Design Heaven for this year's Platinum VIP Style Awards with the Zip Yard

We gave The Zip Yard a project to create and recreate some spectacular dresses and owner of The Zip Yard Swords Izabela, along with her team, delivered…

Our Fashion Editor, Zeda the Architect

This was my second time collaborating with The Zip Yard to come up with a custom design fit for the #platinumvipstyleawards. Izabela and
I wanted to go big or go home and wanted to challenge ourselves to make a unique design so decided to go with making a gown completely made out of leather.

We first had a sample card to see what colour and texture we wanted to go with, once we picked, we decided we wanted to try a shape completely over the top. So, Izabela made some toile and then we switched it up every time we had a fitting ’til we landed on the final design. We tried multiple shapes on the upper body till we landed on a one arm design, then we figured out how to make it fit my body best.

When we finally locked in the best toile, the team started cutting into the leather and started on making the dress. I came in for a second last fitting and we were able to see where little fixes had to be made, that’s when we knew the gown needed some gloves to complete the look so the team got to working. We did one last fitting and the shape was perfect and then the gloves were perfect.

I was so excited on the red carpet to present the design we came up with together. I really do love working with the Zip Yard.

About Zeda’s Dress

I don’t need to tell you that Zeda has the most unique style!

So making a dress for her is the most fun! She always had the craziest ideas, and Izabela makes them come to life. After a long discussion of what project to do. Zeda and Izabela landed on a spicy red leather dress. Featuring a unique design, that spins around the body just like a candy wrap. Leather is one of the most challenging materials to work on, but Izabela was up for the challenge. And they succeeded! Zeda looked fire on the night!

VIP’s Online Writer, Anja Zauers

When it came to choosing my outfit for this year’s Platinum VIP Style Awards I had a vague idea of what I wanted to do but wasn’t 100 per cent sure of how to actually go about doing it. I didn’t want to buy something new so that meant wearing something I already owned and I had just the dress in mind – a long-sleeved, orange maxi dress with a cut-out detail in the middle.

I bought it back in 2019 for a college ball and although I loved the dress for what it originally was, I personally felt that I had outgrown its style. So, rather than wearing the original dress, I opted for a classic remodelling. After picking the brain of our Fashion Editor Zeda, I searched Pinterest for inspiration, found a few images of what I was thinking and brought my ideas to the gals at Zip Yard, South Anne Street, Dublin 2.

The team was so helpful, even when they thought there wouldn’t be enough material to do what I initially wanted! But alas, Natasha, Paulina and the rest of the team whipped it out of the bag as always. The dress was completely unrecognisable, in the best possible way!