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D’PLAZZO LAZARE DIAMOND GOWN |
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D’PLAZZO LAZARE DIAMOND GOWN
Lauren Major
Some girls dream for years about their perfect wedding gown, and the recent unveiling of the D’Plazzo Lazare Diamond Gown, sponsored by B.C. Clark Jewelers, will likely plant fantasies of the perfect dress in the minds of many more.
With sparkling diamonds, flowing silk chiffon and a full ballroom skirt, this gown is any girl’s dream. Well, aside from the $100,000 price tag, perhaps.
The dress is made truly exceptional by the 130 diamonds, more than 20 carats in all, stitched onto the bodice.
“It’s a gorgeous dress, and we’re excited to be a part of it,” said Mitchell Clark, executive vice-president and marketing director of B.C. Clark, who provided the diamonds for the gown.
The vision for the diamond gown originated with Debra Sanders, owner of D’Plazzo Couture Designs and president of Edmond Wedding Professionals, who worked to see her idea materialize.
“With this gown, we are wanting to show what D’Plazzo can do that’s out of the box and not the norm for brides,” said Debra Sanders.
This isn’t the first wedding dress to feature diamonds. Most remarkably, in 2006 a Beverly Hills designer unveiled a $12 million gown containing 150 carats of diamonds. There have been very few diamond gowns created, and never one in Oklahoma, according to Sanders.
“ We are the first to do something like this in this part of the country,” Sanders said. “And that part is very fun and exciting.”
The gown is also unique in its practicality. In addition to its more reasonable price, the diamonds can be removed. All 130 diamonds are set in two long strands, which were sewn onto the bodice of the dress. After the wedding, the strands can be used as necklaces.
“I don’t think there has ever been a gown where you can take the diamonds off and wear them,” Sanders said, “In that regard, the gown is one of a kind.”
The idea of creating a wedding gown with diamonds was originally conceived this past March by Sanders. Since opening her Edmond design studio in 2005, she and her designer, Quiquia Calhoun, have been creating couture, or custom-made, wedding gowns.
However, D'Plazzo Lazare Diamond Gown is by far her most ambitious project so far, the concept born out of Sanders’ desire to create something fresh and different. The first step in the materialization of her diamond gown was to meet with Calhoun and ask her if the idea was realistic. Calhoun acts as the designer and seamstress for all D’Plazzo gowns.
“I’ve learned from Quiquia that there is a lot more to it than having a vision. You really have to consider the construction and fabric to know if a design will work,” Sanders said.
Calhoun has been making wedding gowns for over 35 years. A native Oklahoman, she studied couture in France. After turning down an opportunity to do commercial design work in New York, she returned to Oklahoma to pursue a career in custom-made special occasion dresses.
“Studying the different couture artists in Europe really helped me to discover which direction I wanted to take. I knew then that I did not want to do ready-to-wear dresses,” Calhoun said. “And Oklahoma was still home. Going abroad settled me down and made me realize that I would rather be here. I found that I could do one-of-a-kind gowns, like I wanted to do, here in Oklahoma,” Calhoun said.
When Sanders told Calhoun her plan to create a wedding gown with diamonds, Calhoun shared her enthusiasm for the idea, telling her, “If you can get the diamonds, I can make it.”
Although Sanders originally planned to sprinkle loose diamonds throughout the dress, in the early stages of planning she and Calhoun adopted their plan of using diamonds set in a piece of jewelry.
In April, Sanders met with Mitchell Clark to ask B.C. Clark Jewelers to provide the diamonds for the dress.
“We were extremely interested because it’s something we’ve never done or even seen done before,” Clark said. “It was something unique and different that we thought would appeal to a lot of people.”
Clark selected diamonds for the gown from Lazare Kaplan, a diamond cutter established in the early 1900s, who has been working with B.C. Clark for the past 60 years. Lazare Kaplan is renowned for their almost perfect diamond cuts, and was the first to meet ideal cut standards, a mathematical formula of angles and proportions developed to create optimal brilliance.
“They really do the best diamond cuts and make the most beautiful diamonds,” Clark said.
Clark decided to provide two strands of diamonds, set in platinum and of various sizes. B.C. Clark has invested the value of the  diamonds in the project until the dress is sold.
“With the strands, the girl can easily take them off and have them forever,” Calhoun said. “She will never wear her gown again, but she can place these around her neck as necklaces, and the dress becomes more than just that one night. Years later, when her dress is put away in storage, she still has something by which to remember her wedding.”
Using the diamond strands as a starting point and frequently consulting Sanders for input, Calhoun began creating her design for the dress. Her goal was to accent the diamonds but not distract from them, so she chose a simple, elegant Grecian style.
“This gown is really about the diamonds,” Sanders said.
Pleats are a current trend in wedding gowns, and Calhoun decided to use sunburst pleats and a full ballroom skirt. She originally envisioned a strapless dress, but eventually settled on a halter-top. For material, she selected ivory silk chiffon to layer over silk satin, with an accent of platinum French lace on the bodice.
“We wanted to add a hint of color. We’ve done that with all our other dresses, and we feel like that’s our signature,” Calhoun said. “With the lace, we have three different textures: the French lace, the silk chiffon, and the diamonds. They work together really nicely.”
In June, Calhoun began the actual construction of the gown. The creation of this dress was unusual because she typically designs and constructs each gown for a specific bride. This allows the bride to customize her dress, altering one of Calhoun’s previous designs or using an entirely new design.
This custom construction also makes it possible for Calhoun to fit the dress to the bride’s body at every stage of its creation, one of the major advantages for the bride over a ready-to-wear gown. Once a buyer is found for the diamond gown, Calhoun will make the necessary adjustments to the finished dress to fit the bride. In the absence of a bride during the four-month construction process, Sanders called Nikkole Inman, who had purchased her own wedding gown from D’Plazzo, and she agreed to act as the model for the dress.
Following her normal process, Calhoun first made a version of the dress in muslin. She then had a fitting with Inman, which gave her the opportunity to see the style and fit of the design and make major alterations before cutting into the expensive silk. After making adjustments, Calhoun ripped apart the muslin and reconstructed the dress in the selected silk and lace. As with all her dresses, Calhoun used the same silk for the inner lining as she used for the outside, which gives the dress a luxurious feel for the wearer.
Most gowns require three or four fittings before the wedding; seeing the dress on the bride also gives Calhoun the opportunity to tweak the details of the dress. It was during the diamond gown fittings that Sanders and Calhoun were able to decide on the final design of the bodice, sash and placement of the diamonds.
They kept the gown a secret throughout the creation process, and finished the dress in early October. On Oct. 19, 2008, the D’Plazzo Lazare Diamond Gown made its premier and was seen at last by wedding designers and prospective brides at the finale of the “Grand Weddings Skirvin Style” fashion show at the Skirvin Hilton in downtown Oklahoma City.
Depending on its success, Mitchell Clark would like to collaborate with D’Plazzo on more gowns in future. Sanders shares that sentiment, “Hopefully, there will be many more to come.” |
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