Tag Archives: couture

Top 5 Kosibah Destination Brides for 2016.

Hi there, thanks for checking out this blog post.  As the end of 2016 draws in, I thought it would be an ideal opportunity to look back at Kosibah Real Brides who got married in a different country from which they usually live. 

This is more pertinent to me as a bridal designer who has recently relocated to New York  from London after successfully running my business there for 25 years. 

It’s a huge leap of faith to have a destination wedding because even if you have the most efficient and well connected wedding planner, you are still physically removed from where your dream day will take place. 

I’ve had the great privilege this year to work with some amazing brides to create couture gowns for their destination weddings. I’m pleased that at least getting their couture gown made is one thing they can be part of from start to completion. 

Here is the list. Please let me know which is your favourite Kosibah Bride or wedding destination. 

1.Kosibah Real Bride Louise. Destination: Cape Town, South Africa. 

Louise wore a couture full skirted bridal gown with a beaded, corseted bodice and a tulle skirt bustled behind with multi length layers, stiffed at the hemline with horsehair crinoline. 


2. Kosibah Real Bride Funmilayo. Destination: Venice, Italy. 

Funmilayo wore a couture fishtail gown. It had a removable chemise with 3/4 length sleeves which she removed for the informal part of the wedding reception. 

3. Kosibah Real Bride Amina. Destination: Chateneauf-de-Grass (near Nice), France. 

Amina wore a silver gray French Lace and Duchesse Satin couture gown styled to reflect her Nigerian heritage. The corseted gown had a fitted skirt with a detachable tulle overskirt. 

4. Kosibah Real Bride Julianna. Destination: Santorini, Greece. 

Julianna wore a couture bridal gown featuring an illusion tulle bodice embellished with Lace appliqués and a modified fishtail skirt in soft tulle with a cathedral train.

5. Kosibah Real Bride Layal. Destination: Lake Como, Italy. 

Layal wore a couture bridal gown with a fitted beaded Lace bodice with an intergral corset and delicate covered buttons over the dress zipper and dropped shoulder strap sleeves. The fishtail skirt was made up of over 50 meters of Tulle gathered into rose swirls and ruffles on the surface fabric of Duchesse Satin. A matching cathedral veil with hand stitched Lace edging completed the ensemble. Photos by Jide Alakija.

I look forward to reading your comments. Thank you. 


Kosibah Inspiration Board VI

Today’s inspiration board features Kosibah couture gown ‘Imogen’.

The fishtail gown features a pearl and diamanté embellished neckline and waistline. The skirt is sprinkled with hand-cut Swaroski diamanté encrusted Lace appliqués hand sewn into place.

The pearl and diamanté accents are taken as a theme for the cake, shoes and earrings.

Please share your thoughts below.

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Kosibah Real Bride Asia- A couture Nikai bridal gown.

Today I am sharing with you the process of creating Kosibah Real Bride Asia’s couture gown for her Nikai ceremony held in Tanzania.

It involved hand cutting appliqués off the French Lace fabric and reassembling them on silk tulle, by hand, thereby creating a bespoke fabric for the center back panel of the fishtail skirt.

Asia teamed her gown with a head-wrap in the same silk satin as the gown underlay and wore an embellished veil for the ceremony.

This gown would also be perfect for a Reception dress after a white

Please let me know what you think.

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Kosibah Real Bride Charlotte

It is always a great show of confidence in one’s work when as a designer you get to create bridal gowns for more than one member of the same family. It was such a case in today’s Kosibah Real Bride Charlotte as I also got to create her sister’s bridal gown a couple of years later.

Charlotte wanted a fitted fishtail gown with some texture in the fabric. I created a gown featuring an asymmetrical empire-line bodice hand-draped in silk duchesse satin with a Swarovski embellished knot leading to 2 detachable shoulder straps. The corseted lower bodice and fishtail skirt was  in textured silk tulle with Swarovski diamante crystals added on in the Kosibah Studio.

I also made the dresses worn by the 2 Bridesmaids (one of whom I later made a wedding gown for), the Mother of the Bride and the Grandmother of the Bride. As I usually do when I can, I arrived in the morning to dress the whole bridal party.

