Chic Vendor Spotlight | Colette Komm Creates Custom Wedding Dresses in NYC

When shopping for a wedding dress, a chic NYC bride has some of the top ateliers at her fingertips... but what if she wanted something completely custom?  
When we are bridal styling clients who are looking for a complete revamp on a designer dress, we often turn to Colette Komm.  Rather than deconstructing an existing design, Colette provides the ultimate feminine luxury of a handcrafted couture wedding dress. Through impeccable style and attention to detail, she treats each of her custom designs as a unique piece of art. 
We are so excited to share Colette's talent in our Chic Vendor Spotlight today!

Merci: We like beautiful design, fabulous fashion, and inspiring, creative individuals so needless to say, we already love you! But since we just "met", we want to know more about who you are. We're always in a New York state of mind here at Merci... What landed your brand in NYC?

Colette: I know I belong in New York because even when it's a hundred degrees on a subway platform and I've been waiting for a train for way too long, I still think to myself how much I love living in this city and wouldn't want to be anywhere else!

Merci: Why did you begin your custom wedding dress business? What was missing in the bridal market? 

Colette: Originally I had planned to make a collection and sell it in stores like any other brand, but the way my career went, I realized that what I love to do is make custom clothing... creating a garment that fits an individual perfectly and is specifically constructed to highlight and enhance that particular figure in a way that something off-the-rack never could. 
I have worked for a lot of high-end designers doing ready-to-wear, bridal and evening and it always drove me nuts to be constrained by the need to have side seams and a center-back zipper in everything so that it can easily be mass produced and altered to fit the end consumer. 
I hate to see a dress with beautiful draping across the front or back but then if you look at it from the side or three-quarter view it's disrupted by a big long ugly side seam. A bride is going to be seen and photographed from a variety of different angles and so when I make a gown I take that into consideration and create a gown that will look good from every conceivable view point. The thing I love most about doing couture is that the only thing I have to answer to is design integrity. There are certainly brides out there who appreciate that and who are looking for it in their wedding gown.

Merci: Amazing! How did you know this line of work was for you? What do you like most about designing custom wedding dresses?

I guess it was when I was six or seven and saw my mom and my sister sewing and I immediately knew, I have to do that. I've been obsessed with making patterns and sewing clothes ever since, whether it was for my Barbies and Cabbage Patch Kids, myself, my friends, or now my clients. 

What I love most is the process: taking this very clear image that exists only in my mind's eye and then bringing it into three dimensions, where people can appreciate it by wearing it, touching it or just looking at it. 
I love to make beautiful things and it brings me a level of satisfaction I can't adequately articulate. 

Merci: Where do you draw your everyday inspiration?

Colette: What really inspires me is each bride that I work with. She starts out as my muse, but by the time I've finished her dress, we've become friends.
The process of making a couture wedding gown is an intimate and intricate process. I love to be able to apply my skills and talent to such an important life event, and contribute something that makes it even more special. 

In general, though, I’m inspired by other artists and creative types who take their work seriously and spend the time and put in the effort to make beautiful things that wouldn't otherwise exist without their dedication and patience. I am also fascinated by historical construction techniques. I love fashion history books that have close-up photos of the inside of clothes made two or three hundred years ago. You look at every tiny stitch and know that someone's hand made that stitch that long ago and it's still there today. It may sound bizarre to a normal person, but that kind of stuff is so exciting to me! It’s what keeps me going through the hundred-plus hours it takes me to create one of my gowns, knowing that each stitch tells a story and is part of an heirloom and a work of art.

Merci: So where did the Colette Komm brand begin?  What was your a-ha moment for creating custom wedding dresses?

Colette: Well, technically it started in my bedroom at my parents house when I was a teenager and wound up making a wedding dress to pay for a dent I put in my mom's car... but officially I started my business here in my home studio in New York City and that's still where it's located. 
Everything I do is custom and I do all the work myself, from answering phone calls to sewing; it’s a true labor of love. If you call or email, you'll be speaking directly to me. I don't have anything off-the-rack, and I don't have anything available in stores. I have a website, colettekomm.com and a blog, EverythingSheSeams.com, where I post photos of my brides and illustrations, bridal fashion tips, random things that inspire me, and even more random things that I channel my creative energy into when I'm not sewing.

Merci: What is the most engaging, unique and beautiful thing about owning a Colette Komm custom wedding dress?

Colette: There's nothing that can compare to wearing a gown that was specifically made just for you. Nothing. I had a client once who called me after her honeymoon to tell me that she loved wearing her dress so much and felt so beautiful in it that she didn't want to take it off, not even on her wedding night and her husband literally had to beg her to take it off! When she told me that I was like, Wow, I did a really good job on that one, maybe even too good a job! 

When I make a gown for a bride I take into account all kinds of details that no one would think to consider and which no designer can for an off-the-rack collection. For example, what side of the bride's face does she photograph best from (we all have our favorite side, right?) and when she's walking or standing next to her  fiancé, which side of his is she usually on? These are important considerations if the dress I'm making has any asymmetrical details; I want to make sure they are on the perfect side for her.

Each bride and groom have a unique love story, and their wedding signifies the creation of a family that has never before existed and will never be duplicated. Why should your wedding dress, the most tangible, material symbol of that event, be anything less than that? Why wear the same dress that 50 or 500 other brides are wearing? 

Merci: We've absolutely loved getting to know you and your brand... Is there anything you want to share before we bid you farewell?

Colette: I don't just do wedding gowns, at the bride's request I can also design and create bridesmaids', flower girl and even mother-of-the-bride dresses. There's that old cliché about horrendous bridesmaids' dresses and that maybe on some subconscious level it's the bride wanting to make sure that she looks more beautiful in comparison, but I think the best way for a bride to look beautiful is to be flanked by her friends and sisters looking beautiful too. When I do clothing for other members of the bride's wedding party I make them to perfectly compliment and set off the bride as well as make the wearer look and feel beautiful as I would with any other client. The visual interplay between the clothing worn by the bridal party is often overlooked until the family wedding photos come back and by then it's too late. Those visual relationships are something that I keep in mind from the start. Also, if the bride wants to wear a veil or have a headpiece I will design those to go with her gown, to make sure that every detail of what she's wearing looks just right in relation to her and all the other details of her wedding.

All photos courtesy of Colette Komm.