Out of the box

I like to think of my jewels as precious, but not so precious that they are worn once and wrapped (however lovingly) in a box. I firmly believe that life is for living and savings should be for holidays or pensions!

Every time someone buys a piece for me, I quiz them on how they are going to wear it again. And I often get a similar reaction; 'Oh, I didn't think about it like that.' All I do is ask them to visualise the jewellery or headpiece with a completely different outfit. Generally, it won't be a floor length formal gown. My designs tend to look really good with simple, well cut dresses. Save the decorative details for your accessories.

I didn't have to give this advice to Cliodhna though; she loves to dress up on a daily basis and only owns a single pair of jeans. So impressive! She got in touch though, to tell me that she'd prefer to have her wedding comb on a hairband.

She was going to a wedding and had chosen a divine creation from Dirty Fabulous. The lace dress combined a blush/apricot with taupe underlay and bow. 'V' fabulous as my sister would say!

So here is the 'new' headpiece which Cliodhna loves; she tells me she'll be wearing it every weekend. That's what I like to hear.

You can read about Cliodhna's wedding as well as the bridesmaids hairpin I designed for her sister.

Do you plan to wear your bridal accessories again or have I got you thinking if you're already married? Leave me a comment below or on my Facebook page. I'd love to hear from you.

Caroline and Peter's Vintage Circus Wedding

I'm back after the wedding of 'my' year! It was the Vintage Circus themed celebration of my good friend Caroline (Dirty Fabulous) and her dashing beau Peter. Caroline has spent the last six months planning and creating every last glittering detail! This day was a true reflection of Caroline's life-long love of all things quirky and vintage.

The day was photographed by Shane from Aspect Photography and we are all dying to see his photos! In the meantime though, I thought I'd share a handful of mobile phone pictures that myself and my friends captured on the day.

Clockwise from top left - The Bugle Babes sang in strong harmonies, the magician and the bearded lady, three glamorous Quinn wives and moi with cherry hair and sequins!

So where to begin? Firstly, some words to sum up the extravagant attire;  top hats and braces, ruffles, corsets and flaming red hair. How about bearded ladies, trapeze artistes and spandex donning strong men? There was all of this and much, much more. There was also heaps of love in the room and this meant lots of eye-wiping. The first surprise was a duet from Neil Hannon and Cathy Davey. It made a very special pre-wedding first dance!

 Clockwise from top left - Neil Hannon an Cathy Davy sing a duet, (later in the evening) Peter and his family sing a 'Take That' song, the wedding ceremony, 'The Cheese Course' - Caroline and Peter perform 'Islands in the stream' by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton.

After this, was a change of clothes for Caroline and Peter and an elaborate stage make-over. During the ceremony, Peter sang a beautiful unaccompanied song for Caroline. Afterwards, while we all took a moment to beam at each other, there was a thunderous noise as The Dublin Allstars Marching Band started filing through the room, horns and drums blasting. The carnival atmosphere was in full swing!

The evening continued with a tasty vegetarian buffet from the crew at Cornacopia restaurant. Then lots more drinking and dancing and catching up with people I haven't seen in a while. Music was a key element of the day and the Quinn family are all talented musicians. The most unexpected moment was seeing Peter and his family jump up on stage to perform a 'Take That' song. Below is just a tiny selection of the creative costumes on show - strong men, lion tamers, ring masters, fortune tellers. trapeze artists, clowns, mime artists and bearded ladies!

I know some of these images are not great quality but I wanted to share them with you because they tell the story of the day. This year two of my best friends got married and it's been a brilliant party summer. I hope you enjoyed having a peek at Caroline's wedding? I know you'll be bowled over when you see Shane's official pics!

Congratulations Peter and Caroline - your day was amazing. See you when you get back from your honeymoon. A big thanks also to thank Sandra Crosbie for styling my hair and doing my make-up!

Venue: Dublin Food Co-op, Newmarket Square

Performers:

The Bugle babes

The Dublin Allstars Marching Band

Neil Hannon and Cathy Davey
Photo credits: Paula Nolan, Ayelet Lalor, Tara Nelson and myself.

An exchantingly twisted tea party

My good friend Caroline aka Ms. Dirty Fabulous is getting married in a couple of weeks and we've certainly been giving her a good send-off. Many of them. Her sister (and business partner) Kathy, threw a 'Enchantingly Twisted Tea Party' for her on Sunday. Funnily enough there wasn't any tea in sight but plenty of Pimms and pink champers with edible floating flowers.

A very excited Caroline was delivered to the house, blind-folded and led out into the garden to be greeted by all of us. Kathy had a box of masks for us to choose from. I went for the fabulous Mr Fox.

