Moira Hughes Couture | Melange de Blanc Bridal Market Week Series
Raised in London by Irish parents, Moira designed for brides around the world and eventually settled in Sydney, Australia to open her flagship boutique. Moira quickly built a name for designing 'Australia's most romantic wedding gowns.' They are known for being incredibly light and comfortable. Often made with the Australian summer and international travel in mind.
Ever dreamt of the perfect bridal gown sketched in your school books? Ever wondered what it takes to transform those dreams into a global couture bridal brand? Meet our guest, Moira Hughes, who will take you on her journey from such dreams to reality. Moira, a world-renowned bridal designer, shares her fascinating journey and how she filled a gap in the Australian bridal market with her elegant and sophisticated designs. Hear her share her inspiration behind her collections, and get a sneak peek into her latest transformable pieces that have been wowing brides for their versatility.
Moira made her mark in the industry with her innovative approach to bridal fashion and her groundbreaking work with Melange Blanc and Coded Agency. She will share her experiences from creating a collection for London Fashion Week to meeting the changing demands in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Speaker 1: 0:10
Hello and welcome to this versus that making wedding decisions with Kelly McWilliams. This podcast is for you if you're making a wedding decision and want to know what to consider before saying I do to all the things that will make your wedding experience a great one. I'm your host, Kelly McWilliams, and I'm so glad to be a part of your wedding planning journey. In each episode, you can count on me and my expert wedding co-hosts to give you everything it takes to make the best decisions for the wedding that you're dreaming of. Hi, I'm back. Episode two. I hope you loved episode one from New York Bridal Market 2023. We're still here at Melange de Blanc in the coded PR recording studio. I decided that's what we're going to call it here. This interview is with Moira Hughes, who I was so excited to meet and sit with. I find this interview so intriguing. Just as a reminder, there are hundreds of people walking by and I think it's just it's. The vibe is just spectacular here. Enjoy this interview with Moira Hughes. Well, I'm so glad that you're here and and so here's. The thing is that I went to the look at your website Just a little while ago and that hero image in the beginning of the dress with the beads, the pearls on the back, I mean, well, there's you, two of them, there's the one that has like their. They're like hanging.
Speaker 2: 1:42
Yeah, that's how.
Speaker 1: 1:43
Yes, love that. And then I saw another one that was like tons of pearls down the back. This I bet you never like best, I feel like that's your dress.
Speaker 2: 1:52
Okay, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: 1:53
Yeah, I don't know if I'll have another one the one that was 25 years ago but I would if I was going to do it. That's where I would be leaning a hundred percent.
Speaker 2: 2:04
Oh you sure about renewals?
Speaker 1: 2:06
Yes, I should do that. We should have it this year actually, or last year at the 25th anniversary, but you know. I guess, yeah, you're right, you're right, so okay. So I'm very excited to talk to you about your dresses, but I definitely want to know more about your brand and your story and like how it all came to be, so our audience can like it to you and then we'll talk about the dresses, because after they get to know you, I wish I could see your outfit Afterwards. Guys, when you see us, we're both like full-on flowers Look at all these two girly girls and we brought the flowers.
Speaker 2: 2:44
We are cut from the same point, I feel.
Speaker 1: 2:46
Okay, so tell me about your brand and how it all came to be, how you got into fashion, and bridal fashion at that.
Speaker 2: 2:54
Well, my brand is Moira Hughes Bridal, as just one of those people is always what I wanted to do it was absolutely like my mum moved house recently and in all the margins in my school books with little sketches of wedding dresses. I started right from the beginning I was a junior as a Saturday girl in a wedding dress shop. I was an assistant for designers in London and Ireland. I went to fashion school in London then, so everything was aimed towards being a bridal designer.
Speaker 1: 3:25
I just loved it. Yeah, I've managed to work.
