Being a hopeless romantic, I’ve always wanted to run a dating site. With a background in web design and interactive media design (on top of fashion design), it was only a question of finding the right man to do the coding, and after finding him we’re off to a good start. Keep an eye out for MyNook.com.au, that will be it!

What is different about it, is that it will support a lot of social functions that normal dating sites don’t. Traditionally, a dating site is much like a catalog of different vendors. You have to contact each one separately without knowing much of them apart from what they wrote in their description. What we want to do is to make it a community with strong dating cababilities, to make it function more like a normal, every day dating scene; You meet a group of people, you talk and chit chat and one of them catches your eye and your ear, and things go from there.

Even though this project is underway, I still take clients in bridal. Just to let you know what I’ve been up to as the dress selection isn’t getting any bigger. (Doesn’t mean I don’t have ideas, I have some fantastic ideas for dresses, too!)

Some time ago we (me and hubby) put up an outdoor advertising banner to promote the business. It was a pretty banner, the kind that just blended into the background and hopefully not an eye-sore for anyone. Still it was rather easy to notice, as it displayed a life size -picture of the Crazy Dress. (The same picture as the one in the heading image here.)

As I am starting this business I’m trying to keep my costs low at the moment, and that banner was amongst the biggest investments I have made so far apart from time and effort of course. During the night between Saturday and Sunday, the banner was ripped down and stolen. Apparently someone thought it would look good on their bedroom wall… Which it would, no doubt.

Oh well. I have to look at the silver lining here. You couldn’t really see the writing on the banner as the text was very close to the colour of the background. It was hard to tell from the file before it was printed, but now we know. We’ll have to replace the banner anyway, because it has been the most effective way of advertising, so I get to redesign it which is good. It just sucks because I have brides coming in now, but their wedding isn’t until next Summer, and that is months away, and any profits to be made are far far from now.

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In case you want a dress to be a piece of art that you’ll wear on your wedding day and you have respect and trust for a designer, you want a designer dress. The designer may as well be a dress maker, like myself. Some designers hire a dress maker to make the dress for them, as they may not have a clue on how to actually make it (you’ve seen Project Runway, haven’t you?) but it is very likely that a designer comes rolled into one with a dress maker. If a designer offers “custom orders” it doesn’t mean they do the same thing as a dress maker. You won’t be able to control every aspect of the design process. As someone put it: If the designer is going to stick their name on the dress, they’re going to have to love it as well. It is their reputation in line, and they have to stick to their own designing style while they work with you.

As far as I’m concerned, I’m happy to take requests like: “I’d like it to have a detail made out of this fabric”, “I would like it to reflect my South-Namibian roots.” or “I’d like it full rather than narrow.” However, the design part, deciding how to cut it, how to drape it, how to decorate it,  is my job. Even though my designs are mainly made out of calico or bamboo, they cannot rely on that alone. I cannot go around copying pieces out of bridal magazines if I want to stand out in this business. That is why I need a certain amount of artistic freedom in the creation of the dress. You can always knock it back if you don’t like it, and it may be that I’m just not your designer. I will give you some options to choose from, but if none of them seems to strike your fancy, I’ll just have to recommend you to go see someone else. I HOPE you love the first suggestion of course, but that just doesn’t always happen.

These fashion terms used in bridal business can be very confusing, even to the professionals. What I do is made-to-measure designer bridal wear along with ready-to-wear designer dresses. This means that I release them under the same label, but they can be made for a specific customer (made-to-measure) or they can be made by standardised sizes, like the ones you probably use every day. Made-to-measure is special because none of us actually fits perfectly into the standardisised sizes. They are averages that are mostly true for the greatest amount of people, and by clever design the measurement differences are not that big of a deal. However, if you do want the best of the best, made-to-measure is the only way to go, whether it is with a bridal fashion designer or a dress maker.

The thing I want to say here is that girls, don’t look for faults where there is none! We can always hide things that are not that attractive, but when things go your way, let them!

Cotton bridal gowns – trendy, traditional, elegant and green

When a Finnish dress maker Riina Rinkineva-Young got engaged to an Australian electrician in 2005, she was faced with a problem. She did not want a satin gown. Not silk satin any more than cotton satin, and definitely not polyester satin. Silk noil (raw silk) was a beautiful fabric, but it still felt rather boring to her. Suddenly she thought of a corset she’d made a few years earlier with a calico cotton lining. At the time, she kept admired the lining over the right side. That was a start of what is now known as Sebastyne Designs, and that is how the Finnish dress maker turned into an Australian designer.

