11th July- 16th July 2016

So I am writing this as a sort of anniversary post. It has been a year since I have done my work experience placement with Emma Victoria Payne and I tell you, it was one of the best weeks of my life.

Emma is a wedding dress designer in Knightsbridge who built up her business from scratch. She studied fashion at Central St Martins and has worked in fashion houses all over Europe. She is truly a remarkable woman and was very inspiring to me at the time. I am just going to write about what I learnt at the time and include some of my designs based off her dresses.

One crucial part of wedding dress designing is understanding your fabrics. There is no point of trying to make an a-line dress out of silk georgette.

• Silk georgette
  • Used as an overlay
  • Heavier than chiffon
  • Floaty
• Duchess satin
  • Heaviest weight
  • Gives structure for a-line dresses
• Silk tulle
  • Volume
  • Gives structure and movement
  • Used as a lining or an overlay
• Crepé satin
  • Used for fitted dresses

Emma has built up her business from scratch and it takes a long time to establish the company and shop. The branding is really important and you need people to build your website, although you could achieve your own branding and graphics if you know how to use photoshop.

There is a lot of admin work involved in her job. There is lots of emailing people about appointments and you also need to be in contact with suppliers.

The most important thing I have learnt is that you have to be so dedicated to it as you don’t have much free time. You have to work on a Saturday and have flexible times so your customers can come and shop after they finish work.

I had a really lovely time and it seemed to be like a dream to work in wedding dress designers for a week!