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I have enjoyed working with the traveller community ever since they first started coming to me, 20 years ago, when I worked on a market stall in Liverpool. I’ve made some wonderful friends among them, and throughout my career, I’ve felt their support and warmth.
I’ve done proms, First Communions, engagement parties, all sorts … But of course the one area that has had the biggest impact – on both my business and my personal life – is the weddings. It’s through preparing for these big days with the girls that I’ve got to know both them and their way of life better than when I’m putting together any other type of creation. Because gypsy weddings are not like non-traveller weddings, from the intricate specifics of their customs and traditions to the unbelievable imagination and determination that they put into getting the wedding dresses and outfits that will bring their dreams to life. Each time I take an order for a new wedding, I am not just accepting a new piece of business: I am beginning a new journey.
But some of those journeys have been bumpy rides, to say the least! Along the way there have been tears, tantrums and tiaras. I’ve seen girls threaten to cut all their hair off if they don’t get their own way and I’ve had them pleading and begging with me to keep their darkest secrets. And I’ve seen families reach the brink of collapse through bitter feuding about the tiniest details and exchanged the level of kindness with them that I would normally reserve for my own family. Yet despite all the dramas and the heartache that I’ve seen along the way, there isn’t a single experience that I would take back; each and every wedding has been a mini saga of its own, and I’ve loved them all.
The stories included here are my Top Ten most memorable weddings. They’re not all about the dress, although there are dresses here that have changed the course of my career and my dressmaking business Nico, forever.
And they’re not just about the wedding day itself either; after all, for many of these brides, it’s the journey to the altar – and all of the negotiating and heartache that this can involve – that is the biggest part of the picture. But every single one of these ten weddings has been something really special to me. They’re a real window into the worlds of both Nico and all its chaotic splendour and the travelling community and its secretive ways. Whether you laugh, cry or simply enjoy the gorgeous dresses, I hope you get as much fun out of these ten most extraordinary gypsy weddings as I have.
To the happy couples!
As a dressmaker, it’s my job to know which are the biggest trends in the fashion industry. I think everyone knows that the one dress that has had the biggest impact on popular culture in recent times is the Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen dress designed for Kate Middleton’ s marriage to Prince William on 29 April 2011. And yet the one dress that I have never, ever been asked to copy for a traveller wedding is that very same dress.
They might not always dress to your taste or mine, but there is no denying that the traveller community have their own sense of style and it’s completely uninfluenced by what might be driving looks on the high street or in high fashion. It’s incredible, really. These days you can hardly open a magazine without finding an image and an accompanying article telling you what a style icon Kate Middleton is, but the gypsy community has been left entirely untouched by her taste, despite several of them coming to me every week and telling me that they want to look like a princess. Yes, the traveller girls dream of being a princess for a day, but they definitely do not wish to be a princess in nude patent leather courts! Really, it’s hard not to admire this when you see a million others copying Kate’s style, but what always fascinates me is what does actually influence them. Travellers don’t go to clubs like other girls, they don’t see the same websites; they don’t really read fashion magazines, preferring the fantasy worlds of colouring books and dolls. And some of them cannot read so they are totally unaffected by advertising or fashion talk in magazines. Not one of them has ever come in and asked me to make them look like a pop star – we have had the odd Lady Gaga-influenced request but never anyone wanting to look like Katy Perry or one of The Saturdays. Instead they see shapes and colours that they like, and that’s what leads them to make the decisions for their special day.
As time passes, and I’ve