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Overview
A special commission
This dress was commissioned from Susan Holmes by Penelope Hancock for her daughter, Genevieve, to wear to her summer wedding. Whereas the bride's dress, which was also by Susan Holmes, was cream and yellow, she chose a pretty sky blue for her 10 year old daughter's dress.
While made for a young girl, the style of is typical of Susan Holmes' romantic style of the early 1980s, and her approach to textile design. She has dip dyed the dress in blue, and hand-painted a scattering of blue roses and leaves across the dress. The bride's dress featured yellow roses.
Susan Holmes began working with fabric in 1971, and established her own stall at Auckland Brown's Mill market in 1972. She quickly developed a reputation for her hand-dyed and printed fabrics, and flowing, bohemian garments.