Liza Veiga
A black tulle ball gown for the opera singer Liza Veiga — and the weeks of hand-made florals that went into it.
Made for a stage
A gown for a singer has a brief a bride's does not: it has to be legible from the back of a hall, and it has to let the ribcage work. So this one is built on a corseted bodice that releases immediately below, under layers of black tulle over silver.
The florals were made first — each petal cut, burned at the edge, painted and beaded by hand — then laid out on the table until the arrangement was right, and only then attached. The photographs of that stage are here because they are the part of the work no one usually sees.
15 frames
- Full length in the salon
- The silhouette from across the room
- Black tulle over silver, in movement
- A single hand-made flower, complete
- Petals painted and beaded, drying
- Three florals laid out for placement
- The arrangement decided on the table
- The flower group at the waist
- Beading and brooch at the flower's centre
- Corseted back, laced
- Hand-beaded detail across the tulle
- The bodice on the stand
- Cut petals before assembly
- Tulle and sequin, close
- The gown on the stand, skirt full
Begin your own
Every gown here was cut once, to one person's measurements. Yours would be too — the first fitting is on us, in the atelier or by video.
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