Somehow, I don’t remember getting older. It definitely feels like not too long ago that my husband and I were planning our wedding…. or so should I say my mother was. In the 1980’s you pretty much left the work to your mother. So it was for me as well. I was busy building my business and really, things were left for the most part in her hands but that is another story.
My niece Joan, getting married this Saturday, is really the reason I got into children’s wear in the first place. After an injury in dance, my oldest sister started hawking my goods, encouraging me along the way. As a matter of fact, the reason I got into children’s bridal wear some 4 years after starting Pegeen was because at the time I could not find any children’s clothing that I was in love with for my wedding. Hard to believe that 29 years ago, I created my first flower girl dress for my niece Joan, using some antique laces I had accumulated and some gorgeous silk I had in my possession for 10 years for my niece’s flower girl dress. (I also had a cousin in the wedding wearing a ring bearer suit, again from Pegeen). Luckily for me, WWD (Women’s Wear Daily) picked up the wedding and I was off to a great start for our bridal collection. My point too is that it is hard to believe that my flower girl, now a doctor, is getting married. I have had many customers who do call me and say, “Hi Pegeen! When I was little, I was a flower girl and now I need to have you make a flower girl dress for my wedding”, or even stranger to hear, for her daughter. When did I get so old? I don’t feel that way.
Our first Pegeen flower girl dress, 1985
Since that time, Pegeen offers 200 colors and a boat load of styles and includes the new dress we designed for my nephew’s wedding being held next month. Below here is that dress for the children in Daniel’s and Jeanie’s wedding and I must say, times have changed! For example this dress, filled with tons of Swarovski Crystals on the front and back and on the skirt, what is a flower girl dress without tons and tons of tulle, silk and crystals? In the 80’s when I began my first flower girl dress collection, the choice was white or ivory and I was having none of that. Dresses were shorter and God forbid, too fluffy. Now, the bigger the better (well, we still have some fairly conservative, classic styles on our original collection). At Pegeen we still say “Anything but a white dress”.
I will be very proud to see Daniel and Jeanie’s children going down the aisle in our flower girl dress style 904, “Topaz” from the Fairytale Collection! More photos coming!
Toffee Flower Girl Dresses with Swarovski Crystals – Pegeen Fairytale Collection style 904
