In a state of uncontrollable excitement over total gorgeousness, I’m thrilled to introduce Angels Carrying Savage Weapons. Combining a mixture of Victorian elegance, 50′s glamour and sexy, Burlesque allure, Angels will appeal to a range of bridal tastes and trends.
In-House designers and creators of beautiful, figure cinching works of textural art, Angels owner and creator, Lindsay Fidler answered some of my questions to give you an insight into the world of Savagery.
1. Who are Angels Carrying Savage Weapons and where did the name come from?
Angels Carrying Savage Weapons are a small company who specialise in handmade steel boned corsetry, clothing and alternative bridal wear. All of our garments are handmade in our studio by a small dedicated team using fabrics and trims bought within the UK. We are very passionate about keeping the brand a British made company and use mills and suppliers who also share this passion. Our aim is to bring a little glamour back in to ladies lives and design clothing which women really want to wear.
We get asked frequently about the name of the company and I wish I had a really exciting story to tell, but Angels Carrying Savage Weapons is a phrase taken from a film called The Prophecy, there was a big thing when the film came out whether it was a line taken from the bible which its not but we loved the phrase as it embodied everything about us.
The Angels are the ladies we dress and the savage weapons are their bodies cinched into our corsets, what man can resist a beautiful lady trussed up in a corset.
2. When and why did you start designing?
I have always designed every since being a little girl, my nan was a great source of inspiration and taught me to sew at about the age of 5, I loved being able to create something out of nothing and enjoyed the hours spent trawling through Vogue when I was about 13 or 14. My whole weeks pocket money went on a copy of vogue every month, and I still had some of them well into my late teens. I really made head way though in early twenties, went back to college to train in fashion and then went onto work with high street retailers as a pattern cutter before setting up the company with my husband about 5 years ago. He is also from a design background being a graphic designer, we both wanted to do something ourselves instead of working for other companies and the Angels brand was born.
3. You’re obviously very influenced by Victorian styling, but how do you make your collection so modern and wearable?
We are influenced by many things, when we first started it was Victorian corsets which were our main inspiration, but I didn’t really want to create Victorian replicas so my passion for things that span a 70 year timeline came into play so our main inspiration comes from the Victorians through to the late 1950′s we play around with ideas, shapes and styles to give them a more contemporary look without them looking too costume inspired. Women generally want to wear our corsets out of the bedroom and not under clothes so we try to create corsets which look good as outer wear but would not be out of place in the boudoir, then matching them up with skirts and trousers turns them into whole ensembles which takes the fear out of ‘what do I wear it with’
4. Have you designed for any celebrities?
We don’t tend to chase celebrity, if they come along then that’s great but our clients are our celebrities and each one is treated that way. We have designed garments which have been seen on TV as well as on the stage in the West End and dressing a few celebrities but we tend not to let on who they are as they come back for repeat orders as they know Im not using them as a tool to advertise our company. If we had the choice of any celebrity in the world to dress I would love to dress Katy Perry, Christina Aguilera and Lady Gaga, They all have a very individual style and I think it would be an exciting creation to work on.
5. How long does it take to produce a Handmade piece?
It depends very much on the garment, the fabric and any decoration placed on it, on average a bespoke designed corset can take from initial concept, patterns, make up and trimming anything from 6-40 hours of work. A wedding dress we block an entire week out for each dress and we work as many hours as it needs to get it made in that week, so in a normal week we could be looking doing at least 12 hours days, 7 days a week
6. How would you describe an Angel bride?
Shes fun, confident, quirky and knows what she wants, she looking for something with elegance but it has to have a twist to it.
Our brides have full involvement in the whole process, they sometimes bring their own ideas in which we work with together until the design works for the bride or they have no ides what so ever and we try everything on until we find something which works well and then we can hone in on the fabric and trims.
If they have a long while to go before the wedding I will encourage them to get a small sketch book and collect as many ideas as they can so we can see everything that inspires and excites them. We then sit down over a cup of tea and go through her ideas until a design emerges.
7. What’s your favourite piece from your collection?
That’s a difficult one as I’m working on dresses for launching this September and I would say that every time I start to create a new range I let the older ranges go so I can be completely free and let the creativity take over, so my favourite pieces at the moment are the ones I cant tell you about as I would be letting the cat out of the bag. I will say though that I don’t really design a range for clients to buy straight off the peg, I create a collection of ideas in actual form so they can see what I’m able to do as well as see variations in style, colour etc. With this new colection Im pushing the limits with design and shape and colour, then our brides will pick out the elements they really like,
I actively encourage our brides to take elements of what I do and add to it, so to be honest its very rare a bride will see a design and take it as seen they always add their ideas to it to make it completely individual for their special day.
A huge Thank you to Lindsay for gving us such a great insight. For further details and to purchase online (prices range from £70), see www.angelicweapons.co.uk
Great article and images, and fab Q&A’s, I just wish more brides would be bold and adventurous with their wedding gowns. Long may ACSW and blogs like yours continue to inspire and promote.
Chris Hanley
Thanks Chris! I agree!
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Wonderful Wedding Gowns….
Great Article! Really Gowns looks so beautiful..
interesting reading this posts- good points, that i forget and you write about them
Thank you!