For some brides, choosing the right dress is equally as important as choosing the right groom…
For MY BIG day, I was determined to scrap the idea of a traditional white dress and replace it with something completely different. I was looking forward to a wedding outfit that would be comfortable, fashionable and most importantly, more me. Dieu Anh (www.dieuanhspace.com) was the perfect person to achieve this. I’ve known Dieu Anh since I first saw her collections in Zen Plaza, her one-off pieces were unique, fun and bold. I quickly fell in love with the image she portrayed – that of a strong independent woman who knows what she wants in life and who likes to have fun with fashion. And as a supporter of local designers, the match was perfect. So it was only natural that she would design my wedding dress.
Together, we went through a four month process of building the concept which eventually resulted in two outfits. The first dress needed to show off my best features – my shoulders and arms. We found a beautiful floral blue patterned material with a touch of sparkle, which Dieu Anh then mixed with a strong red fabric. Thankfully she included a high split to avoid me looking like a cupcake and also to reveal a bit of flesh. In order to complete the look, yet still keen on making me look more like a bride than a party-goer, she made a hair piece to fit in my up-do. I finished off the look with patterned suede cobalt platforms from Aldo.
My second choice of a casual white pantsuit didn’t go well with the groom, or the audience. But I was confident it wouldn’t look masculine and choosing pants is great for a wedding because they are tailored, practical and different enough to make a statement. We opted for an extremely low halter neck for the back, and a low cut front to show off some cleavage. To further soften the look and to elongate my legs,she went for a delicate off-white fabricwith stripes of the same tone.
Something Bling
Dieu Anh then spent many long nightshand sewing silver metal pieces onto theneck line for a bit of bling. The hat wasa concept we took from the Vietnameseyouth union uniform. And finally, suphigh t-strap peep-toe pumps with crystalsall over the heels from Steve Madden pulled the outfit together. This ensemblesaw me all the way from our very firstdance, a LMFAo flash mob that took 10 lessons to learn, and stayed with methroughout the after-party until the sunrose on the first day of my new marrielife and a serious hangover.
It really was worth putting in the ework with Dieu Anh to create two uniqueoutfits for the big day.
What fashion forward topics would youlike to read about in our monthly column?Email us with your ideas at fashion@oivietnam.com.
Ann Ha is Head of Social@Ogilvy and runs her ownfashion and food blog at Annha.com
