The Dress

I wore this gorgeous dress for my wedding in Italy in July, and even though it's a full ballgown with robust silk mikado fabric, I didn't feel hot it in. The slit is great, because it helps with moving, walking, sitting, and letting air in, but it is fully concealed when you're standing and walking normally. I loved that the dress has pockets (I put my vows in there), the full skirt moves beautifully when walking, and the 5 point bustle I added made it comfortable and fun to dance in all night long. The dress is all one piece, but has a silk overskirt made of thick fabric, and a stiff underskirt with a horsehair hem. The fabric is ivory with a very elegant sheen.

I was the second bride to wear this dress. I originally purchased it here on StillWhite a year ago from a bride who wore it just for her ceremony. I had the dress professionally cleaned and there are no noticeable stains or flaws.

Feel free to contact me with questions or to request additional pictures!

Alterations

The first bride who wore this dress had measurements slightly smaller than mine, so when I purchased it, I had a seamstress let it out. There was no extra fabric to let out in the seams, so she replaced two of the panels with new panels made of the exact same fabric. She did a flawless job and the fabric is exactly the same, so I'm not even sure which ones were replaced.

The overall length of the dress was never shortened by me or the last bride, but my seamstress did remove 1-2 inches of length from the sides, so that when the dress is bustled the sides would't stick out and people wouldn't step on the hem while dancing.

The original bustle is still in tact, but I never used it. It's a series of snaps on the underskirt and overskirt. I had my seamstress add a 5 point French bustle which is fastened by ribbons under the main skirt and the under skirt. I LOVED how this looked and moved while dancing.

The first bride also seemed to have adjusted the curve of the two seams over the bust, and my seamstress straightened those out again to fit my shape better.