Stepping into Gwendolynne Burkin’s Fitzroy boutique you could be caught thinking you’d been transported into a 1920s salon. Fine Edwardian and Art Deco furniture complements the high ceilings that give way to a wall of finely beaded and hand crafted gowns.
But what you really want to read about I guess, is the atelier upstairs where all the magic happens. I was granted a look behind the scenes when I visited recently to see the progress on her up-coming collection.
The workroom is a hive of activity with women working on all aspects of the creation process- from taking art deco window pane designs and working them on the computer into patterns for beading, to seamstresses hand crafting hem lines and working on fittings.
What you learn very quickly however is just how important absolute detail is to the design process for Gwendolynne.
“We start all the beading and design from here. Every dress has it’s own concept, so we start with perhaps an image and work with the beader to create a design from scratch. We don’t buy our beading patterns, they are all created in house and then outsourced to be finished,” says Gwendolynne.
In a time where fashion couldn’t be happening at a faster rate (think H&M, Topshop etc), it was fascinating to see what really seemed like quite old fashioned practices being bought to life.
“It’s not easy what we do here, but if it was easy everyone would be doing it,” Gwendolynne tells me as Louise her French beading expert presents her work.
“I’m not sure every client realises just how exacting our process is, even if they appreciate that the dresses are hand made. Every single bead we use is considered for size, colour and compatibility with the overall pattern. The placement of seam lines, our cutting methods, how to fit tulle over a bodice- there are so many steps towards the finished product.”
You can actually visit the Gwendolynne boutique to browse on a Saturday, otherwise it is well worth making an appointment if you would like to see this incredible work for yourself.