Kathy had also put together a Pinterest inspiration board, which she aptly named 'Twisted creatures of enchantedness'. Lots of macabre Gothic drama, combined with the prettiest of frocks and sweet girly innocence :) That's our Caroline.
 

A tipi tent was decked out with cushions, a gramophone playing old records and a special armchair for Caroline. And the sun shone on us for the afternoon which made it all the better! I think Caroline had a great fourth hen...

"It was a fabulously demented tea party, complete with home-made cakes, skeletons and champagne. What more could a girl want?"

Kathy and Breffni pop the champers

The food stole the show though - cucumber heart sandwiches, lemon scones, pomegranate and cardamom carrot cake... and those chocolate baked figs with sea salt.

Cucumber and cream cheese hearts and chocolate and sea salt figs...

It's only a couple of weeks until Caroline and Peter's wedding. Their theme of course is Vintage Circus... I'm still working on my costume but I'm almost there. And I have a golden ticket. Big hugs to you Caroline and Peter - I can't wait for your wedding!

Photo credits:

Party pics - mostly moi

Pinterest inspiration photos by Natalie Shau

Cliodhna and Robert's Wedding

I know you're going to lurrrve this romantic Galway wedding. It's full of pretty details and happy emotions! Congratulations Cliodhna and Robert.

Cliodhna loves flowers, especially roses, which were a strong theme for her wedding. I just love the simplicity of these white hydrangeas which were tied with ribbons to the pew ends. And how about the flower arch at the church door which was decorated with wild roses? So pretty :-)

Here is Cliodhna and her sister Fainche. Cliodhna's dress is called 'Tea Rose' which is another reason why she fell in love with it! The dress is a blush pink colour with a lace overlay. Fainche's bridesmaid dress is from Dirty Fabulous and complements her sister's gown perfectly.

Above is a close-up of the beaded rose comb that I designed to go with the dress. Below you can see the matching double strand pearl bracelet with rhinestone detail as well as details of both girls combs.


And finally, here are the happy couple looking very happy indeed. You just can't beat that 'just married' smile :-)

Here's another pic of Cliodhna and her sister....

and finally...a quiet moment together! As always, I want to thank this couple for allowing me to share these pictures with you. I really enjoyed working with Cliodhna to design special accessories for her wedding. You can read more about the design process in my previous post.

Photography by Angelo Mercone.

Bespoke accessories for bride and bridesmaid

This is the story of a lovely commission I worked on recently. It's interesting and fun to design pieces to complement particular colours and dress styles. For Cliodhna, I had the opportunity to design a bespoke comb for both herself as well as her sister Fainche who was her bridesmaid.

Cliodhna's dress was a beautiful colour - so hard to describe...somewhere between antique blush pink but with a hint of grey blue. I love colours that can be described with lots of adjectives :-)

Anyway, this dress is beautiful as you can see and has an overlay of antique style lace. Cliodna described her personal style as well as her favourite style icon, Grace Kelly. We looked at pictures of her half-up hairstyle. We then tried on a variety of combs and soon found one that had the perfect shape but simply had too much sparkle on it. I came up with a design that incorporated a beaded vintage rose made from dusky pink seed beads. The overall appearance was soft and romantic with pearls as the key feature... Here is Cliodna to share some of her thoughts and inspirations with you!

"I really wanted a dress that had a vintage look with antique lace. This dress was the very first one I tried on with Aoife in Ophelia Bridal in Drogheda. I instantly loved both the lace and the colour of the dress, which Aoife described as ‘Tea Rose’. The fact that the dress was Tea Rose, that I’m a huge fan of roses of any type and that Aoife said not one other bride had bought the dress in this colour – I was sold immediately! I liked the idea of wearing a dress that was a little bit different in colour, plus Aoife also made me a beautiful bolero in matching lace.

What to wear in my hair was the next challenge, as I knew I definitely didn’t want to wear a veil. Then a friend recommended Rangoli as Aisling had made pieces for both her and her bridesmaids.

The first meeting with Aisling was great. Visiting her studio is like going into a sweet shop – I so enjoyed trying on different types of combs and hair pieces. Once we decided on a particular comb, my biggest issue was with ‘bling’ - I didn’t want a comb with any sparkle at all! I just wanted something that was vintage, simple and feminine that would complement my dress. Aisling was brilliant, she studied the lace on my dress and came up with lots of different ideas on what I could have on the comb. I really enjoyed being part of this process and having some input into the design. I think the finished comb is beautiful and complements the dress perfectly. It was also very comfortable to wear – which really is an important factor for any bride!


Aisling also made a bespoke pearl bracelet and earrings for me. They are beautiful and worked really well with the comb and dress, but I love the fact that they are personal to me and that I can wear them again and again.

Aisling also made a stunning yet subtle little comb for my sister’s hair that matches her vintage 1950’s prom dress (from Dirty Fabulous) perfectly.

