#designformal

designformal

It’s a hot trend that’s been sweeping social media—grown women in flowing, poofy gowns looking like they’ve stepped straight out of 18th-century Europe. Princesscore and its sister aesthetics, royaltycore and regencycore, are all about opulence, huge long skirts, and making life look like a fairytale. Certainly, it’s become evident that romanticizing your life has become wildly popular. I personally believe it’s due to nihilism—that we’ve all realized nothing in life matters so we might as well make it as romantic as possible for ourselves.

But while to some princesscore might be cringe-inducing for some a la the Disney adult title, I’m totally in love with it.

I recently had the opportunity to design a custom gown with Brydealo Factory and Design Formal when they reached out to me over email. Brydealo is a top-ranked brand of wholesale wedding and formal dresses. Their concept is that everyone can be a designer, which I love! When they asked if I wanted to collaborate on making a dress, I immediately jumped to designing the most luxurious, princessy dress as humanly possible. I was thinking bouncy layers of tulle, sparkles, a fantastically long train, all the works. Brydealo put me in contact with a senior designer, Tansy, who worked with me to nail down all the specifications every step of the way.

Tansy left the design totally to my imagination, ensuring I had full creative control over the process. She encouraged me to look for reference images for inspiration and pick out different details that I wanted. She also had me pick out specific details for how I wanted to design the neckline, if I wanted a sheer or opaque bodice, and even how I wanted the corset bones wrapped. She also sent me photos of fabric samples so I could pick out exactly what colors I wanted. I was impressed with the service quality—Tansy always replied to my emails quickly and efficiently, getting us through the design process in record time without making it feel rushed.

After we settled on a final design, I provided a detailed list of measurements so the dress would fit my body like a glove—everything from the length of my legs to the circumference of my armpits. I had no idea how many measurements were needed for a dress! I sent off a long list to her and she moved the dress into the manufacturing stage, so all there was left was to wait and see how it turned out.

Approximately 2 months later, Tansy announced that my dress was finished and sent me some photos of the finished product, asking me to sign off on the final look. I was absolutely floored. Look at how beautifully it turned out!

Overall, the complete process from the drawing board to the dress in my hands took 4 months, from March to July. When the dress arrived on my doorstep, I immediately dropped everything to try it on. It was as dreamy as I expected to it be! And of course, it was so large that it didn’t even fit in my bedroom!

I took the dress out for a magical day of photoshooting with my friend Brenda, and we could not get over the princess vibes. I literally felt like a modern-day Cinderella. We attracted quite a few stares, but the finished photos were totally worth it. The dress’s huge, flowy train and long shoulder bows create a dreamy effect when walking. Plus, the shimmery water-colored fabric glitters and glows in the sun! The tulle feels high-quality and doesn’t dirty easily—a bonus for countless photoshoots in the future.

So yeah, if I wasn’t sold on princesscore before, this dress making my fairytale dreams come true has totally converted me. There’s something special about seeing your childhood dreams literally come to life before your eyes!

How do you feel about the princesscore trend?