PETA’S PLACE

Harrogate Ramblings

Peta is on form, searching the rails in Harrogate for all things new, different and worthwhile

Mid the second lockdown I made the painful decision to sell the 10-year-old Micra. Its gaffer-taped wing mirrors, the window that didn’t open, and the wipers that shot off when the rain was too hard finally convinced me I needed to swap cars.

I had a Toyota for three months but hated it so much I lost a small fortune, and then I invested in a Smart car, four-seater obvs, and my goodness, was I relieved because the heated seats that I kept switched on all the way up to Harrogate did my back the world of good. Interestingly, I found there were a number of exhibitors who shared back issues but they soldiered on. We swapped histories and cures, and agreed that Voltarol should be on tap at exhibitions.

Once out of the car with my copilot, Sara Groom from Hitched, I had a quick walk, well, walk then sigh, and we went straight into hall Q.

I got instantly swept up in the moment with all the gorgeous dresses in there.

As usual, the Alan Hannah stand was busy – too busy for them to chat, so I had to settle for a wave and a nod.

It was great to see the talents of Love and Liberty and Freda Bennet, and then I spotted the models from Amsale – one was wearing a great one-shoulder dress, the other a lace square neck dress that was effortlessly charming.

I know I was on the hunt for something new and different but I have to give a round of applause to Jesus Peiro, and put in a swift mention for Maggie Sottero, Justin Alexander, Watters, Romantica and Allure, all of who produce wonderful ranges of dresses . No wonder they are all so successful, their dresses are a joy to be seen plus with the occasional edgy surprise. Black dresses made an appearance on Maggie and JLM’s stands – the latter had their sparkly collection, which was beautiful. I’ll admit a slight crush on Allison Webb designs – it was interesting – the dresses with pearls were doing very well, will this be a trend for an evening wedding?

I also like the way that Ellis has taken ownership of both sides of the exhibition hall, Ellis one side and Kelsey Rose the other. Ellis showed beautifully cut, well priced modern classic dresses, with enough of a fashionable twist to appeal to the most picky princess, and opposite them with their Kelsey Rose range made for the edgier/boho bride (who doesn’t want a fuss made, but really does, who wants to look like herself only better, yes I think we all know that B2B!).

I also enjoy looking at the pieces from Indiebride. I guess it says what it is, so if you’re looking for traditional maybe this is not your first stop. However, all the dresses are pretty, wearable and stylish. I also spotted a new collection by Josephine Scott, her print dresses were light and airy, and she does great sleeves, too!

DEBORAH K DESIGN

IVORY & CO AESLING HALO & CO

Accessories

JUPON

HOUSE OF HERSEE THE BOBBY PIN

Touch of sparkle

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

ELIZA JANE HOWELL JESUS PEIRO MARTIN THORNURGH

ALAN HANNAH

REMBO STYLING ELLIS BRIDALS MARTIN THORNBURGH

ROMANTICA

PALOMA BLANCA

lace_romance

CARTA BRANCA

modern romance

JENNIFER WREN WONA

WONA

LOVE & LIBERTY Barking beautiful Bumped into Walter, ex David Fielden, who is working with 29Atelier, an interesting collection of separates that can be turned into dresses – a guaranteed winner for the creative bride to be.

A little bit of a sidebar here… I did spend ten minutes looking at Walter’s new standard dachshund puppy who is firmly in charge after being collected post exhibition. I hope he brings him to Harrogate next time. In fact, Wendy Adams, could we invite a few dogs to the exhibition? I think a cute dog keeps most people calm. I digress.

Back to my search for the new and easy-to-wear, a very short dress on a stand caught my eye and beckoned me over and when I got there, I discovered it was from Milla Nova. I’d seen it on Instagram and to my great joy I discovered Alysa UK was handling the collection. I met Nigel Bailey, who is selling Chic Nostalgia, Olympia Sposa and Malee, too (so a bit of a one stop shop here!). Milla Nova straight out of Ukraine was doing a roaring trade in Barcelona and their dresses here were spectacular, although they only had one collection on show. The stand was mobbed but with dresses that are so desirable on social, they do not disappoint in the flesh. The lace is soft and a good quality, the big dresses are entrance-making and yet their cut is very commercial. They do have a huge social media presence, they seem to come out of nowhere and if you posted one of their images it did brilliantly.

Worth looking at was Olympia Sposa, an Italian brand, very glamorous, very understated elegance. Smack in the middle of the stand was a new brand that I wasn’t familiar with called Malee from Germany, easy to wear, relaxed dresses in lace – perfect if you need that boho bride box ticking.

And then finally Chic Nostalgia, which I find a very interesting collection because it’s well priced, well made and bang on trend.

