Gypsy Wedding Dreams: Ten dresses. Ten Dreams. All the secrets revealed.. Thelma Madine

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СКАЧАТЬ and the Frog’ theme, and then there were curling leaves coming down the skirt from the waist. Initially these leaves were to be edged in diamonds but soon plans were in place for them to be entirely filled in with crystals. The flowers were to be 3D, as were the tendrils flowing down her body, so that they were filled out and curling in different directions, standing out from the bodice and skirt. The colours were now white and silver, with huge diamanté sections. Sparkles would be provided by the Swarovski ‘Aurora borealis’ – the most expensive type of gem we use. These special crystals display different colours depending on the light and the way you look at them. They have to be ordered from Swarovski or a Swarovski agent.

      It was going to be a real statement wedding. But then came the biggest statement of all …

      ‘And then for the Frog Prince outfit—’ Joleen began.

      ‘OK,’ I said, wondering where on earth this was going. Could I even make a ‘Frog Prince’ suit?

      ‘I’d like my fiancé in it,’ she said.

      I nodded slowly, desperate to take her seriously but equally sure that no traveller man would ever go along with this. There’s no way I’m even going to cut out the fabric for this idea, I thought to myself.

      ‘He’s a big fat ugly thing,’ interjected the mum. ‘A suit like that would be wasted on him!’

      It was hard not to laugh.

      ‘But he’s my Frog Prince!’ protested Joleen.

      ‘Are you sure he’ll wear it, love?’ I asked delicately.

      After all, the suit in question comprised a little cape, silver sequined epaulettes on the shoulders and an old-fashioned high collar with three diamanté fastenings down the front of the pseudo-medieval jacket. As for the trousers, they were a sort of bloomers. Both the jacket and trousers had ruffles on the cuffs. It reminded me a lot of the kids’ clothes I used to make on my old market stall but it was not, one might say, the most masculine of outfits for the modern man.

      But Joleen seemed sure about it, so I had a look at some more pictures with her and made notes. I was wondering how the hell I was going to make anything wearable out of the situation but I knew I had to make her dreams come true.

      Not long afterwards, Joleen called Nico.

      ‘He isn’t going to wear it …’ she began.

      I could not say I was surprised.

      ‘… But I still want the suit there at the wedding, to complete the theme.’

      ‘OK, love – but how are you going to do that?’ I asked.

      ‘I want you to make it for my little brother,’ she explained. ‘He’s a page boy and he’ll be there with me, so he can be my Frog Prince.’

      ‘Well, I suppose that outfit is a little kinder to a small boy than it is to a grown man,’ I said, relieved to know I wouldn’t be making something that would never be worn after all. Joleen was really determined to have all of her Disney characters at that wedding, no matter how bizarre it might have seemed. And I have to say, it’s still one of the most memorable weddings I’ve ever made outfits for.

      When they sent through the pictures of the wedding day itself we gathered round and cooed at how fabulous they had all looked – even though the groom was just wearing a standard morning suit. Joleen’s little brother looked gorgeous in his Frog Prince suit – a real cutie – and her mum was as statuesque and sexy as we’d anticipated, a real archetype of a woman.

      Joleen herself was glowing, thrilled to have got her theme together just as she had imagined. She was absolutely delighted with the results we got for her and couldn’t thank us enough.

      After that wedding we took loads of orders for similar designs, both for weddings and First Communions. We’ve done about 50 of them now, and that’s just in a couple of years. The First Communion dresses in particular are adorable in that design – the young girls look so cute and they’re so influenced by the bigger brides; they’re always thrilled when they’re allowed this.

      Seeing Joleen plan that wedding, and the way that her relationship with her mother and her siblings worked, really helped me to understand why these brides choose the dresses that they do.

      Yes, the community is very small so they have to fight harder to stand out in the competition for a good husband, but it’s more than that. Very often these girls – who are still only in their teens – have already been looking after younger siblings for years, having left school at around 11. Joleen’s life at that point was a really hard graft. She had already been a mother for years, and I could see why becoming a wife so young seemed like an attractive option: she wanted a break. Then the cycle begins again: the girls get married, have children of their own and work hard until the younger ones can start taking over again. By the time they’re 40, it’s back to living it up again.

      But these girls have so much to do at home when they are in their mid- to late teens that the idea of being a princess for a day is all-consuming.

      It’s what they’ve dreamt of while they’ve been cleaning and feeding the kids and doing whatever else needs to be done. They’re living adult lives but with little idea of what kind of adult they’re going to be.

      This process of trying on dresses and chopping and changing back and forth between princesses and fairies and ballerinas and Barbies is not just to do with the look on the day, but with trying on different personalities.

      It’s a case of ‘Which me do I want to be on this day?’, ‘Who says most about my dreams and the woman I want to become?’

      Often the dresses they choose are not based on real women but blank slates with no real story behind them, precisely because it gives them a bit of space to imagine their future selves.

      They don’t have the chance to find themselves a career, go travelling and try out a few boyfriends before deciding what kind of a woman they plan to be – they do it while choosing their dress, which is why I always do my very best to be patient and respectful during the process, even if some of the ideas do seem a little unusual at first.

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