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• A Library of dress designs: Chapter "M" ~part 1

  Published May 20 2021 in #10yearanniversary, #cherryvelvet, #history, #madeincanada, #plussizedresses, #plussizepinup

  Get ready for Marvellous "M" dresses! There are so many beautiful "M"s to share that we are giving it to you in two parts...Click here for part 2.

  MARCIA 

  There's a story of a lovely lady....yes this dress was named after that Marcia. Inspired by the iconic 1960's designer Andre Courreges, the Marcia dress featured a unique cut out neckline that was covered yet cheeky at the same time. This dress was made in a smooth rayon-poly blend. Offered up in solid colours of Black, Blue and Coral for a one time appearance in the Spring of 2015. 

  MARIE

  Taking over the top spot as our most popular style to date and a complete crowd pleaser....drum roll please...the Marie dress! Everyone loves the Marie.  This dress looks all business but the unexpected convenience of the front zip makes it easy to go from secretary to sexy in a zip! The Marie was designed to accommodate one way fabrics; this means you also get an amazing assortment of fun and whimsical prints to express yourself. Check out these available Marie Dresses!

   

   

  

   

  

  

  Sneak Peek! New Marie dresses arrive soon in these new prints: 

  

  MAXINE

  With lapels and cross-over front design, she had 3/4 sleeves and only came in sizes XL to 4XL. Maxine is a modified version of the earlier Christina style, the Maxine was offered in cotton canvas and lovely prints. 

  

  

  MONICA

  The bold colour-block style of Monica was made in tandem with Marcia in the spring of 2015. Diane pulled her inspiration from 1960's bold geometric styles and eye-catching colours. This dress was made in a smooth rayon-poly blend. She was a streamlined design that came in two colourways; Navy/green Black/hot pink. 

  

  

  The 2nd part of the "M" dresses will be coming your way next week. We hope you're enjoying this flashback through the years as much as we are!

   XOX Cherry Velvet

   
  
  

   

• A Library of Dress Designs: Chapter "E"

  Published Mar 24 2021 in #10yearanniversary, #1950s, #canadianfashiondesigner, #cherryvelvet, #dressdesigns, #ellymayday, #history, #ovariancancer

  This post is all about our beautiful dress designs that start with the letter "E". A word of advice, you may need a box of tissues handy. I have a heartfelt story to tell you about one of our models and the dress that was named for her.

   

  Emily

  In the Spring of 2023 we said 'Bonjour' To Emily. Diane was inspired to create dress dress after watchin the TV show Emily in Paris. This was also the first eve halter style we created, with a nice full skirt and pleated bodice. It was the perfect breezy sundress for those hot Summer days!

  

  

  

  Elizabeth

  The Elizabeth dress was first released in the Fall of 2013 and then again in Fall 2018. It has a similar cut and fit to the popular Chrissy dress. These first prints; as modeled on lovely Bianca Bombshell and Ruby Roxx were made from a beautiful stretch cotton sateen. 

  

   

  

  In our later release of the Elizabeth dress we switched to our regular 100% cotton in these stunning prints:

  

   

  

  Elly

  Of all of the dresses I have written about so far, this one is the hardest to write. These photos bring back memories of a young 25 year old girl that was diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer, the same disease my own mother died of when I was 12 years old. I know most of you remember Elly Mayday (aka Ashley Luther) she was a Cherry Velvet model for a number of years. At the time of this photo shoot she was very ill and had lost all her hair from chemotherapy. She is actually wearing a wig that I bought for her in these photos. I imagined how I would feel as a 25 year that had lost all her hair and my heart went out to her. 

  

  The Elly dress was designed and made especially for her, for an event called Strut for a Cause. It happened the night before she was scheduled to go in for major surgery. Since the blog about this event was on our old blog (and no longer accessible), I will repost it for you to read about if you wish as next week's blog.

  The eye-catching wingbust design of the Elly dress was a vintage design inspired by the dresses of a very influential 1950's (and beyond) designer; Alfred Shaheen. I am launching a much anticipated remake of the Elly dress that will be ready for release in summer 2021. The prints are inspired by the original Elly dress with some updated additions (the original fabrics are no longer available).

