Rowanjoy real bride - Marianne

Gosh Marianne's dress is one I have been wanting to shout about for a good while as it turned out to be a bit of a new favourite version of an old design. 

When Marianne first came to try on dresses probably over 2 years before her wedding date, she was torn between 2 dresses - The Cecelia and The Grace. Both looked utterly gorgeous on her but neither were 100% what she wanted. We decided to combine the 2 styles using the soft blush silk of the cecelia dress and the silhouette and shape of the Grace with a little twist with the lowered back detail. I knew we were onto a winner. The dress has such a beautiful vintage quality and looks spectacular when combined with the cathedral length veil with gold edging that Marianne also commissioned me to make. I think Marianne looks like she could have walked out of a glorious 1930's melodrama!

I love when making a few changes to one of my designs makes the dress look completely different to the original and gives it a whole new feel. I may have gone a bit image heavy but how could I resist when the photos are so gorgeous of course by the ever talented Caro Weiss. 

Warning - I've got lots more beautiful brides coming up to share in the next couple of weeks.

Rowan x

Photos copyright Caro Weiss

Edinburgh Fashion Festival Makers Market.

This week sees the start of the fourth Edinburgh International Fashion Festival on the 23rd July. This year the festival is focusing on sustainability, education and digital relevance and has a wide ranging and interesting program of events and talks to attend. One of these events is the Makers Market on 25th/26th July which is taking place right here at Hill Street Design House. Along with my fellow resident Hill Streeters we will be joined by some of the best designers and makers in Scotland. See who is taking part here. All the hill street residents will have their studios open and I will have my stand in my studio so its a great opportunity to have a nose and see where everything gets made ( I promise it will be tidy)

I am currently manically sewing away in the studio creating a selection of new pieces which will be for sale over the weekend. Some of my best selling designs like the Jessie Dress and scalloped edge shorts will be made up in some gorgeous new prints and patterns and also a couple of new one-off pieces. I will also have a sale rail of previous season pieces all either one-offs or limited editions. It is a great opportunity to support independent and local designers so look forward to seeing lots of your faces this weekend.

Rowan x 

Dior and I, a fashionable trip to the cinema.

Last night I had the pleasure of a cinema date with the lovely Fi from Fiona Heather. I had been desperate to see "Dior and I" since reading about it a couple of months ago and when I saw it was on at the Cameo this week the tickets were booked immediately.

The documentary started filming as a new chapter in Dior history begins with Raf Simons taking over as creative director and producing not only his first couture collection for Dior but his first ever couture collection. Oh yeah, and he only had 8 weeks to design and have the collection produced in the Dior ateliers, nae hass! The film was not only a fascinating insight into how Simons worked as a designer and how the Dior ateliers created these breathtaking pieces of fashion, it was also a very human story of someone starting a new job with a ridiculous amount of pressure and attention on them. Despite this pressure Simons comes across as an utterly charming and funny man, who is completely dedicated to creating a modern couture collection which ends up being a complete labour of love for him. When he starts tearing up as the first girls step out on to the catwalk, I definitely had something in my eye too.

I absolutely loved it and would highly recommend anyone with even the slightest interest in fashion to go and see it (Also if you love flowers go see it, the show set is ridiculous!). I have loved looking back over the images of the collection this morning after seeing a little bit of how they were created, they seem even more beautiful. For me seeing how a couture collection, in one of the most iconic fashion houses, was created was just mesmerising and also made me long for a team of amazing pattern cutters and seamstresses to turn my drawings into 3D creations. Somehow, I think I will be my own atelier for a little longer! 

Right better get sewing.

Rowan x

Rowanjoy Winter Brides - Jennifer, Sue and Jackie

I have been very bad at keeping up to date with the blog recently (its always the same new years resolution that never gets kept, blog more regularly) And I just realised I have some gorgeous brides from the end of last year who I havent written about so thought i would do a post of them all together.

