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WILLAMETTE WEEK Originally published on Wednesday, 4/2/2003 SPRING FASHION GUIDE Bridal THRILLS & FRILLS:
Now in its third year, Kara Larson and Sarah Mansfield's Frill project
(at Tumbleweed, 1804 NE Alberta St., 335-3100) has already produced
20 one-of-a-kind wedding dresses for this year. The gowns bring together
the country sweetness of Tumbleweed with Mansfield's custom-sewing
chops. Gone are the fussy details and arbitrary froufrou associated
with bridal gowns. These are easy, breezy dresses that let a bride
breathe--and, for a radical twist, thrive. Frill's low-key approach
has been known to calm the discouraged and stop a dreaded "Bridezilla"
in her well-manicured tracks. NORAH WHO? One cruise
of Michelle DeCourcy designs (at Gracie's Boutique, 8235 SE 13th St.,
Lake Oswego, 675-0072; Plenty, 108 3rd St., Hood River, 541-386-5000;
and other locations--see www.michelledecourcy. com) will make that
puffy-sleeved plaid taffeta number from the J.C. Penney catalog a
sketchy memory for any bewildered bride. The Lake Oswego health-care
accountant-turned-designer is known for her versatile, flattering
dresses (she recently hit pay dirt when Norah Jones donned her simple
black "Stella," now named "Norah," dress for the
Grammy Awards). Though not exclusively a bridal designer, DeCourcy's
chic frocks are distinguished enough for a formal event (owing to
the refined fabrics, which she sources from New York and L.A.), but
so wearable they won't peeve the bridesmaid instructed to buy one.
"The reason I decided to add bridal to my contemporary line was
because I got so many positive responses from women asking if I did
weddings," says DeCourcy. The recent media hullabaloo has her
fielding bridal requests from cities as far-flung as Chicago and Boston.
Join the fray here at home! THE BEDAZZLER: What
strikes you instantly about Embellish by Terri Spaeth-Merrick
(by appointment, 282-6228) bridal and bridesmaid gowns is that they're
really well-made. No, really, really well-made--hers are the kind
of dresses you put away in acid-free tissue paper to save for your
granddaughter's granddaughter's wedding. A custom clothier who also
teaches classes in sewing and pattern-making at Oregon College of
Art and Craft, Spaeth-Merrick has never met a bias seam, bustier or
bustle she couldn't tackle. She recently showcased designs from her
collection at the Fashion Incubator's Spring Preview--a line of creamy
charmeuse gowns, accompanied by crisp silk attendant dresses in shades
of honeydew and cantaloupe. THINK MINK:Kim Dunham's
bridal hair jewelry and veils are less Grace Kelly tiara than they
are Watson-and-Crick double helix. Her brand-new Southwest Portland
studio, called MINK (1215 SW Alder St., 224-6465), has been stampeded
by stylish wives-to-be bewitched by word of mouth. Imagine delicate
wire armatures that suspend crystals, turquoise, coral, topaz, peridot
and freshwater pearls in organic clusters that hover kinetically around
the bride's head. From a single hairpin ending in a spray of seed
pearls to a dramatic crystal starfish clinging asymmetrically to an
updo, Dunham has a gift for the underexplored art of hair jewelry.
Embellish,
a bridal design studio in Portland, Oregon. Embellish Home
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