Charlotte, the daughter of Lord Boateng, a peer of the realm, had the privilege of getting married in the beautiful St Margaret’s Church, Westminster Abbey with her reception taking place across Parliament Square at One Great George Street , a magnificent Grade II listed, four-domed, Edwardian building .

Charlotte removed her silk tulle cathedral veil after the wedding service and just before cutting the cake with her new husband, removed the detachable shoulder straps which created a more informal look to her dress.

Enjoy the images, especially the interiors of both St Margaret’s Church and One Great George Street.

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Kosibah gown features in OK! Magazine.

The red zibeline and organza couture gown created for our client Sunny Nersian for the party to celebrate her engagement to her fiancé Danny Andre was featured recently in OK! Magazine.

The gown that featured over 1440 hand affixed Swarovski diamanté crystal had a form fitting bodice and textured fishtail skirt.

Here are some images of the dress being created in the Kosibah studio and tear sheets from the magazine.

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Kosibah catwalk show at the V&A Museum, London. 2006

I’ve been reviewing all the videos I’ve posted in the YemiKosibah YouTube channel and I was quite surprised by how many there were, and I’ve decided to begin posting them here on my blog.

This video was shot in October 2008 at a fashion show called Kulture2Couture, held at the Victoria & Albert Museum’s Raphael Room, and organised by the Mayor’s Office as part of Black History month, K2C as it was fondly known went on for 3 years until it was discontinued when Boris Johnson became the new mayor of London.

I showed a combination of bridal, evening and formal day wear and though the footage is from 2008, the dresses don’t look too dated (I hope!!).

The video also has some testimonial messages at the end.

Please let me know what you think.


Kosibah Real Bride Bukky.

Today’s Kosibah Real Bride is Bukky.

Bukky had searched quite extensively for her bridal gown but couldn’t find anything that met all her requirements of fit her perfectly without requiring adjustments. Having a bespoke bridal gown made was the obvious choice and fortunately, she chose Kosibah.

I came up with a design that suited her figure and her height. She wore a 2 piece ensemble comprising of a corseted amended A-Line gown in ivory silk zibeline. The bodice of the gown featured bespoke embroidery and asymmetrical ruching that accentuated the cinched in waist.

A cap sleeved chemise top in silk organza featuring a line of tiny Swarovski diamante crystals along the neckline and edges of the sleeves was worn beneath the gown to meet the requirements of Bukky’s church for her shoulders to be covered during the wedding ceremony, and removed before Bukky made her entrance into the Reception venue for a less formal lookImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImageImage.

The cathedral tulle veil also featured matching bespoke embroidery along the edges and was designed to be worn both as a conventional veil that covered the face, and as a mantilla style veil.

The wedding took place in Lagos and the photographs are by international wedding photographer Atunbi.

 


Throw Back Thursday – KOSIBAH on BET

Kosibah was honoured by BET (Black Entertainment Television) with a short but concise video clip of images of Kosibah gowns and a voice-over by myself. Sincere gratitude to Lilian Blankson.

The short video clip was

shown at intervals on BET sky channel 191 at intervals during various programs.


Kosibah Real Bride Amina.

Today’s Kosibah Real Bride is Amina. She wore an empire-line corseted dress in champagne duchesse satin, with a champagne silk organza overlay featuring old gold Lace appliques embellished with Swarovski diamante crystals. Amina opted to wear her hair in loose curls tumbling over her right shoulder. On her head Amina wore a champagne tulle cathedral train with hand stitched Lace edging to match her gown as well as a bespoke jeweled headpiece by Kyles Collection. The wedding service took place at the beautiful St Peter’s Church and the reception at the English Heritage former stately home Kenwood House.

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Kosibah Inspiration Board III

Today’s inspiration board features the Tea Length kosibah couture gown ‘Giselle’. With echoes of classical ballet costumes, the champagne tulle and silk zibeline strapless gown features a removable tulle chemise top. Dress image by Damien Lovegrove

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