Anne Fontenoy

About Anne Fontenoy

Anne Fontenoy designs and makes luxury handsewn silk wedding dresses, lace bridal gowns and wedding suits, as well as being a fine artist.  She also designs ball gowns for the evening party, dresses for the mother of the bride and groom, bridesmaid and flower girl dresses, going away outfits and bridal accessories such as veils, silk bags and purses, silk covered Alice bands, hand painted silk scarves and evening accessories which are available made to order or from stock.  Ready-made accessories can be purchased from her website or by appointment in Tunbridge Wells.

Most wedding dresses are made to order but there are sometimes a few wedding gowns available to buy off the peg; some one-offs and some sample dresses at reduced prices.

Her wedding dress design styles are varied including classic silk bridal gowns, contemporary lace wedding dresses, vintage style dresses, slinky silk gowns, as well as bohemian gowns and less conventional styles of dresses for a wedding, such as coloured wedding dresses, handpainted dresses, and "best dresses" that can be worn again for many occasions after the wedding.

During an appointment you can choose a bridal dress to be made for you from Anne's collection of made up samples of her dress designs, which can be fine tuned especially for you, or browse photos and sketches of her dress creations so that she can create and sketch a design for some bridal wear for you.  You can view some of her designs on her website as well www.annefontenoy.co.uk https://www.annefontenoy.co.uk

While at a visit Anne can show you swatches of some of the many silk fabrics and laces she orders to make her dress designs from, which she sources from a lot of trade suppliers and weavers.  These fabrics include 100% silks such as dupion, crepe, duchesse and crepe back satin, Mikado and Zibeline, chiffon, tulle and many more.  Plus leavers laces such as Chantilly laces from England, France and Italy; bobbin laces from France, velvet made from cotton or silk and viscose mixture, plus wool fabric, cotton, linen as well as quality synthetics such as Polyester and Nylon and artificial fibres like Acetate and Viscose.

All the dress patterns are hand drafted by Anne and she can make a toile (a mock up) of the dress before finalising the style, fit and fabric of your dress.  If you are having a dress made to fit you then this may take from 2 to 10 fittings depending on the complexity of the dress.  So please do allow from 2 months to a year for your dress to be made depending on the complexity of the style.

If you are looking for embroidery or beadwork to be added to your dress, this is one of Anne's specialities.  You can choose an embroidery design from her portfolio of sketches and made up embroidery designs or she will draw a design especially for a hand embroidered dress for you.

Anne has over 30 years’ experience of designing, making patterns and hand sewing bridal wear, evening gowns and ladies’ day dresses, so she is quite happy to talk you through designs and fabrics while choosing your dress.

Prices range from around £800 to £5,000 but each dress is priced individually depending on the style and the fabric.  Anne will prepare preliminary sketches with a written estimate either during an appointment or she will post or e-mail these to you after the initial visit.

There are just a few examples of Anne's designs on Confetti.co.uk and on her website.  To see the versatility of Anne's design skills, make an appointment to see her and you will be able to see samples of her designs made up in beautiful fabrics.  You will also be able to browse through portfolios of photographs and sketches of her designs.

Open by appointment only. If you reach the answerphone please leave a message and we will call you back as soon as possible. 

Tunbridge Wells is 50 to 55 minutes by train from Charing Cross, Waterloo East and London Charing Cross.  It is easily accessible by road and has bus connections from all over Kent and Sussex.