10 Years at Caroline Bruce Designer Dresses
17th September 2024
In August this year 2024, I have been celebrating my first 10 years in business as a designer & dressmaker in my own right. I have worked on many interesting & varied projects for men, women & children. I have chosen to write this blog to reflect on some of my favourite projects, sometimes becoming memorable, not neccesarily for the actual garments, but for the people I have worked with & some of the friendships I have made along the way. Having the opportunity to work with people from all walks of life & seeing the pleasure that what I do for them brings, means more to me than anything else, hopefully having made a small difference for the good in their lives in my own way. I obviously feel a great sense of achievement to see what I can do with my own two fair hands and I like to be challenged whilst developing my skills.
I started out in 2014 wanting to create a successful business for myself, knowing I had the skills to create virtually any garment that people wanted. But I had a bigger dream, a dream to build my own label, something which I knew would mean a great deal of hard work, but one that has been with me since I was very young. I decided that I would work on my own designs slowly in the background whilst building up a bespoke clientele.
Actually I have achieved one part of my dream already with celebrities wearing dresses that I have designed & made on the red carpet & being photographed for the media. I have also been lucky enough to take part in several fashion shows in the past 10 years & have enjoyed being able to develop my own ideas, rather than just creating other peoples ideas!
I decided that I would make my brand an ethical brand in all ways possible, not just because it is currently a popular idea, but because it is the right thing to do, it feels right with me & the code of ethics by which I try to live my life. The saying goes "you need to be the change you want to see" & I want to be a part of that change.
I enjoy developing patterns & silhouttes, creating colour palettes, working on designs for collections, sourcing & working with ethical fabrics, experimenting with traditional proccesses & crafting the final garments, all of which is a joy for me. As they say"you need to be the change you want to see"
The following projects are just a small selection of those I have worked on over the past ten years plus pieces from my own collections, although it has been difficult to narrow it down! I would just like to thank all my clients for the use of your images & for the enjoyment working with you has brought me, also thank you to everyone who has helped me & supported me along the way!
