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12
FAS
HIO
NW e d d in g g o w n d o ye n n e J o yc e Y o u n g s h a re s h e r s e c re ts to s tre s s -fre e d re s s e s fo r th e b ig d a yW OR D S RUTH WALKER
ONE of Joyce Young’s key
pieces of advice for brides-
to-be is to get organised
as early as possible. That
way, your frock is one less
thing to stress about. But
when she’s running out the door of her
Glasgow home next month to receive
her OBE, how much of her own advice
will she have taken?
“I’ve known about this for a year,”
she says, “but I still don’t know what
I’m wearing. I’m the first one to tell
everyone they should get organised in
advance to take the pressure off and
I’m always the last to make a decision –
usually I’m being sewn into something
as the taxi’s there. But I have some
thoughts and I have a little mood board
put together – I just have to wait to find
out if the suppliers can get the fabrics.”
Although Young has been in the
public eye for decades, having set up
her business in 1993, designing for the
diverse likes of Sophie Kennedy Clark
and Susan Boyle, the announcement of
her OBE – for services to fashion and
the Glasgow community – came as a
complete surprise.
“We had no inkling whatsoever, I’d
never even thought about it,” she says.
“The letter arrived from Buckingham
Palace in the shop post. I opened it and
read the first sentence and I reread it,
then looked at the envelope again to
see if it had come to the wrong place.
Then I read the first paragraph. I was
just so full of surprise and shock. It was
completely surreal."
She’ll be in stellar company when she
rocks up at the palace. Other fashion
folk who have already received honours
include Mary Quant, Karen Millen,
Jimmy Choo, Stella McCartney, Jasper
Conran and Amanda Wakeley. Sarah
Burton, the designer at Alexander
McQueen, received her OBE after she
designed the wedding dress for the
Duchess of Cambridge. Phoebe Philo,
the French-born, British designer who
has revived Celine, will also collect a
gong next month. And Judy Murray
wore an embroidered vibrant purple
dress and coat with contrasting jade
collar and cuffs, designed by Joyce
Young, when she accompanied Andy to
pick up his OBE in October.
Having graduated from Glasgow
School of Art in 1975, she had been
designing for Marks & Spencer when
she took the decision to leave the high
street behind and create something
much more special. “I got fed up with
working with a tight budget all the
time," she says. “I just love working
with good fabrics. It started as cruise
wear, and we made everything from
swimming costumes to evening gowns.
But people started wearing the evening
things to dressier events like weddings,
then a girl came and asked me to make
a wedding dress."
Ironically, this is where
she’d begun back in the
1970s, making bridalwear with a
BRIDE ON TIME
13SCOTLANDonSUNDAY January 12, 2014
SP
EC
TR
UM
F R E S H s tarts and re s o lutio ns
b e g in w ith a h e alth y c le ar-o ut.
S o S p e c trum is tak ing a lo ng ,
h ard lo o k at its o v e r-fille d
m ak e -up b ag and m ak ing
s o m e to ug h d e c is io ns . O ut
w ith th e o ld and all th at…
STY L E NEW S
AISLE STYLE L e ft: C h ris tie d re s s b y Jo yc e Y o ung ( £ 1,9 9 5 ) . A b o v e : Y o ung , w h o w ill re c e iv e an O B E ne x t
m o nth . B e lo w : Jud y M urray w e ars a Jo yc e Y o ung -d e s ig ne d e m b ro id e re d d re s s and c o at as A nd y M urray
p ic k s up h is O B E alo ng s id e K im S e ars and h is fath e r W ill. P h o to g rap h s M artin M c C re ad y/ F io na H ans o n/ G e tty Im ag e s
business partner. “So I almost fell back
into it.”
Creating bespoke bridalwear can
be a demanding business, when the
hopes and dreams of a lifetime can
be at stake. So consider the challenge
at hand when one bride-to-be, a Game
Of Thrones fanatic, wanted a medieval-
style wedding...in just six weeks.
“She came with some ideas and I
brought out some fabrics and did some
sketches. She was pregnant as well,"
says Young, “so she had this growing
bump, but wanted a backless dress, and
wanted her bridesmaids to be backless
too. Everything was done very quickly."
