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I find it so easy to sit with our clients and help design them a Semple dress and yet when it came to designing my own, I went blank! I suddenly felt this flush of pressure to design THE ‘perfect dress’ but then it dawned on me that this is how our clients feel when stepping in to our atelier. The design of your ideal Semple dress is a matter of listing all the things you like to feature in a dress and combining these together. My checklist being:
– A classic design which I can accessorise up with all my different jewellery
– To include a pop of colour
– Feature a high neck as I know this suits me
– Have longer sleeves as I get cold easily
– Be a style which curves to the fit of my body
– Must be loose around my hips as this is my problem area
I started to sketch and it occurred to me that what I was envisioning for my Semple dress was a 1940’s classic tailored style. Would I have thought of this at first? Probably not! But it was soon evident that this was my perfect dress. I chose black Italian wool (despite my love of colour) as this would be versatile to wear for events and would also ensure I keep warm in the winter months. I also chose a bright golden lining colour which you can see on the turn up of my sleeves, to give the dress its pop of colour I wanted. I like that my colour choice represents the start of my Semple journey – when I arrived at the atelier and was given a copy of Maggie’s book with her signature gold logo embossed onto it.
One thing I know is that you wouldn’t get this choice on the highstreet. And that your age/size doesn’t matter as we meet all sorts of different women and my assumptions of me being the typical ’size 10 are in fact incorrect. I’m ‘size Dulcie’ and that’s okay. I can’t say I have ever been able to just change the sleeves or select a different fabric when placing an order with my near-perfect highstreet gown either! Nor have I ever felt as comfortable as I do in my Semple dress. Being measured to my body makes such a difference now that I can lift my arms up without the whole dress rising and clinging to my hips. It’s this choice of detail which makes bespoke clothing so great as it eliminates these issues. I now truly understand why so many of our clients return to us for repeat garments. You too are already a Semple client – you just don’t know it yet!
So, like me, don’t dismiss the idea of bespoke made to measure clothing because of the extra price tag. If you gave yourself £1 for every time you complained or had to adjust you dress in public when it clings in the wrong places, you would soon have made up your money!
