My own hunt for a wedding dress took exactly two hours. For Alaska brides who want something very specific, though -- so specific it can't be bought off the rack -- the process can take much, much longer. Linda Homan, owner of LH Design, knows those brides. A custom gown designer who's made between 500 and 600 wedding gowns over the past 20 years, she tends to develop close relationships with her customers. "When you have a service done, it's personal," Homan said. "I have to know these people because we're going to be together a long time ... Most of my brides become really good friends afterwards."
A custom wedding gown isn't for everyone -- it wasn't for me -- but for some brides, it's the only option that can satisfy their wedding dress dreams. Homan said her customer is a bride with a clear idea -- "that person who has had the vision of their dress since they were a little girl" -- or a more offbeat bride -- "weddings that are out of the ordinary ... non-traditional." She's made a sailor wedding dress, a yellow wedding dress, a parade of dresses made with sleeves based on one magazine clipping, a bodice from another and a skirt from a third. She once made a dress for a bride who needed to be able to carry the gown in a backpack to the summit of Mt. Foraker, where she changed into it for a mountaintop ceremony. She likes doing those non-traditional gowns -- they can be more fun to work on.
"Most of my brides are not your typical white gown," Homan said. (You can see more of her work on the LH Design Facebook page.) Brides tend to come to their first meeting with Homan bearing inspiration -- photos, sketches, pages torn from magazines. Sometimes they want a specific dress; other times they want to combine elements from several different dresses. Homan showed me one sketch that was a simple outline -- a childlike drawing of a poofy princess dress. Then she flipped through a photo album to show me pictures of the gown she made working from that inspiration. There was no mistake -- she had taken that very basic little drawing and brought it to life in white satin.
It doesn't happen overnight. "It has to be somebody who's not in a hurry," Homan said. The process takes anywhere from three to six months. The first thing she does is talk budget. Custom doesn't come cheap. Homan's brides can expect to spend a minimum of $1,000, up to $5,000 or more, depending on the materials used and the amount of hand work required to apply lace, rosettes and other details. Homan makes several trips Outside each year to shop for fabrics, as there's no place in the state that offers the high-quality materials some of her brides want -- silks, satins and real lace that can cost hundreds of dollars per yard.
After working with the bride to come up with a design, Homan makes a toile -- a muslin version of the dress -- and has the bride try that on before she starts working with the good fabric. That's an essential step in finalizing the design, she said.
"People are not very visual -- even in a sketch, they can't see it until it's on their bodies," she said. "If you can't try on a dress, you don't know if that design's going to work."
She looks for a specific facial expression that tells her the bride is happy with the design. "I watch people's faces -- until I see that look, I know I still have some work to do." Frequently, she said, brides are as thrilled with the toile as they will be with the finished gown. A custom gown is a great option for a bride who wants to be involved with the little details.
"We make changes along the way," Homan said. "It's like redoing your kitchen in your house. You want to be part of the process."Homan also enjoys rebuilding once-worn wedding gowns into something new. She loves it when a bride brings in a mother or grandmother's wedding dress and wants to make it her own.
"I wish more was being done that way," Homan said. "Restyling is really fun ... you're recreating it into something different."Homan is a member of the Association of Sewing and Design Professionals, and she and her ASDP colleagues sometimes help one another out -- she'll take measurements for a bride or bridesmaid whose dressmaker is in another state, for example, and other ASDP members will return the favor.
"We all kind of work along the same standards," she explained. Not including hand work, the average dress takes about 40 hours to build. Homan estimates she's made somewhere between 500 and 600 of them since she got started in 1990. She's seen trends come and go -- today's brides don't want the big trains she was putting on gowns in the 1990s, for example -- but some things never change.
"Most people want to lose weight along the way," Homan said. It doesn't always come off as quickly as they'd like -- or when they'd like. "Two weeks before the wedding there seems to be a major weight fluctuation." Between stress, lack of sleep, hectic pre-wedding details, visiting family and altered eating habits, brides tend to either lose or gain weight right before the big day. Although she'd like to expand her business, lately Homan limits herself to one wedding per month, as she spends a lot of time right before the ceremony making sure a gown fits perfectly -- sometimes making last-minute alterations even as the bride prepares to walk down the aisle. Homan's business is the culmination of a love of sewing that was born in a junior high school classroom.
"It all started in seventh grade home ec class," she said. "My first dress was a blouse and a jumper." Homan's classmates weren't really into the sewing projects, but she quickly found she had an aptitude for sewing. She went on to study fashion design and merchandising at Brooks College in Long Beach, Calif. ("Project Runway" fans, take note: Homan says she'll take Mood Fabrics in New York over Mood Fabrics in Los Angeles any day.) She moved back to her home state of Alaska after college, got married and had kids. She got started on custom wedding gowns when a dressmaker friend had a family emergency and asked her for help finishing a bridal gown. Hundreds of gowns later, she's still having fun, and she loves knowing that all her gowns are worn and treasured.
"Every dress I make goes out and gets worn for a purpose," she said. Even though it's a little bittersweet -- Homan knows most of her dresses will be worn only once and then put away -- she says it's wonderful to be able to help brides realize their wedding gown dreams. "When the customer looks at themselves and says 'That's exactly what I wanted' -- and you made that. You made their vision come true." Homan said she gets chills.
"It's been a long but fun journey," she said. "I really like what I do."Homan's advice to the bride considering a custom gown: -- Be sure the person making your gown is experienced. Wedding gown construction requires specialized knowhow -- it's not like quilting. "Make sure you get people's references," Homan said. "See their work."
-- Apply the same criteria to finding someone to do alterations. Homan has had more than one bride call her for help after a gown was butchered by an inexperienced tailor. "I hate to get those phone calls," she said. "I can't make a dress longer if it was cut too short."
-- Set a realistic budget -- for a gown from LH Design, that means a bare minimum of $1,000, and as much as $5,000 or more for high-quality fabrics, lace, trims and hand work. "Don't think it's going to be cheaper than what you're going to find off the rack," Homan said.
-- "Be wary of special orders off the Internet." There are wonderful gowns available online, but you should do your homework and make sure the seller is trusted, since a custom gown isn't exactly returnable. Expect that a gown ordered online will need alterations once it arrives, too -- some "custom" gowns bought online are just standard sizes that have had some basic adjustments made based on the measurements you send in.
-- "White does not look good on everybody. Make sure you have a good photographer." An experienced photographer will know how to light and shoot your photos so you look your best.
-- Take your whole wedding into consideration when designing your dress -- venue, mood, time of year, etc. The dress should add to the atmosphere, not create its own: "You don't want people to notice the dress. They should notice the whole bride."