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Anne Fontenoy Bridal Wear Designer

Couture dresses made of silk & natural fibres. See Sustainable Information re: handsewn & upcycling

Kent, Tunbridge Wells

£1,000 - £7,000

Made to order bridal dresses

Silk wedding dresses

Embroidered or beaded wedding dresses

Lace dresses

All dresses are handsewn

bespoke one-off dresses

Prices & Key Facts

Prices

Price Band: ££ - £££

Typical Price: £2,500

Price Range: £1,000 - £7,000

Contact us to get full details of the packages we offer

About Anne Fontenoy Bridal Wear Designer

Open by appointment. Unique handsewn silk bridal gowns, plain or embellished with original handsewn embroidery or beadwork designed by Anne. Classic timeless wedding dresses, "vintage" inspired dresses, wedding dresses that can be worn again, as well as dresses for bridesmaids, outfits for the mother of the bride or groom, a dress for the evening party, for going away and for wedding guests. Veils, bride bags, headdresses, made to order or ready made. Sample dresses for sale, see website.

Anne has over 30 years experience of designing and making handsewn dresses. She has a collection of sample dresses of her designs you can look through at a visit. Some photos of silk wedding gowns and bridal dresses are on her website and there are more in her portfolios you can see during an appointment. She can also e-mail you photos and sketches of bridal dresses and gowns from her portfolios, or bridal wear sketches created especially for you.

These skills were passed down through her family. She was also taught them at school. As well as training in art studios, Anne spent a year in the 1970s in a small workshop making couture belts & hand covered buttons for top London based English Couture houses. No sewing machines were used. She networked with couture bridal designer Caroline Holmes in her London salon in the 1990s helping to hand finish the clients' silk gowns, creating hand embroidery design for her & helping in the salon part time.

Anne makes all the dressmaking patterns and sews everything by hand. She has a lot of trade fabric suppliers for you to choose the fabric for your dress from: silks, French and English lace, organic fabrics, wools, cottons, linens and "fancy" fabrics. She also designs unique embroidery which she can embellish your dress, veil or accessories with, using either thread for the embroidery or glass beads. Some semi precious stones can also be used, such as fresh water pearls.

Download her brochure or visit her website for more details about having a dress designed and made for you or visit her website to see lots of photos of her dress designs. You can also click through to her online store where she has some ready made sample and one off dresses for sale; or you can view these at an appointment.

Read the Sustainable Information below for details about dresses made from natural fibres, the use of hand skills for sewing and upcycling old dresses. You can also read her Sustainability Policies on her website.

The Details

Services

Bespoke

Bridesmaids

Wedding Dresses

Bridal Jewellery & Accessories

Off The Peg / Sample Dresses

Contact & Location

Anne Fontenoy Bridal Wear Designer

36a Clifton Road, Tunbridge Wells, TN2 3AR, Kent, United Kingdom

FAQs

If you wish to visit to see my collection and portfolios, then yes. You can contact me by e-mail or phone to discuss preliminaries before a visit, or for a remote design.

Appointments can take 1/2 hour to 3 hours and anything in between.

Not for the initial consultation. The time for fittings is included in the price of the dress.

If you shop online you can buy ready to ship, or I make to order. When I make to order, It depends on how many orders I am working on and how complex the dress is how long it will take. Allow at least 2 to 3 months and longer for complex gowns and during busy periods. It can take 6 months to a year or more if there is a lot to do and if there is a wait time for the fabrics. Most of my fabric suppliers have the materials in stock to ship within a few days to me. But if fabrics are out of stock it may take a few weeks or a month or so before they are available in stock again. Fabrics dyed to order or woven to order can take 1 to 3 months to be ready. French lace is often in stock with the makers, but If French lace is out of stock it can take 3 or 4 months to be ready for you, although sometimes if the lace design is already in the production line it may just be few weeks before it is ready.

I make to order, so I make your size. I have a few ready made dresses on my website which tend to be small sizes. When making to order I can make a toile, which is a mock up made of cheap fabric for you to try the size and style before I make it out of the proper fabric.

2 maybe 3 at the most. I work from home so there is not a lot of space for lots of people.

Yes.

Yes, I have a few in stock and I also make these to order. Nylon, Polyester, Cotton or Silk tulle, with plain edge, ribbon edge, embroidery, beading, diamante trims, or lace applique. Or I can make veils from chiffon or organza or other suitable fabrics.

No.

No.

I can make these to order.

Yes, by hand.

Our Sustainability Commitments

Anne prefers to design and make dresses from natural fibres which are biodegradable: silks, cottons, organic cottons, including some laces, linen & wool which comes in different weights, some light enough for summer, & some really keep the chill out in winter, especially if lined with silk. These fabrics are beautiful to wear because they are breathable. Anne sources her fabrics from mostly UK based trade fabric suppliers & manufacturers who work to high industry standards. Some are incorporating organic & recycled fibres in their ranges. Some of the materials are hand woven, some hand dyed, & some companies use their own fabric dyes made from flowers & plant material. Anne hand sews all her dress designs. She has done ever since she began trading in 1981, so aside from the soft couture finish this gives to the clothes, this reduces her energy use as she is not using electricity to power machines to sew the clothes. She uses traditional, heritage, hand skills to create unique embroidery & beadwork, using natural fibre threads made of cotton or silk, & glass beads. Anne can upcycle dresses: old dresses from charity or vintage shops, or from family wardrobes, especially from a customer's mother's wedding dress, for a refit or restyle. This is slow fashion. Some customers want an heirloom dress to pass down the generations; some brides tell Anne they wear the dress again on wedding anniversaries; some use the train for a christening robe & have the rest of the dress made into an occasion or evening dress. Her website & domain name providers have databases powered by 100% renewable electricity; electricity where she works is 54% renewable, She often re-uses packaging to send packages to customers by Royal Mail, usually using their door step collection for packets, so the Postie collects while delivering mail. Her business waste is collected by a local licenced waste carrier who recycle, repair or repurpose 95% of it, the rest is converted to energy.