Category Archives: Entrepreneur

Attire Bridal Up & Coming Designer

Attire Bridal recently got in touch with me to interview me about my first bridal collection

Q. How long have you been in the bridal business?

I studied fashion at University and spent my summers working for bespoke milliners like William Chambers, so my transition into the wedding industry was a gradual one. While we made a lot of our hats for horse racing fans, my favourite clients were always the mothers of the brides. My sister got married in 2014 and that was my first experience working with a bride, and from then I knew that I wanted to build my own business. As soon as I had this realisation, I wanted to learn as much as possible from as many industry professionals as I could, which led to working for Joyce Young in Glasgow, before setting up my own label in January 2016.

Q. What do you think defines your own collection?

I am inspired by the fine art wedding movement, and I try to embed nostalgic, romantic vibes into all of my work, using soft and beautiful high quality fabrics. The aim, within all of my designs, is to weave historical artistic references throughout the collection to create a timeless atmosphere while still feeling fresh and contemporary. Q. What makes your designs stand out from other bridal labels?

As a small, independent label, my brand has the agility to react quickly to changes in bridal trends - which often means I can get slightly ahead of the curve. Almost everything I produce is a bespoke, one-off piece for particular brides, which means I spend a lot of time with my clients and have a very unique relationship with them. My timeless style appeals to refined, sophisticated brides planning beautifully styled weddings.

Q. What influences have played a major part in your first bridal collection?

My first bridal collection was heavily influenced by a trip to Florence around the time that I started designing. The soft champagne tones, draped silks and delicate silhouettes all feel like they could be in a painting by my favourite renaissance artist, Botticelli. I tried to blend these pattern-like drapes into the collection in a pragmatic, contemporary manner.

Q. Tell us a bit about the construction techniques that you’ve used?

One of the things that is very important to me is that the dresses are comfortable to wear. I want brides to be able to dance, eat and enjoy the most special day of their lives, so much of my construction is centred around how to minimise bulky linings, tight corseting and heavy underskirts and still have the dress feel really special and bridal. I also use fake button-up backs and hidden zips so the dresses are as easy as possible to slip in and out of, 100% silk linings that feel great against your skin, and cuts and silhouettes that don't require heavy structure to look great on the day.

Q. Do you have a favourite gown, and why?

It's really difficult to pick just one out of the collection, and some of the big favourites have been unexpected like the Billie Separates, which were my best seller for 2016. I love the movement from the dove-grey chiffon skirt on the Elin, but my personal favourite is the Maymie regency-inspired lace dress, which reminds me of Jane Austen novels and my sisters.

Q. Have you won any awards for your designs?

At the end of last year, I won The Wedding Industry Awards "Best Newcomer" award for the South West, and I was on the shortlist for the national award, alongside finishing runner-up in the South West category for Best Dressmaker/Designer, only beaten by an industry veteran, which I feel vindicates the hard work I've put in over the last twelve months. I'm also going to the finals of the South West Wedding Awards, for their "Best Newcomer" category. Of course the best prize is when brides are really pleased with their finished dress, and bring me thank-you chocolates.

Q. Where can people get a glimpse of your gowns?

The best place to see galleries of my dresses is on my website. You can see all of the dresses expertly photographed by the super-talented Rachel Rose Photography on my "collection" pages, and I update new photo galleries in the blog every Wednesday. I'm also a big Instagram fan, so the a great way to see what I'm up to is to follow me at @ailsamunrodressmaker.

Q. Where do you see the business in five years?

I would love for my dresses and style to be more widely available, and to grow my business to have a ready-towear line available in bridal boutiques or online. The core of my business however will always be about providing my clients with the best possible personal service and making them feel incredibly special on their wedding day

Why does a bespoke dress cost so much money?

*This post was originally featured on the English Wedding Blog*

Since I started my own business I’ve been confronted with two quite different opinions about my pricing strategy. Brides sometimes expect having a dress made for them to be cheaper than going to a bridal boutique, whereas other industry professionals have told me I’m undercharging (most of my dresses cost around £1800-£2500). A blog post by Olivia Bossert inspired me to explain what goes into the cost of your couture wedding dress.

1. Marketing

Any dressmaker that you hire has to first advertise so that you know they are an option. Very few people come to me straight from Google or my website, so a small amount of the cost of your dress is associated with how you found me in the first place. Whether that’s spending 2 days at a wedding fair, putting together a styled shoot for a magazine or blog or spending a little cash upfront on Facebook or internet advertising, this is a fairly big business expense for me. This is why referrals are so important to me and to other small wedding businesses, and why so many of us offer discounts to people who recommend their friends.

bespoke wedding dress price discussion with Ailsa Munro (3)

2. Consultation and fitting time

The point of getting a bespoke dress is that firstly, you get exactly the design you want. Sometimes it will take me two hours in a first consultation to get this completely right. Then there can be up to four further fittings to ensure the fit is completely perfect and that all the details fit and look right. Conservatively, I probably spend about 6 hours in consultations with every bride on the run up to the wedding day, and dressmakers need to charge for this time.

3. Experience and design

This is a slightly abstract concept, but creativity and experience are big factors in how your dress turns out, and that will factor into the cost of your dress. To try and explain it better, think about paying for a painting. Sure, the time and materials that go into it are a factor, but you’re also buying from a specific painter because you love their work and you want a piece of it in your home. You would spend more on a painting my an established artist than you would a home-painter. The same is true for a couture dress, you pay more to have an experienced atelier make it rather than your auntie on a sewing machine.

bespoke wedding dress price discussion with Ailsa Munro (2)

4. Pattern cutting and sampling

If you’re ordering from a pre-given selection of dresses (for example, if you want a dress that is exactly like one from my sample collection) this stage is shorter and your dress will come out a little cheaper. If your dress is completely bespoke however, your dressmaker will need to spend quite a bit of time pattern cutting and making a toile of the dress. A toile is a first draft of the dress in cheap fabric, that allows the dressmaker to see how the fit and style is going to work. The time and materials for this need to be factored into the cost of the dress.

5. The fabric

I think it’s pretty obvious that the cost of the fabric has to be factored into the cost of the dress! However, it is not by a long way the only factor. Halving your fabric costs (by going for polyester over silk) will not half the cost of your dress. I think it’s almost always worth stretching the budget for a completely silk dress.

6. Making the dress

This is the other obvious cost- the sheer amount of time spent making a high quality couture dress. Most of us are accustomed to buying off the high street, often clothes made in India or China where people are paid an equivalent of 50p a day. They also use fairly low quality, quick production techniques. This means it can seem a little expensive buying high quality garments domestically produced.

7. Rent on a workshop or studio

If your dress takes 2 weeks to make in the studio, the price of the dress has to cover the rent on the studio for those two weeks. Some small businesses can operate without premises, but often creative businesses need space for their tools and equipment.

So there you have it. This list is by no means exhaustive, I haven’t mentioned the wear and tear on machines or the cost that goes into packaging your dress, but I hope this list gives you a bit more of an idea of where the money you pay for your wedding dress goes when you choose to have a handmade item. It can seem like a lot of money, but in the wedding industry you really do get what you pay for; most of us are much smaller companies than you would usually deal with and we cannot afford to overcharge or disappoint even one customer.