Claire Kennedy Design

Paige

Paige has very elegant and decisive tastes.  These are sometimes my easiest clients as they tell me what they want,  I do it and we're finished!!

Paige's family had this gorgeously antique veil which had been in 8 weddings;  Paige's was the 9th!  As is the tradition with many heirloom items, they are embroidered with all the names of the former brides who wore the veil. 

The veil lended itself to this sort of embroidery, where both sides of the upper veil had a small strip with all the former brides' names embroidered in it.

It is so much fun to share such a happy time with these girls.  IN this picture you can see how detailed and beautiful the veil was.  The strips were all around her crown area.  Without knowing it was there, it wasn't evident, even to the most discerning eye.

Here is part of the band....

and here is a close-up:
   

Katie

Each of my girls is so individual and yet so beautiful in their own individual way. Katie from "The Veil" fame.  This is the dress that went with that gorgeous dress

Living vicariously through my lovely girls is so much fun.  I'm also very fortunate to have wonderful clients.  Katie wanted something very specific which made it so much easier for me.  Here she is with the veil and dress.

The portrait or décolletage of this dress was fabulous.  For the photography shoot, the family had good friends in Colorado at a beautiful location.  The friends had a friend from LA who came for the shoot.  The LA friend turned out to be on staff at the FIDM in So. California.  This was originally a Lhuillier idea, that we took and customized it for Katie.  The friend  turned out to have been a teacher of Lhuillier's when she was at FIDM and was very impressed with the dress. 

This is always gratifying, but sometimes I think it's more so with the clients, as they are totally justified in my design and talent.  Fortunately my reputation precedes me and this does make it a lot easier for some clients who can not visualize the end result.

It's always in the details and the line of cut of the design.  When Katie talked about what shoe she wanted to wear, and brought them by, we immediately went to work to do something creative.  She dyed the shoes the under-color of her dress, and then we covered the shoes with lace.  They came out fabulous, and something she will be able to wear with other outfits in the future.

Long time clients

There are some fabrics that are spoken with great reverence by designers - Fortuny is one.  It is a famous house in Italy brought to more attention by Mary McFadden's "Marii" styles of the 70's inspired by Fortuny's Delphos gowns.  The opportunity to work with any fabric from the House of Fortuny would be a pleasure. 

I talk about how fortunate I am to have such wonderful clients - to have clients like this and to work with beautiful fabric, is  extra special for me.  This is for one of my "grande dame" clients:

This is the finished jacket she wanted for her granddaughter's wedding.  She had a pair of cream crepe pants to go with the jacket.  I found a wonderfully intricate, but delicate trim to add just the right amount of "zing".

But it is always the details that intrigue and fascinate me.  This trim was perfect for this dress for this client.

Even though the sleeve vent is open, it is tacked down and adds still another detail that makes this design special for my client.

Whitney

As promised....as soon as they are down the isle....I can publish my photos.

Whitney has a fabulous figure and wanted to show it off.  One of the most fun things I do is personalize the dress.  My clients usually come to me with an idea, but they are independent enough to know what they want.  There is a great flare that I can add to the dress to make this not only her dress, but a picture perfect dress for her most special day.

This picture shows more of the detail.  The original dress had a piece that came straight down all the way to the front.  We didn't like it since it was tricky and conflicted with the overall design of the dress.  When we began to talk about how we were going to do the lower skirt, I showed her how classic this would look and she agreed.  These are the fun variations that make the dress so individually special for each one of my clients.