A lovely bride to be has been in touch and asked me to make a wedding dress inspired by Grace Kelly in the film Rear Window, I'm always super excited when I get to recreate something that from the Golden Era I love the most! It's going to be in shades of pink and ivory for a subtle pop of colour.
The drawing is the original design sketch by the wonderful Edith Head.

This dress will be named The Fremont Dress after Grace's character in the film - Lisa Fremont!

So this Sunday was the Middleton Hall Wedding Fayre, organized by the lovely ladies at James Jones Events. The weather although forecast to be wintery showers turned out to be gorgeous spring sunshine (and showers!) and lots of brides to be turned up to have a look at the fabulous Middleton Hall.

Our gorgeous model Beth braved the cold to venture outside so we could get some photos in the fabulous grounds, I think it was well worth it!! (Ahem, it wasn't me with blue lips so Beth may not agree!!)

Thanks to all the brides that stopped by to say hello and try on our dresses, and also a huge thank you to a Slice of Heaven Cakery who were opposite us and regularly supplied us with delicious chunks of lemon and chocolate cake and cupcakes to sample - YUMMY!

The Kelly Dress in silk and Chantilly lace

The Bardot Dress with tulle overlay

We had the most fantastic day on Sunday - we took part in The Royal Vintage Wedding Fayre, at The Royal Hotel in Sutton Coldfield. We were greeted at the door by the lovely organizers Rebecca and Chloe of James Jones Events and took our spot in the grand Assembly Room. From the moment the fayre opened its doors we were surrounded by all you gorgeous brides waiting patiently to try on the dresses we had taken with us.

Beth our fabulous model wore The Kelly Silk & Chantilly for the day, teamed with some wonderful diamante pumps for an alternative look - they certainly made a talking point and I was surprised at how many brides said they were also planning on wearing Converse with their dresses (much to one brides mums horror!!)

We also launched our new range of bridesmaids dresses at the fayre, the cotton version (as shown in the black with red spots dress) is priced at a reasonable £89, with a duchess satin version at £129. We can make this dress as a strapless version if preferred, and will be expanding the range to include other styles over the coming weeks!

We will be exhibiting at The Middleton Hall Wedding Fayre in Tamworth (also run by James Jones Events) on the 23rd March 2014, 11am-3pm for all you loveley brides who want to pop in and say hello!

A lady contacted me a couple of weeks ago with a very specific request. She was to be a guest a t a 50's themed wedding, and wanted to know if I could make her a dress very similar to the one worn by Audrey Hepburn in the modern Galaxy chocolate advert.

In her words "It has to be in keeping with the brides quirky style, laid back and nothing that doesn't scream 50's". The bride was also keen to incorporate sage green in the colour scheme. The dress should also have wrist length sleeves and a very long skirt for the religious ceremony, which afterwards the sleeves needed to be rolled back up to the more traditional 1950s 3/4 length.

We decided on a shirtwaist dress style with kimono sleeves and a button front, with a full lining as the wedding was to take place in February. The colours chosen were Dusty green polkadot cotton, ivory lining and satin trim and a 2 layer Alice petticoat in ivory.

It's wedding fayre season!!

We will be exhibiting at The Royal Vintage Wedding Fayre,  The Royal Hotel, Sutton Coldfield on Sunday 23rd February, 11-3pm.

Pop in and say hello - we'll be taking our range of dresses and accessories, why not come and try some on!!

For all our lovely blog readers we will be giving a 10% discount for any dress orders placed on the day of the fayre, just mention our blog to claim your discount!

I've had so many requests from brides to make matching bridesmaids dresses that I have now decided to get some onto the website!

The new range will include fabulous rockabilly styles, halternecks and strapless frocks!

Until I can get the range made up and photographed please feel free to send me your enquiries, the dresses will be made in the normal range of sizes, with made to measure at a small extra charge. The bridesmaids range will be available as standard in cotton fabric - both plain and prints, with the option of upgrading to satins and silk!

Prices will start from £89

Coming soon - watch this space! ..........

So lots of you lovely ladies have asked for some detail pictures of The Kelly Dress.

I took a couple of snaps of this one in my workroom until we have some "proper" images so you can get a better look at just one of the ways the back can be styled. This version has a beautiful bateau neckline front and back with pretty silk covered buttons to finish, the bride decided against lace appliqué along the neckline as she didn't want too much fuss around the top!

The Kelly Dress can be made with lots of different design details: v-neck, round neck, short sleeves, no sleeves - the list is endless!

This version of The Kelly Dress is made in beautiful ivory silk satin and a bodice of delicate Chantilly lace.

Abby (the bride) decided against having the lace all over as she wanted to keep the dress fairly simple and added a plain ivory narrow belt sash to finish it off. (I hear she has some very lovely gold Vivienne Westwood Melissa heart shoes to go with the dress to add a touch of bling!) The underskirt she chose is a 5 layer Alice deluxe, trimmed in ivory satin.

This dress is a custom order for a lovely bride I met at the Oxford Vintage Wedding fair earlier this summer. She fell in love with the Mansfield dress but wanted to make the design her own, so we added the full circle skirt (Mansfield has previously been made with a ¾ circle skirt) and as she didn't want to wear a sash with the dress we added some beautiful embroidered appliqué to the upper bodice area. The fabric is pure silk dupion with a very fine slub in the weave.

 I really like the look of full circle skirt on The Mansfield dress, standing out to perfection with a 5 layer custom petticoat in pure white net, a classic 50's silhouette with that nipped in waist!

Ryley & Flynn Vintage recently exhibited at The Something Old Vintage Wedding Fairs in Nottingham and Oxford. 

 What an adventure! The car was packed to bursting point with dresses, underskirts and dress mannequins, I can only imagine what people following behind us on the motorway must have thought!! We got completely lost trying to navigate around the centre of Oxford, so many one way streets and bus lanes - even the sat nav was lost, eventually we found Oxford Town Hall and having never visited oxford before I was slightly speechless at the beauty of the place. Inside we were in a gorgeous wood panelled room - the perfect setting for a vintage fair.

 
Oxford Town Hall

We had a great time, all our dresses were on display and lots of brides to be took the opportunity to try on the sample dresses and accessories that we had with us. We had so many lovely comments through the day and I'd like to thank every one that took the time to make a special trip to come and see us!

During the Nottingham fair our stall was near the main stage area, and we were entertained through the entire day by the most wonderful couple - Ricky Hunter and Velvet Divine! Together they are 1940s entertainers, Velvet Divine has the most wonderful voice, I could have listened to her for hours! (Check them out at www.facebook.com/GetHappyEntertainment.) They didn't just entertain us while they were on stage but off stage too with their great sense of humour!

Velvet Divine & Ricky Hunter  

Also at Nottingham was a fantastic photo booth - VintageBooth, complete with props, it printed out your pictures while you waited and the whole booth looked fantastic. I could imagine it at any wedding, providing your guests hours of fun and a real talking point. You can find them at www.vintagebooth.me.

VintageBooth

Ok so I've never done this before and if I get it wrong then please feel free to laugh!!

I've started a blog here at Ryley & Flynn Vintage to provide a bit more detail about what we do, let you see our dressmaking process and some behind the scenes info and generally keep you up to date with whats going on.
I'll be posting about current orders, new designs, reviews and hopefully some tutorials to help you along the way. 

So after months of knowing blogging was something I had to do, I've finally done it - I'm a trainee blogger!!

Join in, leave comments and ask questions.....