Ajay the tailor speaks about the flower girl dresses

[Orangefir]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11620179/Tailor-centre-Meghan-Kates-bridesmaid-dress-row-speaks-out.html

No surprises here. Days before the wedding the dresses didn’t fit. Couture gowns, made by Givenchy from measurements sent in. This tailor worked day and night but they had all six dresses to fix. It’s obvious they couldn’t get it all done. They really needed remade.

I think we can see why Kate was upset and why Charlottes dress and some of the other younger flower girls dresses looked awful.

i don’t know if this is an American thing but in Europe you always dress your little girl with tights or little shocks, this is to avoid blisters and thinking of their comfort, also I presume they did wear new shoes, I wouldn’t surprise me if by the end of the ceremony some of the girls had blisters, Meghan didn’t have kids then so I guess you don’t think of those issues until you have you own

It fascinates me that there are people who have such an eye for detail - not being sarcastic ,it's so different from my own approach .Think comfort over looks /sloven.
I've spent far too long searching for pics of Charlotte's wonky hem and I'm still undecided .The pic of the dress on display ( thank you@StatisticallyChallenged ) the hem does look odd .It looks as though a piece has somehow got tucked up ? The display looks odd ,more like a pic of a dress being worked on than the finished product .It lacks the silk ribbon tied in a double bow and it doesn't look high waisted .

When I was married I had four flower girls , six bridesmaids and a chief bridesmaid.
Some of the flower girls and bridesmaids lived in Spain and America so they had to send their measurements through.
The dresses were made and the whole bridal party tried on their dresses. Not one of those dresses fitted properly. Even my dress didn’t fit well. In fact they looked bloody awful.
None of the bridesmaids or the parents of the flowers girls even made the ridiculous suggestion that the dresses should be remade. The dresses were altered by the tailor ( because that is what any tailor should be able to do) .
It was a ridiculous suggestion and Kate was rude. End of

So what we really have here is a huge sliding doors moment...if Givenchy hadn't fucked up the bridesmaid dresses, then there potentially wouldn't have been this huge falling out between Meghan and Kate, and the press wouldn't have reported the crying incident which seems to be the catalyst for everything else that's occurred in the last three years....

I can get why Kate would have been upset - a shit and badly made dress when three weeks postpartum would have made me cry as well. But I also think that Meghan would have been under immense stress, so I can see how she cried as well. I don't think either were actually in the wrong but as PP said, where the hell were the aides and wedding planners? They should have been managing this! Givenchy should have had a team of seamstresses working day and night on these dresses, not relying on a local bloke down the road (as fabulous as he is).

A PP said that it can be tricky to take measurements on children - I agree, I sew my own clothes and it is tough. But somehow I doubt Kate was taking measurements herself using a 99p tapemeasure she picked up from an end aisle in Sainsburys. I'm pretty sure for Haute Couture, a seamstress or fitter would have flown to London to take the measurements themselves because they wouldn't want to risk getting it wrong....

@Lampzade

Perhaps your dresses weren’t bad enough to be remade because not everything can be altered with a nip and a tuck.

And whilst I’m sure you had a lovely wedding I’m pretty sure it wasn’t televised around the world for many millions of people to see.

Your outfits didn’t have to be perfect. These dresses did. Or as near to perfect as they could be after they’d been hashed by the original maker.

Clare Waight Keller designed the six young Bridesmaids’ dresses in the Givenchy Haute Couture Atelier in Paris.

The dresses were designed to have the same timeless purity as Ms. Markle's dress.

Each dress is sculpted in Ivory silk Radzimir, and is high-waisted with short puff sleeves and hand finished with a double silk ribbon detail tied at the back in a bow. The Bridesmaids’ dresses include pockets and pleated skirts to create a relaxed and luxurious silhouette.

