Heavenly Vintage

Helena of Heavenly Vintage has around 60 to 70 beautiful vintage dresses, ranging from the 1930's to 1970's at her home in West London.  We’re delighted that she’s going to take us through just some of her gorgeous collection. Of course, if you want to see Heavenly Vintage’s collection up close, you’ll want to visit our Fair this Sunday, March 10^th at the Clifton Pavilion.

This first dress is from the early 1960's. It’s silk with French lace appliques, would be priced at around £1000, and showcases a beautiful headpiece by Abby at Cherished.

  

  

This second dress is from Helena’s new Heavenly Collection; a vintage reproduction range of dresses available in modern sizes from the website. Helena had the pattern specially made - it was copied from a 1930's lace dress and the intricate cutting has been preserved in the new dress to get the soft sexy feel of the best 1930's dresses. The lace is an old-fashioned style of lace called 'English Net', made for Helena by a family who’ve been lace makers for three generations! The slightly deeper slip underneath shows off the pattern of embroidery on the fabric and the slip can be made in ivory, champagne, the pale dusky pink as seen here, or any other colour that works with the style. This dress would cost around £1250, and is made to order. All the headpieces are by Abby at Cherished.  

  

Below is another vintage dress from Heavenly Vintage, with a very fitted 'Mad Men' feel to it, in a shade of soft pale gold. It’s original vintage, and would be priced at around £1000. The wonderful headband is again by Abby at Cherished – she and Heavenly Vintage did a joint shoot as their styles suit each other brilliantly (Abby is also one of Helena’s favourite people in the Vintage Bridal business!)

  

This lovely silk satin dress below is another example of the range of styles Heavenly Vintage has to offer in their own Heavenly Collection. It’s copied from a 1930's wedding dress and has a slinky fitted look typical of the bias cut dresses of that era. Helena loves the complex bias cutting of the dresses of the Art Deco period, and has tried to keep it as faithful to the original as possible, so that it hugs the body but in a gentle figure-flattering way. The headpiece uses an original 1930's dress embellishment and vintage beads - the perfect foil for the subtle glamour of the dress. Again, the headpiece is designed by Abby at Cherished.

  

This last dress is a sweet wispy lace 1970's dress, an original vintage rather than a copy. Helena always looks for these romantic soft dresses on her travels. The 70's offer a soft Boho feel, which is very pretty and floaty; the fashion influences at play in that decade ranged from Edwardian to 1930's. An original vintage dress like this one would be around £800. Helena is also working on a copy of this lovely little dress for her own Collection and will be adding styles as she continues to develop the range - this one is planned for the Summer. The pretty beaded headpiece is made by Abby at Cherished again, and is called 'Cow Parsley', from her new range, launching soon.

  

Helena loves vintage wedding dresses so much, but there is of course only one of each, and only in one size, so copying the most beautiful ones seems a great solution to being able to offer the most lovely styles to more brides. Come and see them in person at our next Fair!

(Many thanks to Helena’s lovely models Georgia and Lucy for bringing Heavenly Vintage’s dresses to life so well, and to Robert Lawler for the fantastic photographs.)