materials

darling is often asked where she procures her fabrics. between her own long-accumulating fabric stash, to the vintage buttons, fabrics, threads and trims that were stockpiled by her late grandmother, there is much to provide inspiration. when it comes to creating her one-of-a-kind luxury collections, ms. dearie's preference is to use vintage and discontinued fabrics, which ensures you truly do have a unique and original garment. 

admittedly, one of darlings favorite fabric mediums are vintage sheets. the prints, patterns and softness of the aged material can't be replicated with modern day production. often, these unique materials she incorporates into her dresses come from her own inventory dating back 25 years old and older.

when ready to assemble a new dress, darling takes her time deciding which fabrics work best together. at times, this inspiration comes instantly for her, while at others, she must think and ponder while playing with various combinations. sometimes, the available yardage of a particular fabric helps to encourage her creativity and to think "outside the closet". what may have originally been planned as a two-print mash-up dress, suddenly becomes a three-print super mash-up frock.

gateway dresses are intentionally constructed in wardrobe-friendly, non-patterned neutral exterior fabrics. currently, darling has a lovely collection of earth-toned and sea-colored japanese cottons and yarn-dyed linen-cotton blend fabrics to choose from. darling likes to pair her linen-cotton blends with either 100% cotton or 100% linen prints for the underside contrasts. you may think of linen (and cotton, for that matter) as being fair-weather fabrics, but both adapt beautifully to all seasons, maximizing their wearability within your wardrobe. (dearies often mistake the linen-cotton blends for lightweight wool because of their lovely yarn-dyed and heathered appearance.)

darling has amassed a treasure trove of vintage buttons, laces  and trims, most of which once belonged to her beloved grandmother. she has put these dry goods to good use as decoration within her unique and one-of-a-kind oddment collection including earrings, brooches, bobbies, note cards and door whimsy. one-of-a-kind vintage button wool felt earrings are available as either clips or pierced ear hooks and completely hand sewn. "a-door-nment" door whimsy are created using leftover fabrics and decorated with vintage button and trims. "this and that" note card sets utilize even smaller pieces of fabric, sewn together creating sweet hearts where inside you can express heartfelt sentiments to a special someone.

even darlings cotton fabric labels are created in-house, allowing her total creative control. she finds this is especially useful when she has created a particular combination of dress materials which are required to be identified on her garment tags sewn inside.

ms. dearie strongly believes in quality-over-quantity and constructs her garments and oddment accessories in respect to this one-at-a-time, slow-fashion process. her dresses take an average of 20+ hours to construct from start to finish and each is truly a labor of love. darling appreciates that her garments often evolve organically as she is constructing them with her original plans for a particular-colored zipper, ribbon or thread being nixed and re-decided through her slow-fashion assembly.