Brides looking for wedding gowns that can be described as eco-friendly have more than a few options. My favorites by far are buy a secondhand wedding dress, re-purpose a secondhand dress, or have a wedding gown made for you by a local seamstress who’s using sustainable materials. But you know what? Eco conscious though you may be, you and your perfect secondhand dress may never cross paths. For whatever reasons, re-purposing a gown or even having one made might be impossible.
In that case, there’s always shops like Green Union. In addition to a range of green and/or ethical wedding favors, accessories, and stationery, they carry a handful of very pretty wedding gowns.
Tammam White is a bridal collection handcrafted in House of Tammam’s fair trade atelier in India. The wedding dresses are made with exclusively developed fabrics including organic-certified wild peace silk, sustainable bamboo satin, and 100% organic fair trade cotton satin jacquard and linings. The two wedding dresses above are a long satin wedding coat dress with vintage button detailing and a simply chic gown with a luxe gold sash. Both could use a some alterations, but with them would look stunning on the right brides.
The puckered seams on the one on the right and the enswamping fit of the one on the left are both driving me up a tree. These are gorgeous gowns, but the construction of one and the fit of the other give an overall impression of sloppy and unflattering. Since that’s a reputation that green already has – earned or no – it means that most women aren’t going to be swayed to buy by this sort of presentation. This is especially true of wedding/evening gowns.
Please, do yourselves a favor, guys, and put your best foot forward in advertising. Make sure seams aren’t puckered, and that the gowns and models fit one another properly.
Twistie, I wonder if part of the problem isn’t either cultural or new-to-Western-advertising … ness. Some, at least, of the seam puckering should have been taken care of by pressing both during and post-construction – not to mention before and during the photography session! Also, the truly basic Western methods of “Make it ready for catalog pictures!” by pinning the garment to fit the model haven’t even been employed. This makes me wonder how much House of Tammam has worked with a Western market. They could do better for themselves, with minimal effort.
Twistie, ugh, I am very sorry if the Green movement has somehow equated “decent finishing techniques” with “evil overlords”!
i agree completely twistie! eek!
also, just a word to the wise about bamboo fabric, it is becoming more and more popular as eco-friendly, but most if not all of the bamboo fabric has undergone a chemically intensive, not eco-friendly process to be converted from tree to fabric. though bamboo is sustainable, it might not be as environmentally friendly as they would have you believe.
Many thanks to Never teh Bride for highlighting our fabulous new Tammam White collection of ready to wear bridal gowns.
We’re disappointed that you have all commented negatively on the fit of the gowns, but would like to point out that these gowns have been produced under incredibly difficult conditions by a very dedicated designer who is trying to do it all on a tremendously restricted budget. She has done her best and we have had the most fantastically positive reaction from the bridal community.
In fact they are selling like hot cakes – check out this lovely email that we received from our latest bridal customer:
“Thank you for the gorgeous dress. My wedding is in November so I will send
you a photo of it afterwards.” Charlotte