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.

@nannykatherine - you wouldn't mention any of that if someone had posted on here that they'd just given birth and their new SIL was being difficult about a wedding. Also we have no idea how many staff she has.

Likely because there was no word from Meghan, so she tried to fix it in the meantime by asking an expert she knew.

I'm finding the comments re the dressmaking ,altering v remaking etc so interesting .

Loving the insights from @Motorina ,@StatisticallyChallenged ,@toomanytrees and @Rinoachicken who posted what I needed - a highlighted pic of the flaws .Which now I've seen them I can't understand how I missed them .
And yes - I think the sleeves would have looked so much better if they were like those at Kate's wedding .

But this is academic to me -the little girls looked gorgeous .

Reading this thread shows how the miscommunication could easily happen between someone who understands a bit about dress construction and sizing a pattern and someone who has no understanding and intuitively thinks it’s relatively easy to size down a dress by taking it in.

A bigger dress won’t necessarily have more fabric everywhere. It will have less fabric where necklines and armscyes have been scooped out. Kate may have understood this from working in fashion for a bit. Megan, like most people, probably had no idea and therefore Kate sounded overly dramatic to her when she was very busy with other problems and felt she had covered off that problem with a tailor standing by. She made a judgment that Kate had baby brain, was a drama llama and became exasperated. He first impulse wasn’t to trust Kate. Who frankly was correct. But to be fair, a lot of people would have thought the same. Unless you sew or work in the garment trade, you wouldn’t know.

I’d like to know how Givenchy got it so wrong. That’s the interesting mystery. The dresses were not particularly challenging.

It would have been bitchy to Meg but she wouldn't have wanted to let her own DD be seen like that or have people putting her down for year over an event that she probably wouldn't remember.

During this thread its crossed my mind why did they make the wedding for when Kate was just 3 weeks after having a baby? Royal weddings are never organised too far in advance they must have known she was expecting. Why on earth not give it another month or 6 weeks?

Apparently diary co-ordination can be a nightmare. Genuinely, they probably went through the diaries of the Queen and the Prince of Wales and then the bride and groom (though they were probably less likely to have commitments!) and found dates that worked for them, then aimed to minimise clashes with others as much as possible. They would have had to check with the police as well, given the carriage ride that was planned. That probably gave them a very few possible dates, and they ran with one of them (it clashed with the FA Cup final in any event, so the police had a busy weekend…).

I would hope they asked Kate if she thought this would be manageable - poor Zara also just had to make the best of it.

Totally with you on the timing, I remember thinking at the time it was announced how unreasonable it was. Eugenie and Jack had to move from September to October as there was a a plan in flight for H&M to be on tour in September and it couldn’t clash.

Picking up on something from earlier, I think the giving of the monogrammed designer shoes as a gift illustrates the fundamental difference between the people involved. Children don’t care about designer shoes at all so it’s a crap present, but for Meghan and her mate, having a pair of souvenir shoes from the amazing day you were a bridesmaid at a royal wedding would seem like a thing you’d treasure for ever. Charlotte not so much. She’s a Princess and it wasn’t a once in a lifetime event for her, just her uncle’s wedding.

Reading this thread shows how the miscommunication could easily happen between someone who understands a bit about dress construction and sizing a pattern and someone who has no understanding and intuitively thinks it’s relatively easy to size down a dress by taking it in.

Yes! One of my main takeaways from this discussion is the gulf between those whose response was “What’s the problem? Just take them in a bit” and the people who know about sewing who were like “Yikes, what a total nightmare….”

I've found this really interesting too

It was really crap of the daily mail to mock up Harry’s version of Meghan’s report of the conversation five years before as a text message. So many people seem to think it was real. They really need to issue an apology and clarification, though it is a bit late...

Or rather I should say - a ghostwriters interpretation of Harry’s version of Meghan’s report of a conversation that took place five years previously.

The artistic director at Givenchy is Clare Waight Keller - who is British. Brides don’t necessarily choose a fashion house but a particular designer.

Isn’t this bonkers though? A child won’t cry because a dress is too long or big, they won’t know that! They’re just excited to be in a wedding/new dress. This just shows the situation is messed up that she’s following the adults lead around her and copying their upset, or she’s so used to being dressed up and pinned and measured for clothes in public that she did cry off her own back. Both aren’t good options.

She was, not now

As I understand it, in couture houses, tailoring (tailleur) and dressmaking (flou) are considered different skills.

This is what confused me - why get a tailor to fix dresses?

Have you ever met a three year old?

I wondered that too, but Ajay does have a business altering women’s formal wear. I get the impression he’s very skilled. So the problems you see even after he’d done his work means the dresses were much much worse.

I still think everyone looked absolutely wonderful at the wedding. Meghan was absolutely gorgeous. We haven’t talked much about it, but I remember being in awe of her veil. I was looking for my own wedding dress when they got married and paid more attention because of that.

We don’t usually have so many children in our weddings in the US. I think it’s so lovely!

I suspect the truth is that they both cried (Kate and Meghan), but at different times.
Camilla Tominey, the correspondent at the Telegraph who first reported that Kate had cried, has stated that she was given the information from two separate sources. It is quite possible that despite the NDAs, someone would have reported the crying to the reporter anonymously.
Weddings are very stressful things, and it is quite possible that Meghan cried as well, so I do not disbelieve Harry on this.
However, the wedding was almost 5 years ago, and I am surprised that it is repeatedly brought up.

Yes I’ve learnt a lot on this thread and on scrutiny the hem on Charlotte’s dress and other parts are a total mess. Bizarre. I think the vast majority of people didn’t notice though and would say she looked adorable

It's interesting that Harry wrote about this with the attitude that it was a 'problem for the women to sort'. It was his wedding too. He seems hopeless at stepping up.

I had quite a few bridesmaids and flowergirls with fittings, alterations, etc. All of whom were very opinionated. Very early in the process DH offered to help if there were any problems with dresses, fittings, alterations, personalities.

Harry knew Meghan was dealing with the issues with her father, that Kate had a tiny baby, that there was a major issue with the dresses and (depending on which of his interviews you believe) that M and K weren't close. Yet he did nothing to help at the time ... and is now rehashing it in his book, allowing trolls to take potshots at both women yet again.

@TravelWeDo a 3yo might not care about looks but plenty will care about comfort and what feels comfy to them. Too big might not be comfy.

She was just 3 it was probably only her 2nd or 3rd public appearance. With the others being a Balcony appearance at Trooping the Colour and possibly the Christmas walk to church.

@WinnieFosterReads Your husband sounds like a stellar person. Although I’d probably have broken my husband’s necklace if he tried to get involved with my part of the wedding planning.

It was her second outing as Bridesmaid as she had been one for Pippa. She had also made public appearances on her parents official tours of Canada, Germany and Poland. Of course there was also her birth and Christening although admittedly should wouldn’t remember those, and various public photos, some by her mum, others by official photographers. This before she was three.

@Margrethe Yes. I agree. Non sewers have really unrealistic expectations but didnt Harry say Meghan can sew ?