  

   

   

  

  

  Emma 

  Released in 2015, the Emma dress was made only once for our Spring 2015 collection at the Hycroft Manor photo shoot. The most popular print was predictably "Cool Cats" as modelled on Ruby Roxx.

   

  Eva

  This was an extremely limited run of dresses. Only a few of these Eva Lace party dresses were ever made. 

  

  

  I hope you all understand why I wanted to share these memories about Elly Mayday with you. I feel it was important to honour her memory in this post; by sharing some of her images and story with you. She was certainly an important part of our history and I will never forget her and the lessons I learned while working with her.

  XOX Love Diane

   

   

• A Library of Dress Designs: Chapter "C"

  Published Mar 09 2021 in #10yearanniversary, #cherryvelvet, #dressdesigns, #history, #pinupdress, #plussize, #retrodress

  We sure hope you're enjoying looking back at our history of dresses as much as we are enjoying writing it and reminiscing! We got to know so many lovely women in all the photo shoots we did over the years, and it's an honour to share all these stories again.

  On to the letter "C"!

  CELESTE

  The Celeste dress was a one time only design that came out in the Spring of 2014. We designed it especially to accommodate this metallic border printed fabric. To make a border print work, the pattern pieces need to fit sideways on the fabric so that the border runs along the hem of the dress. This style and the Sally dress were the only two styles we ever set up for a border print so far.

  

  

  CHARLOTTE

  

  The Charlotte was the very first dress Cherry Velvet ever made. You can imagine our excitement in the office when the first shipment of dresses arrived. Even though the caption reads 10 prints, there were actually 14 prints all together, all on the chart below plus the Butterfly print. Only a very small handful was available in some the the prints. What made the Charlotte especially unique was each of the 14 prints had it's own special trim around the 'V' neckline.

  

  

   

  Some of you may remember our original studio in Railtown, Vancouver. A customer is modelling the butterfly print that is an all time favourite of our designer Diane's. She still wears this dress to this day.

  CHLOE

  The Chloe dress made her only appearance in the Fall of 2013. She was a very pretty style with a scallop detail around the neck. Even though the Chloe never came back again, the bodice and fit of this style was the precursor to quite a few other styles like the Brooke and the Olivia. The green colourway modeled by Ruby Roxx was the most limited pattern in this design.

  

  

  

  CHRISSY

  Many of you will recognize this classic Cherry Velvet style, it's a design that has been recut many times throughout the years. It was named after our model Chrissy Snow (in this first photo) The mock wrap of the bodice is universally flattering to many figure types and indeed is a style that fits whether you have a larger or a smaller bustline.

  

  The Chrissy first appeared in the summer of 2015. She was often cut in a polka dot or a floral print as this design requires a 2 way print. 

  

  

  

  

   

  

  

  CHRISTINA

  The Christina dress was the third style we ever made in the Fall of 2011. It had the addition of vintage trim on the collar and cuff. This Kimono Fan print was especially adorable with it's red ric-rac edging.

  

  

  COLETTE

  The Colette came out in the Spring of 2014 and again one more time. It was made of cotton sateen with a bit of stretch which lent itself well to this wiggle dress design. Colette's sassy style featured unique cut outs at the shoulder and a cheeky flounce at the hem. 

  

   

  I hope you've enjoyed this chapter from our dress archives.  Stay tuned for another chapter next week!

  P.S. When the whole library is complete, we'll save it permanently on our website so you can look through it any time. 

  XOX Cherry Velvet

• A Library of Dress Designs: Chapter "A"

  Published Feb 18 2021 in #cherryvelvet, #dressdesigns, #history, #madeincanada, #pinupgirl, #plusmodel, #retrodress

  Cherry Velvet began making vintage-inspired retro dresses in 2011! That's over 12 years now, can you believe it!? 

  To mark this milestone we thought you would enjoy seeing a complete pictorial history of all our dress designs. You'll get to revisit each of the names, designs, favourite prints and all the lovely women that have modelled our dresses for you to collect over the years.