It’s an indication, perhaps, of how far
the bridal market has come in recent
years. “When we started in the 1990s it
was all very much the Princess Diana
dresses – all very full – and what we
did then was very different because we
were doing coats with mandarin collars
and long slips; that east meets
west style is still very much
our signature. It’s a lot more
difficult to be different now.
Anything goes and people are
less stuck to convention.
“Most girls though,
even if they are
unconventional, can
be quite conventional
when it comes to their
wedding. You don’t
get a lot of people who
really want to be very
different."
But many brides
still like to stamp
their individuality
on their big day. At
the 2012 wedding of
Inbetweeners star James
Buckley to Clair Meek
from Kilmarnock, the bride
teamed her 1950s-style
Joyce Young dress with a pair of bright
blue skyscraper heels.
Her most recent high-profile wedding
was Anne Reid’s nuptials to Derek Jacobi
in the BBC’s Last Tango In Halifax. But
more important than that was designing
the wedding party’s dresses for her own
daughter, Susie, three years ago. “That
was lovely to be able to do," she says, “it
was very special."
It was also, as things turned out,
a little last minute, as her scheduled
flights were grounded by the Icelandic
volcano, cutting her planning, buying
and sewing time by two weeks. “I work
better under pressure," she says, “but I
don’t recommend it to anyone else."
Twitter: @Ruth_Lesley
Joyce Young’s wedding dresses cost from £1,500
to £8,000 (www.joyceyoungcollections.co.uk)
SK I N CRO W DO U R ne x t b e auty e s s e ntial h as
w o n s o m any aw ard s w e ’v e lo s t
c o unt. It’s b e e n aro und fo r ye ars
and h as b e e n im itate d o fte n, b ut
th e re is s till no th ing to m atc h th e
e ffe c t o f C liniq ue ’s B e auty F las h
B alm o n tire d , s tre s s e d -o ut s k in.
T h e b e s t-s e lle r ins tantly m o is turis e s ,
b rig h te ns and tig h te ns th e s k in,
m ak ing us lo o k m o re re s te d , s m o o th e r
and g lo w ing .
£29 (www.clarins.co.uk)
B RO W UNB EA TENT H E b ro w , th e y s ay, fram e s th e fac e . A n
o fte n ig no re d e le m e nt o f th e m ak e -up
re g im e , it h as c o m e to th e fo re fro nt,
lite rally, re c e ntly th ank s to th e lik e s o f
C ara D e le v ing ne ’s o ft-p h o to g rap h e d p o w e r
b ro w . W e ac h ie v e th e p e rfe c t lo o k w ith T o m
F o rd ’s m ag ic al b ro w s c ulp ting p e nc il. W ith a
c le v e rly ang le d p o int, in-b uilt s h arp e ne r and
b rus h to tam e e v e n th e w ild e s t o f b ro w s , it is
utte rly fo o lp ro o f.
£34 (www.tomford.com)
L A SH PA SSI O N
Y O U c an s p e nd yo ur life s e arc h ing fo r th e
rig h t m as c ara. T h e b rus h ne e d s to b e a g o o d
s iz e , it c an’t b e g lo o p y o r rub o ff e as ily, th e re
c an b e no flak y b its th at g e t in yo ur e ye s …
it’s a to ug h c all fo r o ne o f th e m o s t h ard -
w o rk ing p ie c e s o f b e auty k it. B o b b i B ro w n’s
S m o k e y E ye m as c ara c o m e s o nly in je t b lac k
– b e c aus e th at’s th e o nly c o lo ur yo u’ll e v e r
ne e d – and d e liv e rs a h ig h -inte ns ity inje c tio n
o f g lam o ur in a s ing le s tro k e . Jo b d o ne .
£22 (www.bobbibrown.co.uk)
SEEK A ND H I D EB U T th e b e auty e s s e ntials th at s tay
s tart w ith January’s m o s t-us e d p ro d uc t:
c o nc e ale r. W e ’re ye t to find a b e tte r o ne
th an M ac ’s S tud io F inis h .
L ig h tw e ig h t and c re am y,
s o e as y to ap p ly w ith o ut
d rag g ing , it is a d is c re e tly
o p aq ue c o nc e ale r th at
p ro v id e s lo ng -las ting
c o v e rag e fo r d ark
s h ad o w s , b le m is h e s and
o th e r b its yo u’d rath e r
h id e .
£15 (www.maccosmetics.co.uk)