Word: dressing
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Like millions of other brides, Amsale Aberra wanted to find the perfect wedding dress. Her preference was something simple yet sophisticated, but that wasn't so easy to come by in 1985, when the billowing ball-gown style made famous by Princess Diana was still the rage. "I looked through all those wedding magazines, and at that time you could not possibly find something simple," she recalls. So Aberra, an assistant designer at a sportswear label, made her own dress. It had clean lines, a simple chiffon skirt and illusion sleeves...
...tons of calls" from other brides in search of a more elegant look and to the start of what would become a $20 million bridal-gown business. Aberra's trademark remains fashion-forward simplicity. And when the producers of ABC's Grey's Anatomy were looking for a wedding dress for Sandra Oh's no-nonsense character, Cristina, to wear on the season finale of the hit medical show, they chose a $6,600 strapless mermaid style by Aberra...
...current trend for tastefully revealing bridal gowns. As a fashion-conscious sensibility infiltrates so many design categories, even the traditional wedding-gown market is getting trendy. "I had no idea brides were so ready to bare it," says Aberra, pointing to another of her recent hits, the Reese dress, a silk faille design with a completely bare back and plunging neckline...
Aberra still claims she learned everything about the wedding-gown business from working one on one with brides. "It's the emotional aspect of the dress," she says. "I get the bridezilla thing. I know why they are so stressed out." That's also how she refined her aesthetic, often defying buyers' demands and listening to brides instead...
When buyers insisted in 1987 that brides needed sleeves, Aberra stuck to her vision and created a sleeveless organza design that remains a best seller. In 2003, when bridal buyers were resisting color, she created a dress with a pale blue sash that was that year's most popular style. This season Aberra is banking on the "destination" dress, an airy tulle princess-line gown designed for brides who want to get married on a beach...