Subjective but I don't think high waists and a relaxed look suit small bodies .
As for the shoes worn barefoot ,custom made and leather as I presume they were ,surely not that uncomfortable ? I prefer the look of white opaque tights but hate ,hate the feel of the inevitably drooping gusset and extra layer round my waist .And maybe it was though that socks would interrupt the line/flow of the look ?

The Bridesmaids are wearing white leather Aquazurra shoes; each pair is monogrammed with the Bridesmaids initials, and the wedding date. The shoes are a gift from Ms. Markle to the young ladies as a keepsake of the special day.
www.royal.uk/wedding-dress-bridesmaids%E2%80%99-dresses-and-page-boys-uniforms

None of the bridesmaids or the parents of the flowers girls even made the ridiculous suggestion that the dresses should be remade. The dresses were altered by the tailor ( because that is what any tailor should be able to do) .
It was a ridiculous suggestion and Kate was rude. End of

i presume then your dresses weren’t as badly fitting as charlottes. ‘Remade’ means taking it in is insufficient because the proportions will still be wrong. It means unpicking and recutting the fabric to a smaller size. It doesn’t mean designing new dresses! It was a tailor who said it needed to be remade.

I’m sorry your dresses didn’t fit.

But we are discussing bespoke gowns made by couturiers. It been discussed that along with measurements. A toile should have been made, 2-3 fittings and then a final fit. So at least 4 steps have been missed out. For a couturier this is unthinkable. You don’t just make a dress from measurements sent it.

Again, this thread is full of knowledgable posters that discuss exactly why the dresses needed to be remade and not adjusted by a local tailor. Please look again. The advice to be remade, was from Sarah Burton, head of McQueen.

Doesn't she breastfeed her babies herself though?

That's a picture from the royal collection website from when it was on display - think it was initially at KP, then it was at Holyroodhouse, possibly other places too. There are photos of Charlotte wearing it that show the same bit dropping so I think it is actually like that.

Subjective but I don't think high waists and a relaxed look suit small bodies .
A relaxed look is arguably more comfortable though: I don’t think small bodies should “suit” anything, they’re just little kids having fun being bridesmaids. I thought the oversize dresses were sweet and suited the day, the weather, the slightly more laidback vibe e.g. Meghan’s hair, which I know has been slated here but I thought was great. The whole thing was summery and chill, insofar as a giant royal production can be “chill”.

I also think: Meghan didn’t have kids at that point and like lots of us pre-kids might not have thought about shoes rubbing. I wouldn’t have wanted to wear tights in May, or ever really, horrible fally-down gussety things.

Numerous posters have explained who it couldn't just be altered. And we have no idea what Kate actually said, because all we have is Harry's version of a text message conversation he wasn't party to, retold several years later, when they apparently don't still have the messages.

She went and got professional advice who told her that the changes needed were more than just alteration and it need remade. Post alteration the dress still looked shit. So it appears she was right.

Ajay seems lovely, the BM dresses were awful even after they were altered, Meghan was brash. I'd love to know what Jessica thinks about her daughter being scrutinised by the world after Harry's mention. I doubt she'll be thrilled.

My wedding may not have been televised around the world, but it was an important to me and I wanted everything to be perfect.

Well that was a interesting read.

I don't know what Givenchy were playing at - that with that much work they still looked bad.

But the tailor is right - on the day no-one I know was mentioning the bridesmaids dresses - only now since Harry written about it has anyone really looked at them and seen the many problems after they've been fixed.

Though everyone I knew though Meghan looked beautiful but the dress didn't fit and I've seen you tube reviews use it as an example of how a poor fit can destroy the look prior to this book. She does look better in evening gown but some there have pointed out fit isn't perfect - perhaps with huge stress her weight was fluctuating. I've seen fabric choice blamed but I personally still think that falls on Givenchy designer - they should have steered better or done dress sooner to show issues up to client.