I would (and have already) recommended Rangoli to any bride or bridesmaids. It was a truly lovely experience in the lead up to the wedding with no fuss or hassle at all and beautiful, special finished products. Thanks Aisling".

Cliodna's sister Fainche was her only bridesmaid which made choosing her dress much more fun. And what better place to shop for a vintage dress in Dublin than 'Dirty Fabulous'. Caroline and Kathy, (who are also friends of mine), and have the most dreamy array of original 1930's to 1950's dresses and separates.

I designed this comb for Fainche, picking out olive crystal, sparkling rhinestone and creamy pearls to complement the fabric of the dress. I love the round vintage shape!

Look out for my second post on Cliodhna's wedding where I will share some of her gorgeous wedding photos with you.

A dress with a story

Well, while we're on the thread of all things vintage, I thought I'd share a beautiful story, a beautiful dress and a beautiful bride with you.

Mel is not one of my clients but I read about her wedding on Rock My Wedding. Although I design for all dress styles and personalities, I do love an element of vintage glamour. Maybe it reminds me of the feeling I get when I look at my parents and grand-parents wedding albums!

Mel wanted something a bit different for her wedding gown and decided she would visit The Vintage Wedding Dress Company in London. This shop sources beautiful vintage gowns from the Victorian era right up to the early 70's. I think the one she picked is really beautiful!

Here are a few words from Mel about choosing her dream dress -

My engagement ring is vintage and after looking at a few contemporary dresses online, I decided that they just weren't for me. I didn't like the idea that no matter how beautiful my dress was, another girl could be getting married up the road wearing the exact same thing.

What a beautiful wedding - you can read more about it on RMW. For Irish brides looking for a beautiful vintage dress, have a look at Dirty Fabulous. This shop hopes to re-open in September so keep an eye on the their website and blog for details. Trust me, this shop carries the most beautiful vintage dresses for weddings any other special occasions. Some of my clients have also bought their bridesmaids dresses here too. Read my other articles about Dirty Fabulous -

The images above were taken by Touch Photography

Rangoli Competition for past clients

Hello to all my lovely past clients - I want to thank you for your support over the last twelve years.

I am inviting all Rangoli clients from 1998 to the present day to enter this competition to win a bespoke occasion-wear headpiece. I want to re-connect with as many of you as possible and am looking forward to designing a special piece for one lucky winner.

Inspire me with an image of an outfit that you would like me to design a bespoke headpiece for. Perhaps you have a dress you love or maybe you are still on the look-out for that special outfit. You have six weeks to choose and photograph your glamorous attire!

If you know of anyone that I have designed for, please tell them about this competition so that they can be in with a chance to win this special prize.How to enter - Simply become a 'Fan' on my Facebook page and read about the entry details. Please don't be shy - I want to hear from each and every one of you!
Here are the details about how to enter the competition.

Wishing you all the best of luck!
Aisling

Rangoli Competition ~ Aisling designs for you

I'm really excited to be launching two competitions to win bespoke Rangoli headwear. Read more about the first competition on my facebook page.

Each day I get to see the most amazing gowns and outfits that inspire me to create. I want to share this exciting design process with you my readers! I'll be pulling back the curtains to reveal how much fun is involved in designing and having a bespoke Rangoli piece made.

I am offering one prize for my soon-to-be brides and another prize to some of my previous clients... (the second competition is just as exciting!)

Read about how to enter the first competition on my facebook page - In the meantime start gathering pictures of all the beautiful details that inspired you to plan your wedding - gorgeous shoes, colour schemes, red carpet glamour, cocktails ~ whatever captures your imagination! And to all of my past clients, I will be announcing details of a competition to win a bespoke occasion headpiece for whatever occasion takes your fancy.

Have a look at some wonderful inspiration boards on StyleMePretty or read about some of my recent commissions.

Rangoli wedding tips - part 4

In my final article for the Confetti newsletter, I offer advice on creating your bridal 'look' on a modest budget.

Think 'detail' and focus on the special touches that will give you the 'wow' factor. Choose a beaded sash or pearl trim for your dress or sumptuous antique jewellery that will shimmer as you walk!

Let me know if you need advice with the type of accessories that will complement your gown - I'm more than happy to make some suggestions.

Read my other Confetti articles -
Visit the Dirty Fabulous website -

Dirty Fabulous Open Day

It's true that Caroline and Kathy from Dirty Fabulous are friends of mine but I am such a fan of their Vintage boutique on Baggot Street! Their boudoir showroom is crammed full of the most glamorous one-off designs sourced in New York, Paris and Berlin. You can just imagine the stories behind some of these outfits!

Such is the demand for vintage bridal dresses that the girls are flying to New York next week and have already previewed a range of original vintage gowns from the 1940's to 1970's that they will be choosing from.

