Archives for March 2021

Up next in our bustle series is the English Pick-up Bustle! Previously, we have shared the Ballroom Bustle and the French Bustle. Today, we want to dive into the elegance of an English Bustle.

The English Bustle is a wonderful bustle solution for wedding gowns that are fitted through the hips and have a long train. It is often very flattering on sheath, mermaid, and trumpet silhouette wedding gowns. If the fabric on your dress has a very straight fall, the English Pick-up Bustle can create these beautiful waterfall-like columns to compliment the clean and classic look of your gown. A simple, yet sensational bustle!

The English Pick-up Bustle is created by picking up the train and pinning it to the outside of the wedding gown. The dressmaker will take fabric from the middle of the train and pick it up to pin on to the wedding gown. The number of pick-ups and pins will vary depending on your fabric and length of train. From the pinned point the rest of the train elegantly drapes down and floats just above the floor–ready for the reception and to dance the night away of course! 

Pictured is the Bride Danielle with her wife Holly. Danielle is wearing her gown that was originally one size too big and we altered it to fit just right. We created an English Pick-up Bustle for this sheath silhouette wedding gown. The long train makes it perfect for this elegant pick-up bustle. 

Every bustle is entirely unique from the next. When you buy or create your wedding gown, it won’t come with a bustle. The dressmaker or alteration specialist will create the bustle of your choice for you. We created this blog series to help inspire you to see different ways a bustle can live on a gown, to give you ideas of the infinite bustles out there, and to share the bustles that work best for certain silhouette style gowns. If you haven’t already, check out our previous ‘All About Bustle’ posts!

Continuing our bustle series, we have the French Bustle, aka the Victorian Bustle or the Under Bustle. Previously, we have shown you two versions of the Ballroom bustle for a sheath gown and Ballgown silhouette. Today, we want to talk about the French Bustle and particularly a Double French Bustle on a mermaid style wedding gown!

A nice contrast to the Ballroom Bustle, the French Bustle is all about volume and beautiful folds to compliment a more fitted wedding gown with a natural waistline. Sometimes there is just one fold with multiple points securing it up or other times there are numerous folds such as the bustle we are featuring with a double fold. This largely depends on your fabric, the length of your train, and personal aesthetics of course. This type of bustle is the perfect option for A-line, trumpet, and mermaid silhouette wedding gowns. It also works best for longer and fuller trains so you have more fabric to create the elegant folds. The French bustle wonderfully accentuates the feminine figure and creates a poignant touch of texture to a more form-fitted gown. 

To create this type of bustle, you pick up part of the fabric lower down on the train and attach it higher up the dress to create these beautiful outer folds of your wedding gown. The points are secured underneath the dress instead of on the outside of the gown. Your dressmaker or alteration specialist may attach a ribbon underneath the dress that can be used to help the bridesmaids secure the bustle up for the reception. Once secured, you are ready to dance the night away with a gorgeous bustle to compliment your unique wedding gown!

Recently, we have been working with a Bride on her wedding gown. We created custom sleeves to compliment her dress with beautiful white applique flowers throughout. We then created a double french bustle for this mermaid style dress. A perfect solution to compliment this charming wedding gown! For more bustle ideas, visit our previous ‘All About Bustle’ posts. Happy Bustling!