Wedding Part II: My New Project! posted on November 06 2014 in french embroidery, haute couture embroidery, Lesage, weddings, Yves St Laurent

This past Saturday I attended the lovely wedding of my family friend at a seaside resort in Hawaii. Under blue skies and swaying palm trees, she and her fiancé said their vows and my family and I were delighted to be part of the event!

Yay!

For this event, I attempted a new challenge: embroider and make my own dress for a formal event. The embroidery design on the front bodice came from an embroidery course that I took at Lesage, a school in Paris. The design is called "Giverny," after Monet's garden, and depicts blooming red poppies in a lush green garden. Here's a shot of the embroidery:

Shortly after the course, I came across this picture online from an old Yves St. Laurent collection and instantly fell in love with it.

Since I didn't think I could improve upon the design, I decided to try to replicate it, with a lot of guidance from my sewing teacher Ute, and I think in general it worked out!

On the beach after the ceremony

At our table with the lovely Coco Pai!

Here are a few other snaps from the production process:

The design was intended to be a rectangular shaped painting (you can see the black lines above). I adjusted the upper part of the design to allow for the shoulder straps and arm holes. The poppies are embroidered with red silk organza and little red and black beads.

The assembled top prior to binding the bottom edge. I mounted the embroidery on top of sheer blue organza and a medium blue crepe de chine that were flat felled as one piece. The back was the same blue organza over crepe de chine.

After the wedding. The skirt was red silk dupioni with a sheer red organza overskirt. The waistband has a double bow made out of the same materials.

Finally, just for fun:

Claude Monet- Poppy Fields

Poppies in front of Monet's house in Giverny

Ciao! posted on September 30 2014 in Amal Alamuddin, Gimbattista Valli, Givenchy, haute couture embroidery, Lesage, Yves St Laurent 2 Comments

For my first post in a long, long time, I had been planning on writing about something else until I saw the new Mrs. Clooney walk out of her hotel this weekend...

The dress is 2014 Giambattista Valli couture with sprawling embroidered branches of coral and purple blossoms on a macrame lace background.This kind of three dimensional floral embroidery is one of my favorite embroidery styles, and called to mind some of the most fantastical couture embroidery creations of all time.