Brides-to-be could soon be saying yes to a locally-designed dress with Canberra designer Naomi Hogie launching her first bridal collection.
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It's not the first foray into bridal couture for Hogie, who launched custom bridal gown label The Perfect Gown in 2009.
"I had all these friends getting married, and they were saying 'why are wedding gowns so expensive?' So I decided to design custom wedding gowns one-on-one for brides that were affordable," she said.
Seeing a trend in what the brides were asking for, Hogie took it one step further and has released her own ready-to-wear collection under her brand Naomi Peris Bridal.
The collection includes 15 designs – quite a large number for a debut collection which usually keeps under 10 designs – and takes inspiration from Europe.
"I love that kind of style – travelling through Europe going to France and Italy and Greece and places like that," she said.
"I tried to pick elements of those places that I love and the styles of fashion around those areas and developed it into a collection."
Hogie said the days of women channelling The Princess Bride are becoming a thing of the past, and the modern bride wants to wear something with a unique edge that reflects fashion trends.
Instead the gowns have a "modern and sexy" design, using fabrics and lace sought from all over the globe. The dresses are all designed in Canberra, and handmade in Shanghai.
And Hogie should know exactly what a bride to be wants – she is engaged herself, but says when the day comes to choose her own wedding gown, she doesn't know what she'll do.
"To be honest, when the time comes, it would be something from my collection at that time but I probably wouldn't be able to narrow it down to one," she said.
"I'd probably have two or three and change. Because I can't decide – there's just so many styles and I love all of them."
Hogie plans to stock the Naomi Peris Bridal collection in boutiques Australia-wide.
