- The Wedding Collection -
October 21st, 2022
Designed & styled by Eva
Inspired by Bernadette
- THE PROCESS -
I've been subtly styling my family for a few years now, judging their outfit choices for big events and helping them decide what to wear. But I never would've imagined I would be not only styling them for an event this memorable and important, but also designing some of the pieces.
My sister and her husband asked me to design his suit a few weeks after they announced their engagement. My sister knew pretty early on what she would be wearing on her special day, a floral wedding gown from the Spring Summer 2022 collection by Antwerp-based brand Bernadette. Their only requirement was that the suit matches the dress and that he feels comfortable.
In May 2022 I started searching for inspiration, researching fabrics, comparing swatches, designing and fitting prototypes, all while studying for my finals and moving out of my apartment in Ghent. As time went on, I decided to make my own look too. All that fabric shopping also led to finding too many beautiful fabrics and even more ideas to create with those fabrics, which made me design some trousers for my brother as well. Later on, my cousin wondered if I would be interested in making a dress for her daughter, of course, I couldn't say no. After finally finishing my exams, I had about two weeks to draft as many patterns as I could and sew as many pieces as possible. I did most of this during the late hours of the night and the early ones in the morning since I was still working at the café to earn some more money for my semester abroad in Denmark.
I finished most of the suit jacket before I left for a holiday of two weeks, which left me with a whole lot of work to finish in the last month I was home before I left for Denmark. In that final week before moving, my sister was still unsure of what to wear over her dress in case it would be too cold outside. She saw the coat I made for myself and asked me if she could try it on. We immediately went to buy fabric and two days later her outfit was complete.
As I was packing my bags and making sure everything was situated before the start of the new school year, my mother was sewing on buttons and hemming trousers for me. I couldn't have done it without her, the moral support of my father, my sister's patience and her husband's trust. And a special thank you to Nina for letting me use her sewing machine for the millions of buttonholes.
Congratulations to Heleen & Bas
Welcoming you to our family in one of my designs was the biggest honour.
- THE MAKING OF -
