Kiran's Sari-Inspired Wedding Dress, Part 3: East meets West

A while ago, I started to design and create a wedding dress for my friend, Kiran. I now have some photos from the day to show you the finished dress!

Kiran and I both agreed that we wanted to include her Indian-Australian culture in this design, so as the name of this post implies, we mixed a little bit of east and west culture into the dress. I created a western style dress, using the eastern beaded sari and created an eastern influenced over skirt.

You can take a look at part 1 and part 2 of this dress, where you can see the making of, and how it all started. Also, I have now created videos of the making of this design, and you can view them on the Penelope Red youtube channel here. There are three parts to the video.




The wedding took place in Byron Bay, Australia.



I am so happy with how it turned out! I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful lady to wear this design, as I think Kiran looks perfect in it.


The dress awaiting its big debut!



The happy couple!


The back of the dress was going to be just as important as the front, since during the ceremony most people see this. I decided to create this interesting contrasting panel on the overskirt in pink, and make some really interesting shapes from it. There is beading all over the sari, a beaded trim at the back hem of the over skirt, and beading on the back of the dress, at the top.



I think it is almost safe to say that this is probably my most favourite design I have ever done so far, or at least in the top two or three. I have to admit, my tailored coats or winter dress do come very very close, but I can't help but love the decadence of this design!


If only I could find an excuse to make another one for myself!