Sue got married in November last year and had chosen to have a completely bespoke dress. The main feature of the dress was the fabulous, full organza skirt with beaded lace peplum. The lace continued up into the fitted bodice which had a boatneck front with keyhole detail at the back. Sue's dress was so much fun to make, going for a bespoke dress is always a step into the unknown for a bride as they never truly see how their dress is going to look until about half way through the process, but Sue completely embraced this and loved seeing how her dress developed. She looks absolutely beautiful in her dress and so happy on her wedding day.

Images www.archibaldphotography.co.uk

Jennifer chose for her dress one of the made to measure styles from the collection, the Grace. She absolutely loved the style as it was so we made no changes to the design. The style really suited Jennifer's figure with the diagonal lines created by the seams complementing her height. I love the gorgeous red lipstick colour Jennifer chose and it really complements the vintage style of the dress, she looks gorgeous on a chilly Glasgow afternoon!

  

Jackie was my final bride of 2014 and travelled up from Newcastle to get her dress. She chose the Lucille style from the made to measure collection and as soon as she told me she wanted some colour on the dress (a gorgeous plum lace) I couldnt wait to get started. We kept the shape of the dress the same as the original but changed the sleeve to an elbow length style and added a panel of the plum lace across the V. I absolutely love the addition of colour on Jackie's dress and am always up for some colour for wedding dresses (I got in married in green myself)and love how it ties in with her bridesmaids. 

Images www.stevenlandlesweddings.com 

Rowan x

An Autumnal styled shoot.

Last Autumn I had the pleasure of lending out a couple of dresses for a photoshoot being organised by Orange Photographie, a husband and wife wedding photography team from Montana who whilst on their travels to Scotland had plans for a styled shoot. I love being involved in different shoots so jumped at the chance to be involved especially after seeing their gorgeous work.

The shoot took place at the fabulous Kelburn Castle, with my dresses styled with Walker Slaters tweed coats and jackets and those wonderful Pyrus ladies working their floral installation magic. The guys were blessed with a gorgeous Scottish autumn day and I think the results are truly wonderful.

Photography : Orange Photographie

Flowers & Art Direction: Pyrus

Tweed: http://www.walkerslater.com/

Hair: Esther Brown

Makeup: Janise Maxwell

Model: Mhairi McGowan

Rowan x

Rowanjoy Bridesmaid - Carina

Last year as well as all my bridal commissions I had the pleasure of being commissioned for a variety of bridesmaid dresses. One of my favourites was for Carina, whose sister was getting married at home in Australia. Carina came to with the fabric already chosen (and my word was it the most beautiful colour of green I had ever seen) and looking for a 1930's style bias cut dress based on a vintage style she had seen. It was such a wonderful dress to work on and looks absolutely glorious on Carina and doesnt it compliment her sisters beaded wedding dress perfectly.

Rowan x

Photographs courtesy I got you babe

New year, new plans and a gorgeous Rowanjoy Bride, Amy.

Happy New Year!!

So its the second official day back at work today and after actually having a full 2 weeks off (apart from doing my accounts and tax return - the joys of self employment!) I am loving being back in the studio and making plans for the year ahead. I already have lots of lovely brides booked in for this year and I cannot wait to get cracking on their dresses. I am just starting to design my new collection and hopefully have a couple of other (at the moment) secret projects to get my head around this year, all very exciting.

To start off the year on the blog I want to take you back to the gorgeous hazy late summer days of September (remember those? yeah me neither) and to Amy's wedding. Amy's dress was a bespoke version of the Clara dress taking the original shape and changing the gold details for Ivory and Lace and my absolute favourite part, adding in the most beautful detailed lace for the flared part of the lower skirt. And my god, how flipping gorgeous and happy does Amy look? I love the changes to the dress so much I eventually plan to make a new sample using the ideas in Amy's dress and adding it to the collection.

So enjoy the warmth, happiness and Love in the photos and here's looking to much more of all of those in 2015.

Rowan x

All photos courtesy of Gillian Glover MacLean Photography