Chapter VI…The Bride
‘and she wore black’
The look
The Gothic gown, with draped and cascading layers of silk tulle and chiffon embroidered with ‘Black Moth’ and skeleton wing shadows.
Classic leather ‘Bubble’ waistcoat with ebony black horsetail.
Sculptured and structured leather Tailcoat with horsetail ‘glory hole’ and gauntlet sleeves.
Hand carved ‘Bubble & Flower’ design tapering and flowing down the sleeves and spine of the tailcoat.
Creating the tailcoat
The Tailcoat, constructed from thick leather hide in its pure and natural state, un-dyed, un-finished, like a blank canvas to sculpt and create from. Lined with polished patent leather, each panel has several flowers carved onto the surface and hole punched by hand in 7 different sizes. Its a slow, very slow laborious task and very noisy like sharing a studio with a team of woodpecker birds. The carved flowers and ‘bubble punching’ were the original Paul Seville signature style, its early purpose was to make this heavy hide look & feel more ‘Lace like’ and delicate. The tailcoat panels are then dyed black, by hand of course and slowly assembled stitch by solitary stitch! As the coat nears its finished state, its increasing size , lack of flexibility and refusal to co operate, require a team of 3 people to manoeuvre it around the sewing machine and cutting tables.
100 hours well spent I think!
The History of the Design
This complete creation and mood is most personal to us, the entire look encompasses our wedding, ‘and she wore black’. It’s a combination of what we both wore, recreated and re designed with a more exaggerated & theatrical feel. The leather Tailcoat, sculptured from a heavy hide more commonly used in corsetry, stands erect and proud, restrictive and intimidating enticing the prospective wearer to dare to try it on, finished with the horsetail sprouting pertly through the glory hole.
‘Well we think all tailcoats should have a tail, it makes sense, doesn’t it!’
‘with the Bride we wanted to create a sculpture, a monument to an event, a memorial, something not throw away, something built to last’
Creating this coat in such heavy restrictive leather was inspired by Paul Seville’s original creation for Antonio Beradi at Exte back in early 2000.
Mood & Emotion
The dandies of Victorian London meets the seedy and decadent underground night clubs in the 1980’s. Always chic, glamorous and elegant but ultimately and defiantly decadent!
Watch the opening scene of The Hunger with David Bowie and Catherine Deneuve, the sound of Bauhaus with Bela Lagosi’s Dead, the unforgettable distinctive aroma and seediness of Heaven night club. Close your eyes and you can be straight back there, nights of voyeurism, decadence and debauchery, like walking into another world.
We are definitely and continuously in both music and fashion inspired by all things Gothic, the feel of a Tim Burton movie runs consistently through all our creations. So proudly inspired by ‘Sleepy Hollow’ but always with a twist of something dark, curious and surreal, always with a taste of ‘The cook, the thief, his wife & her lover’
Sound
From Jeff Buckley and Hallelujah to Bauhaus and Bela Lagosi’s Dead