paper & cloth: romantic edge

Valentine's Day is this weekend, love is in the air, and it's the perfect time to share the bridal fashion story from the February issue of Hour Detroit! The lovely and talented Cybelle Codish photographed this story at the Russell Industrial Center, a gigantic warehouse complex with some incredible raw spaces as well as artist studios. The raw spaces provided a beautiful, incongruous backdrop for the ethereal, romantic gowns I pulled for the shoot, but they did create some unique challenges. The Russell is raw - really raw, like standing water, layers and layers of dust, disgustingly dirty raw - in the unfinished parts of the building, so extreme care had to be taken to make sure all of the gowns made it out of the shoot alive and undamaged. At one point, the model was standing on top of my coat inside an Ikea blue bag with her train pooled around her to make sure it didn't even come close to touching the ground. Photo shoots are so glamorous, aren't they? ;)

When it came to styling, for the looks shot in the raw spaces, I wanted to bring in elements like leather jackets, biker boots, and black leather gloves for a rougher, edgier take on bridal. By contrast, I wanted the looks shot in the studio of painter Andrezej Sikora to be more classically elegant and sophisticated, but still artistic. The model's subtle tattoos were the perfect compliment to the styling concept, and I'm so glad you can see them in some of the final images. Her engagement ring was also perfect - she got engaged two weeks before the shoot, so we decided to let her wear her own ring throughout!

Check out all the gorgeous gowns below.