Creating The Supreme Silhouette

Picture this: it’s your wedding day, and the congregation wait expectantly in the church. Your gorgeous groom stands nervously at the head of the aisle, his eyes fixed on the large wooden doors through which you are soon to emerge…

There is a moment of hushed silence, friends and relatives exchange excited and tearful glances, and then…

The first notes of the wedding march boom from the organ, the doors swing open, and there you stand, bathed in a flood of sunlight, your silhouette framed beautifully in the magnificent doorway…

This is the moment you’ve been waiting for; the first step towards your husband-to-be, and his first glimpse of you in your wedding dress. 

When it comes to our clients’ wedding day, we at Achillea Marini cherish this moment above all else. Why? Because it’s the vision of you that will remain in the memories of your loved ones for years to come.

It is this moment that has inspired us to use a particular shape in our wedding dress designs, a shape that creates the most striking silhouette, and one that looks unbeatable when you’re stood bathed in sunlight at the top of the aisle…

The peplum.

The peplum creates an elegant flare at the waist, producing a dramatic and powerful silhouette and feminine curve at the hips. The look is couture-inspired, and exudes elegance and style. And while the peplum is essentially very glamorous and in some ways rather traditional, it is simultaneously youthful and vivacious, which is why we love it so much.

Here's a spectacular example of the look, by Karl Lagerfeld:

And to give you a really good idea of the style, here are two gorgeous collections that are peplum-inspired. Notice the emphasis on the waist, and the way the ruffle accentuates the length of the legs. This is a seriously bold look, and one that is destined to make a strong impression:

http://www.style.it/#moda/sfilate/sfilata/pe-2012-collezioni/alexander-mcqueen/slideshow#429786

And…

http://www.style.it/#moda/sfilate/sfilata/ai-11-12-haute-couture/chanel

If Alexander McQueen and Chanel are using the peplum in their ready-to-wear collections, we’ve got to be onto a good thing!

But there’s another, very important reason why we love to incorporate this style into our wedding dresses: it suits both the slim and more curvaceous frame. Whether it be adding shape to a boyish figure, or streamlining a fuller figure, it’s a truly versatile style.

We love to use luxurious, heavy fabrics such as ‘duchesse’ for our wedding dresses, which work really well with the peplum style. The ruffles that are created stand out beautifully, making elegant waves around the waist and hips.

We really can’t say enough for the peplum; it ticks all the boxes when it comes to designing our custom-made wedding dresses. Let us know what you think of this sultry style; we’d love to hear from you.

And if you have any questions regarding the trends we incorporate into our designs, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Turning real women into supermodels

Hands up who has ever dreamt of staring in their very own photoshoot?

There should be a Mexican wave of arms being flung into the air, because through experience of working with some our clients, we know that inside a lot of fabulous women, there’s a sensational supermodel desperate to get out.

It’s not hard to understand why; who wouldn’t want to be a star for a day? Hours upon hours of being pampered…groomed…admired…not to mention having your very own makeup artist working magic with your cheekbones.

These are all the ingredients for a totally indulgent and special day.

And that’s without even mentioning the beautiful dresses you get to model; move over Kate Moss, there’s handfuls of real women vying for your place in front of the lens.

But, of course, this is just a distant fantasy…or is it?

Not any more…

Here at Achillea Marini we give the women that come our way the unique opportunity to star in their very own photoshoot. Just like a fashion shoot for a top magazine, we get on board a professional photographer and a marvellous makeup artist, and choose only the most stunning sets to create a truly sensational shot.

And there’s no need to make a grab for your purses, because we offer this completely free of charge. Why? Think of it as a wedding gift from us.

Here’s how it works…

Once we have created your custom-designed wedding dress, we will give you the opportunity to model it in front of the camera. Your gorgeous photograph will appear on our website, and could even be featured in magazines…so you really could be rubbing shoulders with Kate Moss on the page opposite!

        

There’s one reason and one reason only why we get our brides to model their wedding dresses: because there’s nobody else who could look as fabulous in it as them, and we would love to have our gorgeous brides featured on our website in the gowns we’ve created for them.

