F Wilson and Bianca Olivier = Winning Team

Bianca Olivier dreamed about her Matric Farewell Dress for years, just like any other girl does. Bianca is a part-time model and is used to wearing glam gowns frequently. Where do you start shopping or designing, when you are used to wearing designer dresses. Enter -F. Wilson Fashion Design. She asked for our help and showed up, for her consultation, very nervous but excited. Miss Olivier had hundreds of small magazine clippings, of red-carpet-ready-gowns. Johan strongly advised, not to look at any, as so many other girls do exactly the same thing for inspiration. Who wants to have a dress designed with the same design-ideas as another girl at the function?  SHOCK HORROR. I told her we need to make this dress on her and it has to grow with every fitting, into something unique to her - a design that cannot be sketched, as it will continuously change. F. Wilson’s ultimate trademark move.
We gladly accepted the challenge and promised to give our best, when we design and make her gown.

Bianca insisted that it should be a dress that can win competitions and create a stir, inspiring words to say the least.

Bianca's mom bought the lace in India. Honestly, gold and yellow beaded lace was not our idea for a winning design. So here we are again, we just finalised about 88 dresses and gowns in 3 months time, and Bianca (AKA Binxi) wants us to be more creative than ever. She is depending on us to create something unique for her and true to F. Wilson Fashion Design.

What happens to creative minds when they are so tired and so worn out? How do they find the creative flame within? I used to believe that taking your time on a project usually helps and that no time constraints will make it easier. WRONG. Time just makes you think too much and try too hard. What a wake-up call. One week ahead of the big night, Bianca still makes changes, as women usually do. Naturally she saw something that inspired a new idea. Binxi talked us through the changes, hoping we can take the idea further. Do we start to PANIC, with only a week to go? Yes we do.....but Bianca is not to know.

We began to create, under even more pressure. We zoned in and started with the creation process, because nothing else in this world exists. It forces you to be creative. DON’T THINK, JUST DO! You actually start to feel like the painter for the TV show Heroes. It feels like your eyes flip over, so that only the white part shows. You forget everything around you – to create. Drifting away into a state of mind, I cannot describe. One eventually returns to reality, with a creation in front of you. The moment you step back to look at this design, you realise that there is a much Higher Power out there; this Power just gave you a glimpse of what passion is.

We told Binxi to trust us. Boy, did she trust us. We finished the dress in time. HALLO – we will never drop anyone, on such a big night. Her last fitting was the morning of the Matric Farewell. We decided, to sew each frill onto the dress by hand and to fray all the frills, at the last moment. (Why do we always make more work right at the end of a project, because we do it in the name of couture!)The major aspect was to keep it young, torn, textured and bright. I have never seen a so much excitement in one person, after her final fitting.

Binxi competed with her dress, in the Huisgenoot Magazine Matric competition. Readers had to vote for the best dress. From the 10 000 votes, Bianca raked in just over 5000. Wow. We are so proud of our new "Face of F.Wilson".

She was kind enough to invite us along with her on the luxurious cruise she won, to the Portuguese Islands, off the coast of Mozambique. We will be cruising off into the sunset, on the third weekend in April. If all goes according to plan. We will keep in touch about every second we spend on the cruise ship.

Thank you to Bianca and her family for the amazing trust they had in F. Wilson. Thank you to all the readers, fans, friends and family who voted, we appreciate it more than words could describe.

Here is to a prosperous 2011, and loads of no.1 couture gowns.

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