Redding said she “always wanted to wear” her mother’s wedding dress on the day she got married. She worked with a seamstress to turn her mother’s 1985 wedding dress into the gown of her dreams.
Her mom, Kimberly Covington Redding, wore a long-sleeve gown with a high neckline to her 1985 wedding. The dress had shoulder pads, netting on the bodice, and a skirt covered in intricate lace.
Redding’s aunt also wore the dress in the 1980s.
“I always knew I wanted to wear it,” Redding said of her mother’s dress. “But it was very dated. “It was just a matter of trying to figure out how to wear it,” she went on to say.
Redding decided to update the dress. She hired Gizzelle James Couturiere to transform the dress.
The bride said her mom was “excited and touched” that she wanted to wear her dress, and she was supportive of Redding updating it for her own wedding.
Redding had her initial appointment with James in 2020, during which she brought inspiration images for what she hoped the dress would look like. They started truly changing the dress in the summer of 2021.
The original bodice became a form-fitting V neck that featured modern lace. James removed the sleeves and high neckline from the gown.
Rather than preserving the original lace on the bodice, James used modern lace she had in her shop to better fit with Redding’s vision. The floral lace sat atop sheer fabric, flowing onto the straps covering Redding’s shoulders.
The skirt was covered in lace from the ’80s, and Redding also requested James keep the original scalloped train intact.
The train became her favorite part of the gown.
“The train is what was really gorgeous,” she said. “They don’t make dresses like that anymore. It was really cool to be able to preserve that vintagey part of it.”
She did change the top of the back of the dress though, turning it into a deep V that was surrounded by more see-through fabric and lace. It mirrored the front of the dress.
James charged Redding just $1,800 to transform the gown.
News source: Insider.com