If you would like a chance to visit the shop without an appointment, then you should visit the Dirty Fabulous Open Day next Saturday from 10am to 6pm. This will be a huge opportunity to grab some gorgeous vintage bargains with some extra special 2 for 1 offers. For more info, visit the blog or read my previous post.

The girls are in New York from Tuesday 6th and will reopen on Thursday 15th of October. Book in now if you'd like to be one of the first to see their dazzling bridal collection! And remember these are all one of a kind gowns. This shop has something for everyone from mother of the bride to party goer!

For more information visit the website or contact the girls on 01 6624249

Dirty Fabulous

I am always being asked by clients if I can recommend somewhere special for their mum to source their outfit. Most are looking for something a bit different rather than the dated suits with matching hats or feathers that are featured in many of the bridal magazines.

Well, look no further than the Dirty Fabulous boutique on Baggot Street. Here you will find a treasure trove of one-off, high-end vintage outfits to suit all age ranges and occasions. Sisters Kathy and Caroline will offer advice and even tailor the garments for you.

Dirty Fabulous were recently featured by Constance Harris in The Irish Independent on May 25th 2009-

Retailers talk about offering more bang for their buck, but, in reality, is that true? It seems to me that sales staff are less skilled than ever, while stores are less willing to allow consumers to exchange items, let alone get refunds. Frankly, I think the consumer is often given very little by retailers other than the hard sell.

Retailers talk about offering more bang for their buck, but, in reality, is that true? It seems to me that sales staff are less skilled than ever, while stores are less willing to allow consumers to exchange items, let alone get refunds. Frankly, I think the consumer is often given very little by retailers other than the hard sell.

So, it is with delight I tell you about an original shopping experience. Not cheap, but offering a special service, Dirty Fabulous is a vintage-clothes shop that moves shopping, and vintage, to new levels.

Sisters Caroline Quinn and Kathy Sherry opened the store only six months ago and already they have a huge portfolio of press clippings and coverage. It was a secret among fashion stylists — not any more.

Kathy and Caroline go to international vintage trade-fairs buying as any fashion buyer would, using their knowledge of their customers’ needs and applying high-fashion insight. They try to buy in colour blocks and with seasonal changes in mind.

They buy garments from the Thirties through to the Sixties, though the odd bit of Seventies’ OTT fabulousness creeps in. The clothes are pure fem and not everything is high glamour. In fact, my favourite dress — apart from the to-die-for Thirties’ crepe gown a la John Galliano for Dior — was a simple, cornflower-blue, American, Fifties’ sundress.

The two choose dresses on a love basis. Sometimes, a garment may be damaged and they will think creatively how they can restore it. As women have become larger, most vintage dresses are too petite, so finding crafty ways of converting a dress into a size 14 or 16 is part of Dirty Fabulous’s genius. Also, they aren’t afraid to slightly redesign a garment if they feel it needs more oomph.

Located on the top floor of a Georgian house on Dublin’s Baggot Street, with plenty of parking, visiting at Dirty Fabulous is by appointment only, thus guaranteeing a one-on-one service. The shop is laid out like a couturier’s salon. There’s a luxury dressing-area, couches and tea, coffee or champagne. The sisters will delight in sharing the fashion history of the dress you love.

Brides, especially, come asking for vintage dresses for their bridesmaids. It’s a testimony to the quality of the shop’s service to see the number of pictures sent by wedding-party clients. They all look fabulous and happy. If anything, the bride in her modern dress tends to look a bit flat compared to all the vintage-clad, glowing goddesses at her side!

Visit the website and blog too for lots of inspiration!

Dirty Fabulous

Dirty Fabulous is a vintage clothing boutique specialising in high end vintage wear, jewellery and accessories. It was launched in 2008 by my glamorous friend Carloline and (equally stylish) sister Kathy!

Caroline and Kathy have turned their love and knowledge for genuine vintage clothing and accessories into a dream job! They have the enviable task of visiting Paris, New York and Berlin to source beautiful original vintage clothing and accessories. A visit to their showroom is a personal and fun experience and Caroline will individually tailor each garment to fit you perfectly as well as offering advice on the style of shoes and accessories that will complement your outfit.

If you are a bride looking for a truly vintage, one-off gown then Dirty Fabulous should be your first port of call! Mothers of the bride will also love the choice of outfits as well as the one-on-one attention and advice. In fact any woman who loves glamour, sparkle or understated elegance should make an appointment to visit the showroom, step into the world of chandeliers and sip on a glass of sparkly!

Watch out for further updates and pics of gorrrrgeous dresses or subscribe to http://dirtyfabulous.blogspot.com/

Dirty Fabulous
No 97 Lower Baggot Street
Dublin 2
01 6624249
info@dirtyfabulous.com