The Detailed work of Designer Irene Lentz

A few weeks ago, I posted the photos of the beautiful gowns from Winifred’s Irene collection. Winifred offered to share some more detailed photos of these gowns, so we could see some of the up-close, hand-sewn work Irene’s designs entail. It’s not often we get the chance to take a deeper, more investigative look (so to speak) into Irene’s handi-work, so when Winifred offered to share with us, I was thrilled and hope you enjoy as well.

Thanks again to Winifred for sharing photos and insight into the detailed work of Designer Irene.

From Winifred:

.. I can tell you, and from my experiences in sewing and tailoring, the majority of the work that was done on each of these dresses was done by hand. It was not easy to capture this kind of work up close because it was all hand sewn and meant to be invisible to the eye, even on the inside.

The cocktail dress the hem was re-done at a later time but, the dress is lined and has a hand sewn zipper (only Couture houses do this kind of work). The lining on the blue cocktail dress is all hand sewn on the inside. The cap sleeves were cut with an inverted “V” and again the lining was tailored around the sleeves and hand sewn as well. I do not know if Irene had personally worked on the blue cocktail dress but, she must have hired very dedicated employees to do this kind of tailoring.

As for the ivory and purple gown everything was hand sewn as well. There is even a lining that comes up from the bottom of the gown to the middle and then there is no lining. And that lining was all hand sewn in which is extremely hard to do with velvet. There are eight hooks and eyes in the gown to allow for the fanning of the bow and for the bow to hold its shape. Just simply brilliant Couture work done! Even the gathering in back was all hand sewn and each gather measures the exact same in width and length. This must have been a very time consuming gown to make but, again Irene’s amazing focus and attention to detail are present throughout the gown.

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