Anyways...

The dress!

So, I've seen the perfect dress done in real life, and I've known plenty of ladies lucky enough to have snagged "The Dress" at sample sales, eBay and vintage stores. There's also Running of the Brides events at Filene's Basement where tons of ladies line up and wait to bum rush the door and frantically grab dresses hoping to find the right one. (Reminder for Chicago brides-to-be: The Running of the Brides in Chicago is on State Street and happens tomorrow, July 24th).

In any case, as a bride-to-be that is not sporting a sample size physique, I'm kind of doubting the sample sale and vintage route will work out the way I'd like it to. I'll keep looking and keeping my fingers crossed, but if money allows it, I'd love to have my dress custom made, so I've started looking into it.

Last week, I met with Elise Bergman, local Chicago designer with a strong grasp on how to use eco-friendly materials fashionably and expert on convertible dresses. I posted about her dresses before (see the post on Bridesmaid dresses) and wanted to see what something like this might cost and what kind of time it might take.

I headed over to Elise's current studio in Ukrainian Village and arrived a little earlier than expected. Actually, 20 minutes earlier (I forgot my phone at home and didn't want to risk being late) but Elise and her intern were incredible welcoming. As instructed, I brought some pictures and ideas of what I'm looking for and we sat and talked about the specifics. Here's some ideas on what I'd like...

Photo credit: www.dadamoda.info

I know, everyone loved this dress and it's probably one of the most talked about wedding dresses of the last decade. Vivianne Westwood has made some amazing creations for some very famous ladies in the past and there's no arguing her abilities as a designer. Because I am Frankenstein-ing this idea a bit, I'm hoping to keep the type of color and fabric, the silhouette of the dress and play around with the convertible aspect of the design. Because I am not Carrie, (and cannot pull off many a style the way she can) I'll be opting with a little less pointiness in the boob region and probably will not wear a bird on my head.

Photo credit: http://www.edenbridals.com/5078-p-1317.html

The marshmallow bottom convertible part of the "Carrie" dress is a little more poofy than something I'm looking to have designed, so I want to mix it up with the way this dress from Eden Bridals (pictured above) is. I love the tiered back and the way it makes the back of the dress look a little more dramatic. I'm not sold on the idea of having so many embellishments, but I'm kind of warming up to the idea of having a little bit of a train to the dress.

Photo credit: http://www.edenbridals.com/

In the last few years I have seen a lot of strapless dresses going on at weddings and everywhere else. I have also seen a lot of ladies pulling up their dresses all night. 20 pounds of tulle is bound to drop a little no matter how ample your rack or how tight our strapless bra may be. To combat the issue, I am hoping to add some kind of strap or off the shoulder aspect to the dress to keep my ladies in line and avoid having several candid shots of me lifting the dress at the armpits. The straps would be removed and the bottom tier part taken off for more functionality at the after party. I may just keep it strapless after all and invest in a crapload of sticky tape, but we'll see about that when the time comes.

I hope to post more pictures as things come together, but it's still pretty early on in the planning, so that's all I've got for now.