A few years ago, my friend Debora Ott called with a query. Her daughter Alice was getting married—the first of her two daughters to wed—and she was considering an age old question: What to wear?

Debora—a stylish woman with an artistic flair—explained that she dearly loved her own wedding ensemble from 1998 when she remarried. She asked did I think it appropriate to wear it for her daughter’s wedding, with a little bit of change.

Debora as a bride 11 October 1998.

Debora’s Shop Window Serendipity
“I fell in love with it when I saw it in a shop window,” Debora explained, “and although I remember having the thought that it would be something I would love to wear, at the time I had no occasion!” So Debora (who grew up in New York City and now lives in Atlanta) was delighted that the outfit was still available when she and Grey Hodges made wedding plans soon thereafter.

The one-of-a-kind ensemble was made by designer Christina Sands who had been one of the featured designers in my former shop in Atlanta. Christina later created her own businesses and her designs became rather legendary. She is an amazing artist and her dresses and outfits are like wearing a glorious old world painting with one’s own original signature!

Debora’s Costume Transformation
The original ensemble was a vintage lace sheath “made for someone who was about a size four,” Debora explained. “The side seams had tiny pearls down the edges and she opened it because I wear a size eight or ten (depending on my mood!).” Christina cleverly made the narrow lace sheath into a chic tabard-like tunic to accommodate the size difference as well as for ease of wear.

Debora as mother-of-the-bride at Alice’s wedding in her transformed bridal ensemble.

As her mother-of-the-bride ensemble, Debora replaced the ivory silk slip-dress with a yummy coppery color silk charmeuse slip that highlighted the metallic hand-painted designs on the vintage lace tunic. Then Christina fashioned a wisp of a long-sleeve shrug from a vintage beaded net scarf for more arm cover; the intricate beading on the ends became the cuffs, giving weight to the fine net for a desired elegant drape at the wrists. Christina then added hand-painted embellishments to pick up the original design in the lace tunic.

Debora had found amber colored hand-blown glass earrings in an art museum’s gift shop in North Carolina and the perfect hand-woven beaded “Egyptian Goddess” collar in Paris to complete the glorious transformation for the happy and proud mother-of-the-bride!

TEXT BY: Cornelia Powell

• Read Debora’s story of her daughter Alice’s wedding in The Ritual of Self section!
• For more of Christina Sands’ designs, see the Weddings of Grace Winter 2007 issue.