Where does a designer of exquisitely romantic wedding gowns go when she becomes engaged? She goes to her sketch pad and allows her imagination to play in a dreamy world of beauty and pleasure. Then she proceeds to her very own company’s atelier full of talented designers, pattern makers, seamstresses, and embroiderers who can take her sketch and make magic! “My sketches are terrible,” Lara acknowledges, “but good enough to communicate a direction to my very capable staff!”

Opened in 2004, the Bridal Atelier offers exceptional handwork.

Bridal Atelier
Lara Meiland knows of which she speaks. She is president and co-founder of Lara Hélène Bridal Atelier, an elegant haven in New York City for the bride looking for personal attention; elegant, feminine design; and consideration for luxurious details. “Our production house,” Lara explains, “offers exceptional hand work that one seldom sees today—we have a lot of European and international clients who appreciate such detailed work—and we also present simple, sleek designs as well.”

Lara became engaged to Claude Shaw in Paris where he was born, and they planned a wedding for a year later in Switzerland. Lara grew up in Denmark and moved with her family to New York City when she was ten. Avid skiers, Lara and her sister spend New Years’ holidays in Crans, Switzerland where she met Claude ten years ago. She always knew that she wanted to have her wedding there. Lara thought it was great to have a long engagement; not only for time to plan a long distance wedding, but especially since she wanted to design her own gown.

Logo of The Grand DuGolf Hotel – site of the wedding. Blue anemones—the bride’s choice for her attendants.

Lara’s partner, Lisa Hélène—her sister as well as her best friend—moved to London last year, so Lara knew her engagement year would be an extra busy time without her in the New York office. And since customers came first, her production house had less time to interpret her vision and create her wedding gown than she would normally have allowed.

Lara’s Vision
Lara Hélène Bridal Atelier has an old world sensibility and heritage, yet with a modern and savvy panache. And this is what Lara wanted for her own wedding gown. “My friends probably thought I would create a very fashion forward look, in a color, a bit over the top and edgy—more like my personal style.” However, Lara wanted something romantic and soft—“with a lot of exquisite embroidery and detail”—something that spoke a bride’s language, but was unique to her. “And my mother wanted me to wear white,” Lara added. Honoring that request set the tone for the design to come.

I asked Lara where she began once she had her “terrible sketch.”

Details of the beautiful hand embroidery and beadwork with soft breaths of color added as design accents. Italian silk tulle train with lush hand-worked embellishment.

“I started with fabric. We looked at laces and embroidered silks, and nothing struck a cord. Then I saw this beautiful Italian silk tulle and loved it. It was ‘spongy’ and romantic and I knew we could do something special with it.” Like all good designers, Lara knows how to play with the shadow and light of design, appreciating the beauty and impact of space.

“Sometimes patterns or beading in fabrics repeat themselves and can be too much of a good thing,” Lara explained. Therefore, using the plain silk tulle she found, her artisans could “choose where to place the beading and embroidery, leaving parts of the fabric empty so other detailed areas would pop!”

And pop it did. The fine hand embroidery and crystal beadwork is sumptuous and regal with the aliveness that artwork exudes when it is filled with as much passion for the craft as artistry and skill. And in its asymmetrical dance over the bodice and skirt, the design created the balance and unity that Lara desired.

Claude’s sister surprised Lara & Claude with an “Andy Warhol” rendering of the couple! A surprise from the bride’s parents, the couple enjoys one of the many tiers of a glorious “larger-than-life” cake! The happy couple and the ritual of being “showered with well-wishes”—here in the form of rice being tossed their way!

The Gown Takes Shape

Lara explained more of her own design aesthetic. “I knew I wanted straps and a low back. I wanted it fitted, but with movement in the gown.” To achieve this, they created an extended, lean bodice that dropped over the top of the hips—defining its drop in crystal beadwork—then the silhouette softly rounds into an airy, floating skirt. Lara said that she “wanted beading close to the face,” so they added delicate, tendril-like touches on the straps echoing the design in the gown.

The floral motifs on the bodice and skirt were applied like in a painting. Handmade silk charmeuse flower blossoms and buds in subtle shades of palest pinks, blues, and golden yellows—trimmed in beads—formed larger designs that would delicately trail asymmetrically into space, then vanish, and then reappear as another surprise somewhere else on the gown—like nestled on the gentle puffs of tulle dropped at the back of the fitted bodice.

Veil & Train
Lara opted for a short, unadorned veil since her original idea of a long, beaded one “would have covered up too much of the details!” It formed a perfect frame for the feminine shimmer that Lara became.

Like in the days of grand entrances at Royal Court, where the imperial train was a showpiece of the land’s finest artisans, Lara’s fifteen foot train of the same silk tulle as her gown—hand embellished in a similar lush diagonal fashion—regally followed in the footsteps of the beautifully content bride.

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