I'm a bit surprised so many saying 3 year old wouldn't kick off about a dress but my eldest was a Velcro baby and it did turn out has some sensory issues so probably more used to dealing with clothing tantrums. There's a thread at the moment what parenting idea did you have to let go thread - maybe it's in that kind of territory - it's something some parents have to deal with and others have luxury of thinking is poor parenting.

I personally don't like bare feet in shoes and if I thought it would cause a toddler issues I'd speak out - but still don't get why it's an issue years later.

Each dress is sculpted in Ivory silk Radzimir, and is high-waisted with short puff sleeves and hand finished with a double silk ribbon detail tied at the back in a bow. The Bridesmaids’ dresses include pockets and pleated skirts to create a relaxed and luxurious silhouette.

And that's why you need the toile, so you can adjust the fit before you cut into your silk. You can do slight adjustments after that, because of course main fabric will have a different drape that the toile, but you can change it substantially, which it would appear the dresses needed.

@Lampzade

I’m sure you had a lovely wedding which is why I took great care to acknowledge that whilst explaining not all dresses can be altered with a nip and a tuck. Very often they do have to be taken apart and remade.

Personally I I couldn’t care less if everything isn’t perfect at a wedding. Which is why when my daughter was having the second day of her wedding we only realized an hour before the wedding I’d forgotten to order her flowers to carry. Luckily we had a florist in the house who was sorting out the table arrangements so I just went down stairs and grabbed 6 some of he flowers in 2 different colours and made her my version of a bouquet. In the pictures it looks like she’s holding a game of naughts and crosses.

Sorry, can't change substantially.

I looked up Radzimir online, because I won't familiar with this particular silk, and it's apparently it's used for mourning clothes. I probably would not have used that for a wedding, even though I realise it's plain superstition on my side.

Sounds like a typical pre wedding nightmare. They were both rude and snippy in their messages. It happens with weddings, they can bring out the worst in people especially when things go wrong. I imagine that this is worse when it’s such a high profile wedding.. It’s a shame neither went ‘wow aren’t we a pair of tits for behaving that way, sorry’ and moved on.

As an aside, I’m surprised people thought Meghan’s dress fitted badly. I remember thinking it’s so refreshing not to see women stuffed into wedding dresses like we’re used to seeing. It was couture, that’s how you wear it and she looked breathtakingly beautiful. My favourite royal bride look of all time followed closely by Eugiene.

They were both rude and snippy in their messages

But we haven’t seen the messages. Only what Harry says happened and what the press made of what he said - which was to make a mock up of text messages

Subjective but I don't think high waists and a relaxed look suit small bodies .
A relaxed look is arguably more comfortable though: I don’t think small bodies should “suit” anything, they’re just little kids having fun being bridesmaids. I thought the oversize dresses were sweet and suited the day, the weather, the slightly more laidback vibe e.g. Meghan’s hair, which I know has been slated here but I thought was great. The whole thing was summery and chill, insofar as a giant royal production can be “chill”. @pelargoniums

good points!

That's a picture from the royal collection website from when it was on display - think it was initially at KP, then it was at Holyroodhouse, possibly other places too. There are photos of Charlotte wearing it that show the same bit dropping so I think it is actually like that. Ok ,thanks @StatisticallyChallenged

I thought the dresses looked lovely tbh.
As another poster pointed out, Slightly loose dresses look lovely on small children

Even a slightly loose dress can be badly fitted. Fitted in this context means adapted to the body, not just fitted as in 'close' to the body.

Rehashed text messages four years later from people who have dodgy recollections? 🙁

They were obviously not totally unsalvageable which is why they weren't completely discarded but clothes rarely are. Ajay's own words back up the fact that the dresses were a bloody disaster. I bet the designer initially suggested that it would be more practical and quicker to buy/make new ones locally but Kate would have come out on top in the power struggle so he then had to pull off the near impossible and adapt them.

It was the usual silliness about trying to outdo the bridesmaid dresses from previous royal weddings by ordering Parisian silk ones. There is a reason why it is not the norm and doing it never made for an easier life.