Black Lotus Clothing and Kathleen Crowley Costume Couture have teamed up to offer an alternative to off-the-rack wedding gowns!

Two small collections were designed by Christina Molcillo and carried into fruition by myself.  We've got 1920's and Boho for you!

Initially, Christina will sit down with you first and discuss what you are looking for in a gown. Then you will come to me and we will make it work. I'll discuss your design and take your measurements. A mockup of the gown will tell us if we need to change something in the design to work best with your figure type. It also gets any corrections in the pattern taken care of before I cut into fabric. While I am working on your mockup, Christina is sourcing materials. Then what we actually do is hand the gowns back and forth until we get them perfect. I'll tweak the gown, she'll tweak the gown. She'll do the hand embellishing, but I might jump in or finish it. She might not like the bodice or I might think something has to be done differently to get the desired effect. Its a true collaborative effort. We do fittings.........we do it all. All 100% custom made from start to finish! Its magic!

Christina designed the set here in the pics,  styled the shoots, and I helped out where I could. Im afraid that my expertise has to stay within the field of textiles these days........but we have taken this set and models and gown to three or four bridal events these last few months, and Im not beyond setting up and striking the set when needed.

Here are samples that Christina designed and two gowns that we worked on for private clients. These photos are just delicious. Im very proud of us!

For Information on how to go about commissioning us to create a stunning gown for you, please go to www.blacklotusclothing.com and check out her beautiful website! Contact her there.

I still work independently of Black Lotus Clothing, so contact me at kc.costumecouture at gmail.com for your costume/alteration/bridal needs! Its great to have options!

Some Of My Favorite Wedding Projects

Over the years, Ive been honored and blessed to be part of some very unique and wonderful weddings. This is a sampling of the joining of individuals, families, and friends  for marriage commitment ceremonies. You can click on the photo if the image looks cut off . My brides do what they want within the confines of their budgets. I wish I had better photos of some of my projects, but I'm sure you get what we all achieve here when we put our minds and creative souls together. 

Much Love.

Samantha and Oscar

                          Carolena Nericcio-Bohlman and Loretta Bohlman

                         Bianca with her mom, Marsha

Karen and Brian

Tasha and Brent

Autumn and Kimric

 Ariella Afaloh  (a collaboration with Black Lotus Clothing)

Lynne and Erling

Ka Katherine June Amorastreya  (wedding jacket collaboration with Black Lotus Clothing )

Its Wedding Season!!

Its Wedding Season! My favorite time of the year!

Altering A Beaded Wedding Bodice

This bride needed some gapping closed up in the front of her gown. It was sized as a 14, which she is not - and I cant help but believe that the wedding dress industry does this on purpose in order to procure more money through expensive alterations. And I could even maybe justify their reasoning in this market if they would do quality alterations, but I rarely see that as the case. Many of these places will just chop off your dress and give it a cheap looking  hem. It always looks awful and they get away with it. I have a hard time believing that someone would think these hems look good, but maybe the brides just don't know better.

I do everything by hand or as nicely done with a machine as possible. I want it to hang right and that usually means giving it an ample hem.

But I digress. This bride needed her bodice taken in and I was able to do it by taking it in at the back zipper, adding satin cookies inside at the bra line, and taking in the front gap by folding over the fabric. I then carefully hand stitched the fold down, and strategically tacked down the beading so that it wasnt an obvious fix.

All in a day's work! :)

Kellsie's Wedding Dress

 I met Kellsie a few years ago at a party at my last house in San Francisco. Her sister was my roomie, Kristine Adams, and we had a big birthday/housewarming bash. So later on down the road, Kellsie came to me to work on the gown that she wanted for her wedding.  She brought me a dress that she had purchased earlier but it wasn't working for her any longer.  She loved it, but wanted a more Steampunk feel for her wedding attire now.  Silk was the main fabric used in the purchased gown. So she brought me some beautiful jacquard fabric, the dress, some ivory silk, and a Truly Victorian pattern  - style # 1879, the Cuirass Bodice with Evening Options. You can purchase this pattern from Lost Coast Historical Patterns or Lacis.    

 This was the dress before I cut into it. We decided that we would take the bodice off and make it into a skirt. This was a very full skirt and more of a hobbled bustle effect was wanted. The skirt was a wee too small, so when I started cutting down the skirt, I added more fabric to the back, repositioning the zipper, and that took care of that.  I constructed a sturdy, wide waistband to carry the weight of the skirt and to produce a nice line under the jacket.

This is the skirt unbustled. I ended up using most of the extra silk fabric given to me to make the inner structure of the bustle skirt. I chopped off quite a bit in front to shorten the skirt and to create a slimmer front. There were a lot of flowers on the train, but I repositioned them and placed them in strategic points where there would be hooks for bustling up the train when she wanted to do so. It was nice to have the option.

I followed the pattern for the jacket pretty closely. I always make a mockup first and it fit pretty well the first time with a few adjustments. Im dont even think I had to read the instructions more than once. It was pretty straightforward. I think I shortened the sleeves and lowered the front, then further squared off the front of the bodice. I used hooks and eyes to fasten the front. When I was done with the dress, Kellsie took some of the extra fabric flowers and made a veiled headpiece. She also did the beautiful embroidery on the upper bodice. Kellsie picked out her trims and I placed them where I thought they would look best. I think we did a lovely job. She had a strict budget and we used as many existing materials as we could. We reused a beautiful dress with lots of yardage in it, and we made something it  much more interesting. And now she has a Victorian two pieced gown that she can reuse if she likes.I'm sure she will since she too, is a costumer and loves to dress up now and then!

This is Kellsie and Kristine - two hot babes! Congratulations, Kellsie!
kc.costumecouture@gmail.com