Enchanting Persian-Inspired Heritage Ball Gown for a Edinburgh Wedding

A very special bespoke wedding dress for me to create, full of story and meaningful detail. As a dress develops beyond a design, I find a wonderful connection and friendship with my brides too, I absolutely adore Jasmine and her wonderful mum Fariba who put 110% trust in me to create her daughters wedding dress - eek - no pressure!

Jasmine is of Iranian Heritage, and wondered about adding some heritage influences. After being inspired by magnificent beaded and embroidered wedding dress inspirations on Instagram - the dress design became more and more embellished - and I was so happy about that! My favourite kind of embellishment has meaning and purpose - so I started to do my research!
Jasmine gathered some embroidery inspirations to guide me, which included vintage Iranian cloths, with stars and paisley shapes - which I should correct - are originally called a Boteh, from the Inso-Iranian region, but called Paisley because the weaving mills in Paisley, Scotland, co-opted the design in the 1880’s.

I have some vintage dresses in my studio too - one in particular, Jasmine loved which featured glimmering metallic threads embroidered to the silk like glittering water ripples. I craved meaning, so my research lead me to Lake Chichast which means “glittering” in old Persian, and was so named because of the sparkling minerals suspended in the viscosity of the water.

The lotus flower, a national flower of Iran, and symbol of Nahid, Goddess of Water, source of all life-giving from rivers and waters.

I also read about Niloofar Mirage, a lake which is home to thousands of water lilies. The lake is fed by a pure natural spring making the water so clear that you can see the stalks dancing under water. The Water Lilly is considered incredibly pure because it grows from the mud into a perfectly beautiful flower. This little snippet tied the lotus and the water ripples together brilliantly.

The lotus flowers are embroidered with a mixture of materials, gold work purl - in silver, silver threads, matte sequins, glass beads, grey Swarovski pearls, crystals and vintage beads, and in a colour gradient, or ombre, which helped give dimension to the flowers, without making them too three dimentional. The lotus flowers created a border, which was slightly disordered, meaning it wasn’t rigid, and created an almost scalloped edge.

A lace with paisley shapes was embroidered onto the silk zibeline material which formed the ballgown style skirt, and then highlighted with ivory sequins. Each motif was drawn out on the pattern by hand, placing each item in just the right position, and the background was covered entirely by a mix of round sequins - flat, cupped, clear, shiny and matt - to create a background that had a shimmering texture. there were also stars for a nod to traditional Persian and Iranian motifs. These were applied by hand using a tambour hook, and spilled onto the skirt, a well and the silver gold work water ripples.

The glass teardrop pearls, feature in some vintage Iranian references, but mostly we simply loved them, and found that more really is more!

The tulle blusher veil was speckled at the edges with light catching sequins and pearls, and the headband was based on a black padded silk headband, with Chantilly lace Paisley’s (Boteh) embroidered into a tiara kind of shape, along with some additional beaded lotus flowers, and clusters of pearl droplets.

This dress, the bride and her mother have a true place in my heart, and bring joy to think back on it’s creation.

The Bride Married at The Edinburgh Signet Library, Photography is by Bethany and James.
Featured on Rock my Wedding.