Finally, moving on in my search for new accessories, I loved Rainbow Club’s detachable clips – who wouldn’t want an extra bit of fluff or sparkle on your shoes? And it was nice to see Jupon was doing more hats. Yet more sparkle and lace at Richard Designs; what a huge selection of amazing veils and tiaras, a real go to for many of my shoots in the past.

Sparkle bright I really was getting quite heavily distracted by all the twinkling of the accessory designers, they really can make or break an outfit, and if you have ever tried to make jewellery yourself you know how tricky it is, and how labour intensive. Swarovski once took me on a bracelet-making class, they told me what to do and how to do it. My brain understood, but my hands did not obey. The result looked like something you’d love if a five-year-old made it as a present; you’d thank them, say lovely, and hide it away immediately.

Talking of five-year-olds, a quick shout out to TH&TH. Not only do they produce lovely wearable bridesmaids’ dresses – and we all know how tricky that is – but they do an amazing mini that’s a sure-fire winner for me.

I was trying to make my way towards the Eliza Jane Howell stand.

I was very upset to hear of the death of Gill. I have fond memories of her. She was a fun, interesting person and always had great stories to tell over lunch. She carried on working right to the end, producing a great little collection as usual, moving the brand forward.

Under the EJH label there are dresses for everyone not only for retro lovers. I think there’s a real audience out there – those who cannot afford some of the Israeli and Lebanese brands but love a bit of sparkle.

On the stand, we had a few hugs and shared tears. Gill’s talent will be marching down the aisle on many of future brides; she leaves a great legacy.

I missed seeing Charlie Brear, and Savin. I don’t know how that happened, I must have got side tracked.

It’s interesting that the one key thing that I looked for at this exhibition was wearability. It sounds so boring and obvious but no one should buy a dress that doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do. If you want a strapless dress it should stay up, if you want lace, you should be able to wear underwear, you should be able to dance and move in your gown, and it should look fabulous in photos.

At this point I think my award for dedication to a destination goes to Christina Blanchette from Maggie Sottero. It took her 31 hours to get from Salt Lake City to Harrogate due to a cancelled plane and the domino effect – match that if you can!

Moving forward Direction wise, it was nice to see: • A good selection of big dresses not weighty but modern and light. • Separates are becoming more popular as brides love the idea of creating “their own design”. • Lace is ever present and still my favourite bridal fabric. • Sparkles, in a more subtle way, still rule the party floor. Bring it on please, more parties!!!

It was nice to see more points of difference – ranges have been cut down with smaller but more focused USPs. I think people are moving on now, and specialising must be a relief rather than having to be all things to all people.

I was only at Harrogate for the Sunday. Thinking back to the days when at You &Your Wedding we had a stand, and it was styled fabulously, full of magazines to give away. The fashion team would go onto various designers stands and we were often not allowed to take pictures, so I do these pathetic little sketches of dresses to call in for shoots.

I’d do all these funny illustrations, which made sense when I was

CARTA BRANCA

JUSTIIN ALEXANDER SIGNATURE

SOPHIA TOLLI

simple clean lines

LOVE AND LIBERTY

watching the show but I’d come back with pictures and I couldn’t identify one dress from another because I’d drawn some weird matchstick bride, with a frilly hem.

Fast forward a few years, we were allowed to use Polaroids and take pictures of key styles we wanted to shoot. I had an Art Director who insisted that we kept our note books out of sight so that other magazines would not see what we planned to call in, like they cared or had time. It was proper “Devil wears Pronuputia” times.

Gradually, the whole market has changed over the past ten years. Now we snap a picture and post it in order to get brides super excited, but there is something to be said sandwiches and nibbles for the long drive home. Oh, how we have moved on... from lunch at The Orchid to garage snacks.

We chatted about the people that we’d seen and how important it is to consistently keep in touch. We are a very people business and our relationships are key, and although it’s fantastic to see new people entering the market you have to applaud the designers and companies who managed to survive and prosper and still produce fresh collections each season.

Designers out there, I applaud you.

about allowing a little bit of time from seeing the shows in the flesh to the bride being aware of the whole collection and knowing all the style names before you have them down pat. I realise that everything moves on but when you are driving backwards and forwards for seven hours in a day it does make you reflect on things past, present and future!

By the time we’d been upstairs and seen Maggie, we were starving, but the wining and dining of people we hadn’t seen for a long time seems no longer appropriate. So it was back into the car.

We stopped off at petrol station, filled up, moaned about the cost of fuel for at least 30 miles or £30 worth. We got ourselves a fine selection of Peta Hunt Stylist /Art Director /Consultant +44 (0)7973 630366

MALEE

Separates

JESUS PEIRO