The Dress

Stunning silk chiffon skirt, this was a perfect beach destination skirt. It was light in the tropical environment, the slit allowed some extra breeze but not much. I altered so the slit would be higher up the leg however, I don't think it made any impact. No leg showing in a single photo from the wedding. There's so much chiffon material, that my leg was always covered. I had a grand plan to dye the skirt black and use it again. After chatting with my friend in the apparel industry, I'm too nervous to dye both the silk and the polyester. They dye differently and I'm too afraid to ruin the skirt.

Being silk, the dress will need to be steamed again before use. It travelled well but we had someone help steaming morning of to get wrinkles out. It steams quickly and easily.

I added a flip bustle and we spent about 30 minutes bustling the (40ish) latches underneath but I ended up not liking the bulk it gave to my booty. Luckily, I also added wristlets and simply had it wrapped on my wrist all evening.

This has been dry cleaned, however, after extensive evaluation there are two places where there's still some dirt marks. They are difficult to locate, will not show in photos and would not be seen walking down the aisle. One is on the lower left leg and one on the lower train. They are very faint and with the amount of material, blend right into the creases. I didn't try to remove them myself, again, a little nervous with the silk to use any harsh chemicals.

The polyester under layer has some sand they could not get out. It's only in the hem at the very bottom. So the bottom of the under layer looks a little bit dirty. It's sand, and it's covered by the immense amount of silk layers. This won't be visible to any wedding guests.

I definitely recommend trying on this skirt or any one of Martina Lianas at a bridal shop before purchasing. Bridal sizing is funky. I purchased the 10, knowing it would be a tad larger and knew we could alter down a size if needed. We added the latch in the back and I definitely needed this. In the couple weeks before the wedding, I naturally leaned up. Water weight from stress or something. So I used the latch thing to tighten and it still fell a bit below the top I wore. I'm usually a 6, wear 27in high-waisted Madewell jean. Whether these jeans are super tight (but button) or a tad loose, the skirt would work... I think ranging from a 4/6 to 6/8 should be safe w/o further alterations.

I am 5'7" w/o shoes and wore the dress barefoot, it was a tad long but I was still comfortable, easily could have worn a 2-4" heel and it would have looked great. This could be why the slit was not as pronounced as I wanted. With a 3"+ heel and the skirt swaying more, probably more leg.

I don't recall if the skirt already had this or I added them. But there's two snap-in buttons on the front waist of the skirt that clip to a top. While the skirt is lightweight (compared to many wedding dresses out there), there's a lot of material. The snaps didn't stay for me with the added weight loss close to wedding day.

Alterations

1. added additional latch above the zipper to tighten the skirt (closer to size 4/6 capability), shown in picture
2. added Train-Flip Bustle, shown in picture
3. added wristlet, shown in picture
4. made the slit higher, shown in picture