Dresses

Last month, I attended the EP!C Sustainable Living Expo at the Vancouver Trade & Convention Centre to specifically check out their Wedding Showcase. The vendors ranged from cake designers and boutique bakeries who offer organic and local ingredients, to local jewellers, to gown designers who create dresses made of organic and reclaimed textiles.

Patty Nayel of Pure Magnolia is one such designer. New on the scene, Nayel graduated in 2009 with a Bachelor of Applied Design in Fashion from Kwantlen Polytechnic University. Her venture into eco-conscious bridal wear was initiated by several factors, one being her own wedding.

“I found there was a huge lack of eco-friendly dresses out there. I was getting married and I really didn’t have any options in the [eco-friendly] ready-to-wear market in Vancouver. When I first started to make a few dresses [for others], I found the response overwhelming,” she explains.

Nayel does custom gowns as well as a collection. At EP!C, she showed two of her collections, ‘Rustic Nature’ and ‘Vintage Glamour’. She describes ‘Rustic Nature’: “I was pulling my inspiration from the parts of nature that are not classically beautiful. Brown feathers, muddied streams, and a lot of texture.”

The second collection was Fall 2010, ‘Vintage Glamour’. “I just started using vintage wedding dresses to make new dresses, and I love the vintage lace that I am finding! I am trying to incorporate lace into every dress somehow. I have dresses that are inspired from every era, so there really isn’t one type of dress that I am looking at,” she explains.

Undyed fabrics, ranging from cream to soft white dominate her collections. The use of these natural, untreated fabrics are truest to the Pure Magnolia philosophy but Nayel can dye the fabrics if requested. She uses organic fabrics such as silk charmeuse, organza, chiffon and tissue but also uses less common materials in bridal such as bark cloth and hemp silk. She incorporates reclaimed and vintage textiles and small-mill sources. Several of the dresses also had embellishments such as lace, ribbon, feathers and applique.

She also designs bridesmaids gowns, a cute pink number with a japanese silk tissue ruffled bodice hung amidst the bridal gowns.

Nayel designs and sews all her dresses herself from a studio in North Vancouver, her home community. “I moved from a small shared artist studio Downtown to a much larger and nicer showroom and studio space in Lynn Valley on the North Shore. I found it in the neighbourhood that I grew up in,” she says. Though she misses the buzz of Downtown, Nayel feels that her new space has the right feel for the clientele she desires and is much more suited to her down-to-earth, authentic, and eco-conscious approach.

“It’s also at the base of Fromme Mountain which gives my husband a good excuse to go mountain biking every time he brings me to work!” she adds, “It is a great community, and a great space for me to grow in.”

So what is in store for future collections? “My Spring 2011 Collection is going to follow along the lines of Fall, using the vintage laces but bringing them into more modern dresses. I love doing mermaid dresses and bubble dresses, my dresses have a lot of body and movement, so I will be working with a lot of ruffles and even more texture,” she describes.

Nayel also is experimenting with a newer technique developed by Julian Roberts called subtraction cutting, “I am not sure how it is going to turn out yet, but I am hoping to show some amazing one-of-a-kind dresses from it!”

In keeping with their eco-conscious philosophy, Pure Magnolia also offers “Rent a Dress.” If you are on a tight budget or don’t want to buy a designer gown only to store it ad infinitum, you can rent a dress starting from $400. This includes fittings and environmentally-friendly drycleaning. Sizes are limited but in general range from size 4-12.

Find out more about Pure Magnolia here on their website.

{Photos courtesy of Pure Magnolia and www.puremagnolia.ca}