From dressing up boxes to designing dresses how a childhood dream became reality

“I have always loved fashion and making things,” she enthuses.

“I was always dressing up when I was a child and had a box filled with Biba and Victorian clothing.

“My aunts were always making things and sewing so I would watch them and was fascinated with it.”

After completing a fashion degree she left to become a freelance pattern cutter for high street brands.

“Then I had my daughter and decided to leave the profession and trained as a teacher,” she explains.

“I mainly taught textiles, a fashion diploma and degree. But when I relocated to Hastings ten years ago I started work in a coffee shop and was making wedding dresses and bespoke pieces in my own time.”

The business started with Tara altering wedding dresses including vintage pieces.

“Still now I do a lot of altering vintage dresses for a more modern look,” she explains.

“I am so used to doing it and they are so well made it is quite easy to do whereas with newer, mass produced dress just fall apart.

“I love items with a vintage feel and I find that many of my brides aren’t traditional.”

Tara adds that when designing she looks for a way for her dressmaking to be more sustainable.

“I don’t make collections for that reason,” she explains. “I sometimes do limited runs but do a lot made to order.”

Tara doesn’t use a lot of lace but loves working with silk, which can be quite difficult and it isn’t sustainable or ethically sourced.

“I am trying to find ethically sourced silk, there is one which is a bamboo crepe which I am looking into but I have done a lot of research into ethical fabrics.”

Creating occasion wear alongside bridal gowns Tara describes her style as Biba (a clothing brand started in the 1960s) with a 30/40s edge.

“I love vintage inspired dresses, I like to think of the 1960s woman raiding her nan’s wardrobe with vintage 1930/40s clothes. People like Marianne Faithfull with a bit of Marlene Dietrich.

“I have always been obsessed with vintage and used to love Esther Williams. I think I was going to be a synchronised swimmer for like two days when I was younger. “

And she likes to create something special for the women that come to her.

“When it comes to the mother of the bride I like to do it a bit more rock and roll than the usual shift dress, jacket and big hat,” she smiles.

“One wedding I did the wedding dress with a bride of Marie Antoinette at Glastonbury, then the mother of the bride had a pillarbox red full length evening gown and then for the nan I did a 1930s tea dress so I did three generations of the same family.

“I like to think of them as heirloom pieces.

“I like to build relationships and people do come back to me again and again.”

Tara also works a lot in costume production, including recently a short film produced by Robson Green where she made two wedding dresses, one for the ceremony and one for an underwater stunt.

“With costume production I sometimes have to turn it around with a weeks notice and know I can make something in three to four days if I need to but with brides I ideally like a year, 18 months but can do it in six months.”

Working in her studio in Hastings by appointment only what Tara does is truly special.

“I want what I do to be unique and bespoke,” she says.

“I see myself as an old fashioned atelier, with a big dressing up box that I want to share with people.”

For more information, visit www.taradeighton.co.uk