The Scoop: Say goodbye to wedding dress drama. Dressarte Paris offers custom wedding dresses made with eco-friendly materials. Nathalie Neuilly, Dressarte’s founder, talked to us about the company’s custom wedding gowns and how she’s creating a more accessible custom wedding gown option for modern brides.
I didn’t have cable growing up (PBS kid), but my friends did. And that meant we were hooked on TLC shows by the time we were 10.
All of the shows were ridiculous and psyche-altering in their own way. For whatever reason, one show felt incomparably ridiculous to me– “Say Yes to the Dress.”
It was the first time I’d ever seen anyone intensely cry over an article of clothing. And it was the first time I really tried to conceptualize just how much money $50,000 is — especially when you spend it on a dress.
But more than that, early episodes of “Say Yes to the Dress” featured vicious bridal entourages. It was way too common to see brides teased or ridiculed by their own friends and family because of the way their bodies looked.
In fact, this kind of behavior was a driving structural element of the show. It was piped in for laughs and drama.
We all know these shows don’t reflect reality. But to an adolescent audience, they certainly project it. Before I knew much about anything, I knew that wedding dress shopping seemed like an overwhelmingly emotional, overdone, yet somehow incredibly important affair.
And, worst of all, it also seemed that nearly every woman on the show had hard-baked insecurities about their bodies.
Wedding dress shopping, fitting, and purchasing doesn’t have to be a dramatic affair. Actually, it can be fun. We talked to Nathalie Neuilly, the founder of a custom wedding dress boutique called Dressarte Paris.
Dressarte brings an approach to wedding dresses that’s categorically different from the TLC show. You don’t fit the dress– the dress fits you.
Dressarte offers custom-made gowns made in partnership with the best tailors and dressmakers. All of its fabrics are sourced directly from certified factories across the U.K., France, and Italy. One hundred percent of Dressarte’s materials are up-cycled, surplus, or dead stock fabrics.
In the custom world, finding an option that’s eco-friendly and affordable can feel impossible. Nathalie said she created Dressarte to fill that need and bring anyone who’s getting married a more comfortable way to find an amazing dress.
“It’s such an act to find a dress that fits,” Nathalie said. “It’s so hard to find a bridal gown that meets all your preferences, expectations, colors, and design.”
Our Bodies Are More than Fashion Industry Standards
Like many other women, I don’t have a true clothing size. What size I wear depends mostly on where I’m shopping, and the discrepancies can be huge. “I’m petite and I’ve always been between two sizes,” Nathalie said. “My body measurements are not standard.”
Truthfully, few people’s body measurements are “standard.” Men’s and women’s clothing sizes use different systems, and the size used for women’s seems a lot more complicated. Men’s clothing sizes generally use body measurements, while women’s clothing uses numbers that represent a variety of measurements.
Nathalie didn’t have to worry too much about her measurements being non-standard– her mother is a dressmaker. Tailoring clothes with her mother was a hallmark of Nathalie’s childhood.
“My mom was the one who helped me to create my dream clothes, from the time I was really small,” Nathalie said. “We designed dresses for me, making dresses for my Barbie dolls– things like that. It was so fun, and it also always felt so natural to me.”
Instead of shopping for clothes, Nathalie’s norm was making them. This shaped the way she saw fashion and her own personal style. She wasn’t searching for clothes she liked. She was imagining and creating them.
“I started talking to women in my circles and with my colleagues, and everyone had the same issues,” Nathalie said. “They could not find clothes that fit them. They were between sizes. Sizes were confusing. There were all these problems.”
Problems in women’s clothing, specifically with sizes, have been an open secret for decades. Every woman I know, regardless of age, has complained about how inferior the popular sizing system is. But it seems nothing has changed.
Nathalie was used to working with dressmakers and tailors, but she realized not everyone has the means to get their clothes tailored. “I didn’t like the process of traveling to the other side of the city and getting my vision explained,” Nathalie said. “Then I had to pick my own fabrics and lead this whole creative process.”
Nathalie wasn’t seeing much creativity from the dressmakers she worked with, and wanted an experience that brought a little more artistic direction. She imagined a way that people could get custom-tailored clothing, designed by a professional designer, all through a website.
With that, Dressarte was born. At first, the service wasn’t focusing on bridal gowns. Nathalie said once she realized the need for custom-made wedding gowns that could be ordered online, Dressarte’s focus shifted.
“Brides were naturally reaching out to us, and we decided that’s where our potential is,” Nathalie told us.
Custom Wedding Gowns, Sustainable Fabrics
Dressarte’s unique business model indulges customers in their bridal gown fantasies without the traditional downsides that often come with custom design.
“We work with independent ateliers and all of our fabrics are made in Italy,” Nathalie said. “We work with the same fabric suppliers that were used for Kate Middleton’s wedding dress. It’s all the same manufacturers, but we can offer (fabrics) at a lower price.”
How? Dressarte uses upcycled, recycled, and surplus and dead stock fabrics. The textile industry is one of the most polluting industries that exist, and with the rise of fast fashion, waste seems to be synonymous with the industry. Dressarte believes unnecessary waste has no part in fashion.
“From day one we decided not to over-produce,” Nathalie said. “Everything is made on demand. We don’t do any collections, and that’s on purpose to avoid waste. All the fabrics are eco-friendly, and we’re always working to become more sustainable.”
Transparency is an essential aspect of sustainability. It’s hard to come by in the wedding dress industry.
Nathalie said she heard the same concerns from clients again and again. With traditional bridal brands, there was no transparency concerning the supply chain, who was making the fabrics, who was sewing the dresses, and even where the fabric was coming from.
With Dressarte, you’ll have the details about each element of your dress. From the beginning of the process to the final product, Dressarte takes the lead but you stay in creative control.
“We guide our clients by doing body shape analysis, style analysis, color analysis– all these things,” Nathalie said. “My goal with Dressarte was to empower women to feel confident in their bodies and embrace what makes them unique.”
Fast fashion does harm on a lot of fronts. Besides the outrageous amount of waste produced, it encourages a complicated, trend-driven relationship with clothing. Fast fashion pushes you to stay on trend with cheap and easy-to-get pieces but leaves little consideration for quality, from how comfortable the piece is to how long it will last.
You want a meaningful piece for your wedding. You want a piece that you feel incredible in, that’s made to fit your body. Dressarte gives you that without any of the shady stuff that’s often a part of the bridal gown industry.
Nathalie’s Pro Tips for Dress Shopping
When it’s time to shop for a wedding dress, knowing exactly what you want isn’t a necessity. Nathalie said you should look for dressmakers who want to work with you to develop the concept and look you have for your wedding.
She also encouraged people to get creative. Most people wear their wedding dress once, and then it sits in their closet for decades. Nathalie said incorporating pieces you can wear in day-to-day life is always a good idea.
“It’s absolutely a shame we only wear them once,” Nathalie said. “We also advise our clients to work with different fabrics and clothing pieces. For example, I designed a custom tweed, Chanel-style jacket for my own ceremony, and I still wear it today.”
Besides incorporating pieces you can wear after the wedding, Nathalie had one piece of advice: “Make sure the dress is truly yours.”
The input of the people you love is important, but remember, it’s your and your partner’s day, not your mother’s or your friend’s or your cousin’s. What you like about a dress or style is way more important than what they may think.
“Listen to yourself and trust what speaks to you,” Nathalie said. “It’s the number one most important part of the process.”
