Singaporebrides | Fashion

January 2017

Meet the Artist: Amanda of Amanda Lee Weddings

By Tansey Tang

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Get up close and personal with designer Amanda of the eponymous Amanda Lee Weddings boutique, and read a review by a real Amanda Lee Weddings bride.

Nestled on Niven Road is a special haven for brides. Steeped in colonial charm, the Amanda Lee Weddings boutique is a serene, minimalist space accented with elegant chandeliers and plush furnishings. Natural daylight streams in through intricately carved wooden windows, and vintage pieces ornament the raw, industrial walls, hinting at designer Amanda Lee’s signature aesthetic of clean, classic lines and unexpected textures and detailing. Warm and welcoming, the boutique invites you to step in and embrace the delightful journey of being a bride, joining the hundreds of other brides who have gratefully and gracefully walked into a new chapter of their lives in a beautiful Amanda Lee Weddings creation.

Inspired by the bold strokes of modern art or the promise of beauty held by a budding flower, Amanda’s wedding gown collections are the work of an artist. Her artist’s eye finds unexpected beauty wherever she goes, which translates into beautiful and unique details in her work.

“Often, the textures and shapes of a painting or sculpture can inspire the detailing of a gown; the colours of a painting can also be an inspiration for a collection,” Amanda shares. “I was once inspired by a piece of crystal glassware when designing embroidery appliqué, and the particular design was well received by brides around the world.”

Artful, expressive, and meticulously detailed as a designer, Amanda also has a penchant for unexpected contrasts that make a strong fashion statement. Her work features clean, elegant lines softened with luxuriously textured fabrics, or tiny, delicate floral details on sharply structured corsets. Often in playful colour pairings, her gowns offer a glimpse into a whimsical nature, while the timeless elegance of the silhouettes speak of Amanda’s innate understanding of balance and proportion.

For 15 years, Amanda has been crafting gowns with one purpose in mind—to make you look and feel beautiful as you walk down the aisle to your love. “I am a believer of wearable gowns which are classic and timeless,” Amanda tells us. “However, I do not want my brides to look boring, or like they were cut all from the same cookie cutter. I often work on detailing, and still persist in adorning every single piece individually, hopefully with a touch of their persona.” Thoughtfully and artfully created, Amanda’s bespoke wedding dresses are precisely fitted so that your bridal look is completely your own.

That personal touch is what brought bride Qiuyun to Amanda for a custom wedding dress, ending a long and arduous search for the perfect wedding gown. “Before I settled on Amanda Lee Weddings, I must’ve gone to 10 different bridal stores and tried on more than 30 gowns,” she exclaims. “I couldn’t find anything off the rack that I fancied entirely.”

When Qiuyun described the different design elements she liked about the dresses she had tried on, she wasn’t sure if they could all be combined into one gown. “Amanda understood I was going for something that was elegant and classy that would be easy to walk around in, yet also bold and dramatic during the cathedral walk-in,” Qiuyun remembers. “On the spot, she sketched up a design that seemed like it would potentially combine everything I wanted. That got me really excited because I felt she understood what I was looking for.”

The finished dress exceeded Qiuyun’s expectations. “I had tried on so many gowns before going to Amanda Lee Weddings, but each one of them had something missing,” she says. “In the end, my bespoke gown fitted me exactly, and yet I was still able to move around with a lot of ease. I had a dramatic double train and cathedral length veil to complement the mermaid silhouette for the processional, and then detached the train and veil after the solemnisation to move around more easily. That is the beauty of a bespoke gown by a talented designer—you could get something that ends up being perfect for you.”

She wasn’t the only one ecstatic about her wedding dress. “A lot of family and friends came up to me to give extra compliments on the dress, because they’d never seen a similar gown before,” Qiuyun says, remembering that she felt very confident in her wedding gown. Best of all, her groom was stunned when he first saw her.

A radiant and confident bride walking towards her true love, and his expression when he first sees her in her beautiful wedding dress, that’s what continually inspires Amanda and her creative team in their craft. Amanda loves every bit of the creative process, although she’s kept very busy designing and working on gowns most of the time. “If I ever have some free time, I would brush up on my painting skills, explore new embroidery techniques, or just simply linger in a nice cafe for a cuppa,” Amanda laughs. Find out what else she loves to do in the questionnaire we got her to fill out!

Amanda Lee Weddings is located at 46 Niven Road, Singapore 228394. Meet Amanda in person by contacting her and her team at +65 6333 6678 or [email protected] for an appointment.

Credits: Images of Amanda courtesy of Amanda Lee Weddings. Images of Qiuyun from Qiuyun and Will’s Whimsical and Timeless Wedding at Chijmes Hall Singapore by AndroidsinBoots.

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