  Let's begin our journey down memory lane with the letter "A"....

   

  DELE

  Named after the famous singer songwriter, the Adele was an elegant wiggle dress we could imagine the woman Adele actually wearing. She made a one time only appearance back in June of 2013 here on beautiful and curvaceous Ruby Roxx.

  

   

  ADALINE

  Inspired by the movie and beautiful dresses from The Age of Adaline, the Adaline had a vintage inspired, 1940's appeal. She made her appearance in 2015 at our photo shoot at historic Galbraith Manor on Ruby Roxx and Kaleigh Almond. Adaline's unique cutout neckline sure did turn heads.

  

   

  ALICE

  Croquet anyone? Models Veronica Belle and Ruby Roxx show off the Alice dress while playing lawn games at beautiful Momiji Gardens at Hastings Park. The Alice dress featured several hidden animal prints by fabric designer Tula Pink. The Alice was released only once in the summer of 2016.

  

  

  ANGELINA

  The Angelina made her first debut in the Fall of 2015. She's a style we've since repeated many times. With a longer, more natural waistline, Angelina is a great choice for average height to taller girls. She features a stunning back detail; two straps twisted in the middle to make your exit as memorable as your entrance! She's a long time favourite of many customers and is still available to this day.

  

  

  

  

  

  ANNETTE

  Our very first big official photo shoot was at the historic diner, Savon Meats with photographer Shimona Henry of Pin-up Perfection Photography in January of 2013. This was also the very first ever photo shoot for our patternmaker Genesis Hiles and model Elly Mayday. The Annette dress made an unforgettable apperance with her unique U shaped Peter Pan collar and a lovely open back detail all accented with contrast piping. 

  

  

  Annette came back once more in Spring 2018, but this time with the addition of a full skirt.

  

  AUDREY (original)

  In all these years of making dresses, we've only made one actual velvet dress called the Audrey named after our designer Diane's Mom. For Holiday 2012, it came in three colours of sumptuous rayon velvet; royal blue, dark green and midnight navy.

  

  AUDREY (2023)

  This sweet dress with timeless charm made a comeback in 2023 with a brand new look. It featured a style that was easy to wear both day and night with a lovely full skirt.

  

   

  

  AURORA

  Named after the Disney princess from Sleeping Beauty, this dress was certainly made for a girly girl. It had a mock wrap, pleated bodice, short puffed sleeves, a very full skirt and a generously wide tie belt to tie in a bow. We made it in cotton prints but also in several solid special occasion fabrics too. 

   

   

  

  AVA

  Named after the elegant 1940's star, Ava Gardener, the Ava was the only peplum style we ever released. She was an early style that debuted in 2012. This was Danielle Keil first photo shoot with us, she was a Cherry velvet employee as well as a favourite model. 

  

  

  We hope you've enjoyed the first chapter from our dress archives as we look back at designs named with the letter "A". Stay tuned for more...

  P.S. When the whole library is complete, we'll save it permanently on our website so you can look through it any time. 

  XOX Cherry Velvet

   

• Dress History 101

  Published Feb 03 2021 in #1950s, #cherryvelvet, #cottondresses, #history, #madeincanada, #pinupdress, #plussize

  Recently, we made a post on Facebook asking for your best vintage name suggestions for our dresses. You gave us so many wonderful names that we have tons to choose from for upcoming styles! Thank you to everybody that wrote in telling us your stories as well. We loved hearing about your Nana and how she used to wear gloves and get dressed every day in the 50s. Thank you for the pictures of your pets, your favourite movie stars and those that deserve to be remembered. We appreciate you sharing these suggestions with us!
  
  We noticed that many of the suggested names were ones that we’ve already used before. And so we thought you might like to read a Master Cherry Velvet dress name list...
  
  And now that you know the names of our past dresses you're going to be curious! Right? We're going to expand beyond this Master names list. We want to show you the designs, the photos, the prints and tell you why we named each dress. This is going to be epic! It’s going to be the history of all our dresses. How appropriate as we're coming up to our 10th anniversary later this year!
  
  XOX Cherry Velvet