Calico cotton isn’t the most used fabric for bridal gowns. In fact, Riina Rinkineva-Young has never heard of anyone else make finished gowns out of it. “It’s crazy. The fabric is absolutely gorgeous!” She declares. ‘Calico’ has a little different meaning depending on which part of the world you live in. In Australia, it means an unbleached, uncoloured plain weave fabric. “The fabric is a challenge.” The designer admits: “It gives you certain limitations to what you can do with it, but if you really understand the fabric, no amount of silk and diamonds will beat its natural simple beauty.” She continues. “With calico, you have the opportunity to make the gown quite elaborate without making it look like a doll’s dress. That is one of the things I love about it. I don’t like candy floss bridal gowns, but I love crinolines, trains and corsets. You can actually have quite a simple wedding and still get away with having a ridiculously fantastic gown!” Riina Rinkineva-Young giggles. “But on the other hand, calico can easily handle being the centre of attention in a simple design as well. In fact, I haven’t trusted any other fabric to handle simple elegance like that. Elegance is so easily boring.”

Boredom is one of the reasons why Riina Rinkineva-Young got into fashion in the first place. She was sick and tired of shopping for clothes that were just the same in every store with a different brand name stuck on them. “The differences are minimal.” She says. “I wanted to make clothes for myself that nobody else had. I wanted my own style that was independent of current trends. I want to carry that over to my bridal design. I don’t want to be the next Vera Wang, with all due respect to her; I want to be the first Riina Rinkineva-Young.”

Being born and raised in Finland, she has an inborn respect for natural materials and tradition. “I love the fact I can combine contemporary ideas with the traditional feel. Calico has that country home charm to it. It forces you to think about mothers, homes and hard work. Everything marriage is about is weaved into that fabric.” If that wasn’t enough, 100% calico cotton, being untreated, unbleached and uncoloured natural fibre, throws one more top card on the table: It is more environmentally friendly than a whole lot of other materials. It is not the most green material out there, but it is up there with the best. Green ideals are going to be a top priority in the future. “I am still starting out, so I haven’t found the perfect set of suppliers quite yet. But as I will expand the business, environmental issues will be a major factor in what I choose and use.” Riina Rinkineva-Young promises.

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Tasmania’s new bridal fashion design house ’Sebastyne Designs’ is excited to announce commencement in the Hobart area. Sebastyne Designs is run by a Finnish born and educated fashion designer, Riina Rinkineva-Young. Finland is well known for their clean, contemporary design in architecture, ceramics and fashion. Her claim to fame: the world’s first cotton calico bridal gowns.

The idea for Sebastyne Designs came to be when Riina got married in her home town of Vaasa in Finland, 2005. She fashioned her own calico-cotton gown. After hearing no end of encouragement (nagging) from friends and family to start her own business line based on this original design, she finally relinquished shortly after her arrival in Tasmania in early 2008. ”Sure, Hobart is a long way from the fashion centres of Europe, but I had to start doing something, so why not try fashion design that I always loved?” She says.

Bridal fashion is a very traditional area in the business of ever changing trends. Somehow, the wedding gown has managed to stay intrinsically unchanged since Queen Victoria married her cousin Albert of Saxe in her white gown in 1840. The ruffles and embellishments may change, but there’s one constant, more constant than white – the fabric. The gowns are traditionally made out of satin materials, so when Riina first told people that she will make her wedding dress from calico, she received looks that seemed to question if the non-native speaker completely misunderstood the meaning of the word ”calico”. She, however, saw the fabric in a different light; pure, unbleached, undyed and uncontaminated fibre.

After people got over the initial shock and took a look at the fashion photos that exemplified the natural beauty of calico, the response to Sebastyne Designs fashion quirk has been extremely positive. ”I am happy to say that the feedback I’ve received so far has been incredibly enthusiastic. People love the idea and can’t wait to see the brides walking down the isle in them.” Riina says smiling broadly. ”And frankly, I can’t wait either.”

Riina has a small selection of ready made one-of-a-kind gowns for display and inspiration. Importantly, no design will be used twice, no repeats, never. Each gown is truly unique. Riina looks for inspiration everywhere and will certainly design for clients on request. ”I will listen to my brides wishes, but I demand a certain amount of artistic freedom. However, if you don’t like the result, there’s no obligation to buy it.” She promises. She advises her potential clients that if you are after a designed gown, you shouldn’t leave it to the last minute. The creative process takes some time – designing dresses requires inspiration and experimentation. The results, however, are worth the wait.

Website: www.sebastyne.com

© 2008 Riina Rinkineva-Young. The image included in this post may be re-published together with the press release.

Oh well. Will select my competitions better next time.