Background story: This is a series of couture gown designs and collections for in-house photoshoot purpose, wedding ceremony and also made to measure for my customers when I was working in a wedding and photography house.
Brief: I was tasked to brainstorm and help customers design a custom made gown for their events, provide them styling advice, such as helping them to select a colour that suits them, select materials for their gown, and select accessories that suits the gown. I was also tasked to design series of in-house couture evening and wedding gowns for potential clients for their wedding ceremony as well as wedding album.
Approach: When designing for customers, I always try to understand my clients as much as possible, for example what is the type of event that they are going to, the location of the wedding (indoor or outdoor), what is their favourite design and why, what is their favourite colour and etc. It is very important to first understand their needs before i start designing and providing suggestions that I feel suits them, this way it will be more efficient and the progress will go on smoothly. After discussions and finalising the design, I will then work together with production team where I would sometimes involve in sourcing the fabrics and necessary materials and sewing. I will usually make the first prototype and allow the customer to do a fitting to ensure the measurements are accurate and if there is any issue, I will liaise with production to make necessary adjustments. And then we would prepare the final gown design and allow the customers to fit again to ensure the final product is perfect for their occasion.
For in-house gown collection, I would start brainstorming and research the trend, silhouette and details of the gowns. And then I would observe what are the usual request of our clients and what are their needs. Weather condition, type of event often influence customers’ decision in choosing a gown, so I have to make sure those are taken care of as much as possible.
Challenge & Solution: The biggest challenge for gowns are to ensure the fit of the gown. The usual process of making a gown can stretch from 1-2 months and during this period of time, customer might lose or gain weight. So I would try to arrange two fittings for the customer, first fitting is when the gown has been made and 95% ready. So that we can have the final fitting of the gown closer to the date of event, whereby any adjustments would be minor at that stage and we are able to make adjustments in a short period of time, so that the gown would fit the customer well for her occasion.
Client : Enya Mareine
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