Weddings are a key milestone in many people’s lives. But with rising costs (the average couple in the UK now spends around £20,000 to £22,000), many couples are veering from tradition – and that includes avoiding paying a large sum for a dress the bride may never wear again. This is why British bridal designer Andrea Hawkes has launched Ever After: a new repurposing service that breathes new life into wedding dresses, turning them into practical separates and stunning occasion wear to be worn far beyond the aisle.
Hawkes has never been afraid to deviate from what’s “in” on the red carpet or the covers of fashion magazines. She launched her eponymous brand more than 10 years ago to cater to those who valued “personable, understated” craftsmanship at a time when celebrity brides such as Kim Kardashian and Anne Hathaway were donning voluminous skirts and elaborately embellished dresses.
She developed her passion for bridalwear and appreciation for British bridal designers while working at a St Albans boutique. She would eventually go on to work for those very designers she admired, honing her skills at the renowned ateliers of Phillipa Lepley, Stephanie Allin and Suzanne Neville before branching out on her own. Looking back on her brand’s early days, Hawkes says the idea of repurposing and extending the life of a wedding dress was always top of mind. “With bridal, you imagine this piece that’s to be worn for just one day, but for me, as a down-to-earth person, the thought that someone could reuse their dress in some way makes me feel like there’s value in what somebody has spent and [the work] that’s been put into [the design and production of the garment],” she tells Broadsheet.
Though she recently announced an expansion into Norfolk, London – her “favourite city in the world” – has played a pivotal role in the success of Andrea Hawkes. With Ever After, she and her team work out of their London atelier, where they accept dresses from any designer, work with almost all fabrics, and aim to create a finished product that can be used over and over again. Hand-dyed using natural flowers and organic materials, ivory wedding gowns are transformed into dreamy summer dresses with beautiful botanical prints, while others feature ethereal ombre finishes, stunningly reworked into fresh silhouettes. “The whole offering of Ever After is about being able to naturally change the way something looks so that you can have that nostalgic feeling of wearing the dress again, but not everybody knows it’s your wedding dress,” Hawkes says.
“I think the thing that attracts our brides to us … is that they’re going to be looked after. They’re going to feel super special, and that is even more important nowadays with the way that things have changed over 14-plus years. It’s about those touch points of talking to a human, those interactions when life is so busy. [Our brides] feel safe and they feel comfortable – that’s something I’ve always [cared about] from day one and that hasn’t stopped.”
