I’m excited to show you some recent work I’ve been doing for a client. It is common to wear more than one dress at wedding in Japan. You wear one white wedding dress to walk the aisle and for the reception. After, you switch it up to what we call “color dress”. The color scheme can be anything…..except for something like an animal print, which makes you imagine dead animal and is against Japanese wedding custom. I have seen red, pink, gold, blue…pretty much every color in the past. I personally like all white for weddings, since I feel like it is the unique privilege of the bride on that day, but it’s not my wedding!
So the client ordered lavender purple. Usually I go to Nippori to buy fabrics, but for this dress, I ordered everything from Ogawamine. I have some sample fabric sheets from them and ordering everything in matching color was easy. I ordered satin, tulle, organza and taffeta lining in the same color by phone. Much quicker than running around Nippori to find fabrics!
Here are some inspirational images and my sketch presented to the client. The original inspirational dress seems to have three layers of skirt; satin, tulle and asymmetric organza pieces, draped from bodice. 
I made the bodice and satin skirt as usual – satin underlined with muslin for bodice, and organza for skirt. I chose organza for underlining for skirt instead of cotton muslin so the muslin won’t weight down the strapless dress. After that, I draped organza from the neckline, pinning small tucks along the way. Once pinned in the places I want, I hand sewed the tucks together.
The bridal belt was purchased from Crystal and Pearl Bridal on etsy, and I added the organza ribbon that matches with the dress color.
It was a fun project to make! What do you think of non-white wedding dresses?
Here is a short video of the dress!
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Back in June, I hosted a three-day event where I showcased three of my new wedding dress designs. It was done in collaboration with a flower shop, 
{I’m wearing the 
Satomi did a live demonstration of the making of the dress below, with the real rose petals. She attached each petal with glue gun.
I showcased three wedding dresses, all with a “rose” theme. The mermaid style dress below is made out rose motif lace. It was inspired by the client work I did recently, which was similar in style. I love mermaid dresses and my own wedding dress was mermaid, but people don’t go for this style often in Japan.
I made this second dress thinking of rose petals. Wanted to express the gradation and color change happening in petals, so I made a skirt in silk and ombre dyed with chemical dye. I used DYLON 
The last one I made was a silk organza dress with flower print. When you wear the dress, the flower motif will appear like floral tattoos.
Here are some of Satomi’s dresses.
{From left: 
A few months ago, I received a text message from 
My plan was to take apart the top layers of the dress, and make new layers in off white satin, lace and chiffon using the patterns of the old wedding dress.
Here is the picture of the dress after the dissection. 
The dress bodice with off white satin and lace layers added.
Here is the completed dress!
