FIT FOR A QUEEN
Catherine Stott interviewed British bridal designer Stewart Parvin whose gowns are available from Belmont Bridal in Banchory.
Stewart Parvin showed a keen interest in fashion from a young age. Having trained at the Edinburgh College of Art, Stewart’s first commission on graduating was to design and make a “very grand” dress for the bride of the owner of a well-known dairy company. Although Stewart continued to make one-off wedding dresses as a result of word-of-mouth recommendations, he spent the next three years working for the couturier Donald Campbell in Chelsea before moving on to work as a designer for various high street chains. Although this was exciting and challenging work, Stewart missed making beautiful, classic clothing and so decided to set up on his own, opening his Boutique in Knightsbridge in 1996.
Finding that he was designing more and more wedding dresses for the daughters of his Boutique clients, Stewart launched his first wedding gown collection in 1999. Taking a very prominent position by the Champagne Bar at the British Bridal Exhibition at Harrogate, made sure that Stewart’s first collection of eight dresses did not go unnoticed. Harrods were interested in stocking Stewart’s dresses from the start, but, after a few years of being marketed through Caroline Castigliano, Stewart decided that the correct route was to sell through high-quality, independent retailers. As a result, his dresses are now available throughout the UK and also in Japan, Australia and the USA. These days, Stewart introduces a new wedding collection every year, with twenty dresses in each collection. While the number of dresses may have increased, Stewart Parvin’s gowns are still all about quality. Not only is every dress hand-made in London, with strict quality control at each stage, but only the highest quality, most luxurious fabrics, usually Italian or French, are used. Stewart uses a wide range of fabrics to suit the variety of his designs. Current dresses use silk, satin, tulle, taffeta, corded and Chantilly laces. Stewart’s dresses may ……
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