Five Looks, One Weekend

Héloïse Journal: Five Looks, One Weekend. Photo collage with images via Vicky Montanari's Instagram.

QUICK TAKE

The Moment

Vicky Montanari's three-day wedding in Comporta, five looks in one weekend.

The Wardrobe

Dior Cruise 2027 (twice), Miu Miu, Marina Bitú, Farm Rio.

The Constant

Bulgari jewelry, from the welcome party through the last dance.

The Gap

The dresses spoke in five voices, the jewelry spoke in one.

Color Story

Off-white, ivory, beige, ecru.

Why It Matters

Weddings now unfold in chapters, and each one deserves jewelry with a point of view of its own.

For a long time, a bride chose one dress and wore it until the last song. That tradition is fading, and not quietly. Mid-September, on the Alentejo coast, the Lisbon-based creator Vicky Montanari married Miguel Correia over three days in Comporta. There was a welcome party at JNcQUOI’s beach club, a dinner, a ceremony at the Igreja Matriz in Santiago do Cacém, and a reception at a private villa that ran late into the night. Across the weekend, she wore five looks. Each one said something different, and together they read less like a wardrobe than a book in chapters.

The chapters

The welcome. A sand-colored Miu Miu minidress cut with a ’60s line, worn with pale blue jelly sandals. Easy, a little playful, a bride greeting her guests rather than performing for them.

The dinner. A gown by Marina Bitú, its surface covered in hand-applied scales that catch the light like a fish turning in water. This is the look where craft shows up close, the kind of detail you only notice when you’re sitting across the table. This was my absolute favorite!

The ceremony. Dior, from the Cruise 2027 collection: layers of silk organza, embroidered flowers and a long train. The formal chapter, and the one most people picture when they hear the word “bride.”

The reception. A second Dior dress, this time sculptural. White, graphic, with a single blue flower built out in three dimensions from ribbon, thread and beads. Architecture more than romance.

The last dance. A short white Farm Rio dress embroidered with the landmarks of Rio and Lisbon, the two cities in her story, along with the names of loved ones who couldn’t be there. Of the five, it was the most personal garment of the weekend, and my second favorite!

The one thing that didn’t change

Look again at those five chapters and one element holds steady: the jewelry. Bulgari, throughout. It’s beautiful work with a long history, and at the altar it makes complete sense. The ceremony is where tradition belongs, and where most of us want it.

The rest of the weekend is a different story. The welcome party, the dinner, the last dance: those are the chapters where she took her biggest risks with the dresses, and even there, the jewelry stayed the same. The dresses spoke in five voices, but the jewelry spoke in one. Even for a bride who clearly knows who she is, and who stitched her own history into a party dress, jewelry is where tradition kept the final word.

I think about this a lot, because it’s the question I’ve always tried to answer in a different setting. Héloïse was built for women whose days don’t stay in one room: the meeting, then the opening, then dinner. The pieces are meant to move with her, lightweight enough to forget you’re wearing them and considered enough that people ask. A wedding weekend is the same problem at a larger scale. Beach club to chapel to dance floor, over three days, in heat, in photographs from every angle.

On my worktable

This isn’t an abstract question for me right now. Two of my close friends and my cousin are getting married between this December and next June, and it got me thinking about something new: a bridal collection.

And I already started it. I’m making it in off-white, beige and ecru, which is new territory for me since most of the pieces that I handcraft for Héloïse are known for being red or lapis. But working on the prototypes this weekend, I’ve quickly learned that white polymer clay is challenging to work with because it can easily get dirty, but ivory is a little bit more forgiving. I’m also experimenting with some items in ecru, which against beige can feel either warm or flat depending on the texture I give it and the skin tone of whomever will wear these pieces. The details are in the surface, the shadow and the shape, and in keeping every piece lightweight enough for a very long day.

Work-in-progress bridal earrings in off-white and ecru polymer clay on the studio worktable.
Work-in-progress for our Bridal Collection.

The three brides I’m designing for couldn’t be more different, and that’s what makes this so interesting. My friend marrying in December would be the first to reach for that Farm Rio dress: eclectic, a little bohemian, with her story stitched right into the hem. My cousin, in March, is the first Dior: romantic, layered, classic with a few surprises. And my friend in June, who is from Bulgaria, is still a mystery to me. She hasn’t shown me her dress yet, and from everything I’ve heard, it’s out of this world. For her, I’m designing half on instinct and half on faith. What the three of them share is a point of view they won’t leave at the door, and they want their earrings to have one too.

These earrings aren’t meant to replace anything they’ll wear down the aisle. I’m making them for the other chapters: the bridal shower, the welcome party, the rehearsal dinner, the second or third dress when the reception turns into a party. If one of them chooses a pair for her first look, I’d be honored, but mostly I’m hoping they find their way into the moments where a bride gets to play a little.

And if you’re planning a wedding in chapters of your own, with a few looks and a point of view to go with them, I’m making these for you too.

I’ll share the full story of how the collection comes together, and the three women it’s being made for, in the coming weeks. 

Five sophisticated looks over one memorable weekend, and I can’t help thinking the earrings could have been the sixth (or seventh) voice of Vicky’s wedding.

Warmly,

Lynn's web signature.

SHOP THE STORY

The Wave Stud Earrings in white polymer clay.

The Wave Stud Earrings

Two inches of linear texture and organic movement—the closest thing in the shop to what's on my worktable now.

The Duo Mini Stud Minimalistic Earrings.

The Duo Minimalistic Earrings

Quiet enough for the bridal shower, considered enough to be noticed.

Work-in-progress bridal earrings in off-white and ecru polymer clay on the studio worktable.

The Bridal Collection — in the studio

Join The Héloïse Edit to see it first.

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