Each wedding dress we make is designed specifically for one woman – the bride to be. From the measurements, to the colour tones; and from the fabric choice, to the careful details that make it unique…the finished gown simply cannot be worn by anybody else.

And the cherry on the cake?  You get to take your favourite shot home with you, free of charge. What a wonderful addition to the wedding album!

Your wedding day is all about you and your husband to be. From the wedding breakfast to the last dance, all eyes are on the two of you. But with your very own photoshoot it’s all eyes on you and you alone, and we promise your groom will cherish the photograph of you looking totally fantastic.

Here’s our makeup artist’s new blog. Her name is Ruth O’Rourke and we love her for her raw enthusiasm and ability to get it right every time.

http://ruthorourke.blogspot.co.uk/

And to make sure we at Achillea Marini are up to the minute with our fashion photography, we follow this amazing fashion photography blog, which is a hub of information and advice.

http://www.fashionphotographyblog.com/category/inspiration/

For more information on how you could become a model for the day, feel free to get in touch via our ‘Contact’ page.

That’s all for now, to keep up with our exciting offers make sure you regularly check our ‘Promotions’ page!

Make Do and Mend

If there’s one dress you think you’ll never wear again, it’s your wedding dress. And you’re not alone; it’s almost traditional NOT to wear it again, and there are companies out there encouraging you to pack it away in elaborate boxes that, I’m afraid to say, resemble clothes’ coffins…

But don’t you think such a dress should be worn again and again? You did, after all, spend not only money, but weeks, months even years choosing it. Perhaps you were even fantasising about it as a girl? Why, then, wear it for one special day and then lay it to rest, loved but untouched, at the back of your wardrobe?

We at Achillea Marini think this is the worst crime to befall a dress that had, up until it’s banishment to the clothes’ coffin, been the apple of the bride’s eye.

This is why we decided to turn things around. How, we thought, can we save our beautiful wedding dresses from the solitary confinement of storage? We realised it would look rather bizarre and out of place to wear your wedding dress to a black tie event, or any other event for that matter, because it would still look like a wedding dress, and people would stare…

The only solution, then, is to alter the dress to turn it from a wedding gown into an evening frock. Bingo! And our customers thought it was a fantastic idea, too. Working one-on-one with our brides, we make small changes to the design of their wedding gown to create a dress they’d be happy to wear long after their wedding day.

And all completely free of charge; we see it as a little wedding gift.

But there’s a weightier reason behind our enthusiasm to encourage the reuse of our wedding dresses, and that reason is: the environment. There’s so much emphasis nowadays on recycling paper, cans, glass, plastic…but what about textiles?  People throw away millions of tonnes of textiles every year, and this has disastrous consequences on the environment as many of the fabrics we wear do not decompose.

Now, we know you’re not going to fling your wedding dress into the landfill site, but even so we think it’s important to inspire women to get the most out of their beautiful clothes. We also want to contribute to the growing movement of ‘slow’ fashion, rather than the mass-produced, disposable fashion that is unfortunately so strong in the market.

We also hope to encourage our brides to do the same with their everyday wardrobe. The old saying, ‘make do and mend’ needs to be reclaimed from the history books and put back into the consumer’s consciousness. Are your jeans wearing thin at the knees? Lop off the legs to create a stylish pair of denim shorts. Bored of the jumper you’ve had since you were fifteen? Get creative and add a quirky design to the front. Be your own fashion designer, it’s fun!

For a touch of inspiration, take a look at this website: http://make-do-and-mend.org/, which is full of fun and quirky recycling ideas. Or, for advice on everything from making clothes from scraps of fabric to hacking up your hoodie, go to: http://www.squidoo.com/how-to-recycle-clothes.

For those of you who just want the hard facts about textile recycling, see: http://www.textilerecycling.info/#/textile-recycling-facts/4543172877.

Achillea Marini contributes to the environment in many other ways, all of which are detailed on our Environment page. If you have any tips for us on how to be greener, or would like more information on any of our services, we’d love to hear from you!