The search for a beautiful tulle You don’t need to compromise your sustainable fashion goals when looking for a wedding veil. Most wedding veils are made of polyester or nylon tulle (made from petrochemicals). After many years of experimenting and searching for a beautiful silk tulle, I’ve finally found one that I’m in love with. … Continue reading
Latest Entries
fashion, craft, vintage, design / madeline newport / Orange NSW / re-modelling / repurposing / slow fashion / sustainable design / weddings
Madeline’s second time around – a story about a dress.
Would you wear an old dress to your wedding? It’s not that unusual. Once upon a time, resourceful women kept their wedding dresses for future uses. They often shared them with their sisters, daughters and extended family for weddings or special occasions. This is the story of a dress that came out of the dark … Continue reading
ethical clothing / fashion, craft, vintage, design / re-modelling / slow fashion / sustainable design / weddings
What does it mean to be an accredited ethical clothing brand?
last year I went through the process of becoming accredited with Ethical Clothing Australia. For a very small business like mine where all the manufacturing is done in-house, it was a relatively simple process. I had to provide information about my supply chain, receive representatives from the TCFUA for a site visit, and sign stat declarations. During … Continue reading
Swanning around in the Central West
Mixing business with pleasure is easy in the wedding industry. I’m up and down to Sydney all the time so you’d expect I’d be sick of driving. But I love Orange and it doesn’t take much arm twisting to get me in my car and heading out west. After packing the car with dress bags, tool … Continue reading
Unpicking the past
Work on this vintage wedding dress requires patience and skill. So far I’ve spent over 2 hours unpicking the zipper and separating the bodice from its voluminous skirt and there are many more hours of this painstaking work to go. I have to carefully slip the tip of the unpicker, or seam ripper, under every … Continue reading
design / dress detective / fashion, craft, vintage, design / madeline newport / re-modelling / sustainable design / wedding fashions
Ok let’s go!
The time for procrastination is over. You might remember I’ve been working on a project taking a beautiful 1957 wedding dress and re-modelling it for a contemporary wedding. So far the journey has included trips to Orange (one of my favourite places in Australia), trips to the National Library (online) another fave, and many hours … Continue reading
dress detective / fashion, craft, vintage, design / grace kelly / marilyn monroe / mysterydesigner / wedding fashions / weddings
Bells, gloves and princesses…the weddings and the women who influenced bridal fashions of the 50’s
The 1950’s, had not just one ‘look’, but the silhouettes from this period are instantly recognisable, think big skirts and tulle petticoats. Marilyn Monroe and Grace Kelly, two of Hollywood’s biggest stars, were both married in the 1950’s. Grace Kelly’s dress and wedding was the stuff of fairytales. Not quite Cinderella, her magnificent dress reflected the importance of the … Continue reading
Still searching for clues
I’m being fed lovely photos of the ‘woman who wore the dress’. The woman I’m interested is second from the left. Her name is Jan. Brit tells me “In 1955 Jan went on a working holiday to Europe. This is her outside Glencoe YHA Scotland, 2nd from left, next to dad’s cousin Judy, who later introduced … Continue reading
design / dress detective / fashion / fashion, craft, vintage, design / madeline newport / mysterydesigner / re-modelling / repurposing / weddings
Old photo, brings new clues….
and new threads to follow, (corny but I couldn’t resist). I’m excited to have the original photo of the dress worn by the bride on her wedding day in 1957. I’m not going to show you the photo just yet because the bride-to-be and I feel that it would be a spoiler for the finished … Continue reading
design / dress detective / fashion / fashion, craft, vintage, design / Orange NSW / re-modelling / weddings
The mystery in the dress
It all started with an intriguing form submission via my website http://www.pearlbutton.com.au asking me if I’d be interested in doing some work on a vintage dress. Following a few email conversations, we arranged to talk. The voice on the other end of the phone was excited and full of enthusiasm, I liked this person instantly. … Continue reading
Pearl Button Bridal 