Speaker 2: 3:28
I worked with some pretty incredible designers for years and years and years. And then I met my husband and moved to Australia and worked for a few designers there. I felt there was just a really big space in Australia from all my experience in Europe and bought a whole new type of fabric and carton, a way of doing things that are an elegance, and just a space in bridal that wasn't being filled, so filled a spot that was Absolutely. It's been such a dream. We're so busy, we have like after 10 years now we're attracting our right kind of ride, right type of clients, how it really appreciates what we do. So we spent a lot of time on the fit and the fabric and that really shines through.
Speaker 1: 4:13
Really Okay. So what is like, what leads you into your when you're creating your collections over your. Is it the fabric or do you like? Are you just inspired by? Like you go to museums or you were out or you see people and you see them how they're dressed Like what brings the inspiration to you when you do sketch? Absolutely yeah.
Speaker 2: 4:36
It starts so wide and it's really hard to narrate in. Everyone says, oh, how do you come up with 12 designs, but I could come up with 100, it's choosing the 12 is really hard and from a variety, exactly like you said. I might find a fabric and think, oh, that would be so beautiful in this way. Or sometimes I'm the bride and we're coming up with a design and I can have my own spin on it and think, oh, this is. You know, you just get that fire and you're really excited about that design. It can come from the fit of another dress and I think, oh, if we did this and added that we'll change this, it would be perfect. So sometimes the design develops slightly.
Speaker 1: 5:14
Do you mean, like you'll have one from a few seasons back, that you look at it again and be like you know what? You know what if we had done this? Is that what you?
Speaker 2: 5:23
mean yeah, that could be a now bride like oh, then, they were asking for this. But one real piece in my new collection is transformable pieces. Our clients really want something to go from day to night, or whether they can re-wear an aspect of their gown on their wedding anniversary. So a full skirt that can be removed or a strap that can come off and be changed or something that can look very elegant for the ceremony but then be really fun for the evening.
Speaker 1: 5:53
That's what people are really loving at the moment and I've seen a little bit of that here at Melange de Blanc, where there were like a lot of like sleeves that could come off and things like that. You also I noticed when I was going through your website you also do veils as well. Yeah, do your veils like are they when you create those? Are they created to match specific dresses or you just love veils separately?
Speaker 2: 6:23
Yeah, the veils are mostly separate. I don't like things being too matchy-matchy. I like to design the elements and then let Brides put them together to really represent their own personality on the day, rather than it being too uniform. Yeah, so we have, yeah, a rule for Icy. Obviously there's an influence through the collection like my new collection is Alchemy. So, like you very cleverly recognized, is those pearl elements. The spark was a bit more texture, so that's definitely represented across in the veils too. But it's not necessarily this stress goes with this veil. Sometimes you can have quite a sleek classic gown and the veil is the Brides time to have real fashion element, knowing that they can have the more refined look later. One of the most popular pieces at the moment is a whole cape and it has those ruffles all over it and it's been so popular it's really drawn the eye of everyone from across the world. You know we have been Bride from or clients from all around the world visiting us. Like I've seen this cape online, I want to know more from Sydney.
Speaker 1: 7:31
Oh my gosh. And do they come to Sydney to get them, or no?
Speaker 2: 7:35
Yeah, sometimes they're calling us from Sydney, but for Bridal Market it's shops from all around the world and then saying our clients are asking for this. How can we get it from you? Do you get so excited?
Speaker 1: 7:45
when that happens. Oh, I can't believe it.
Speaker 2: 7:47
You know it's so funny. They're showing me photos on Instagram and different past clients that we've worked with and like that. This is what our clients are looking at. This is what they're asking for, and they found us from literally today all across America, dubai.
Speaker 1: 8:02
Oh my gosh, globally, yeah, every country To think that the star of Purdue is a little girl. Yeah, I mean, do you ever sit back and think about that Like I was seven?
Speaker 2: 8:15
No, I know, sometimes you stop and you think gosh, it's been a long journey, but I know I should find one of those designs in the margins and make it a reality.
Speaker 1: 8:23
Oh, my gosh, can you imagine? I mean, you never know. You never know. I mean, obviously the talent is right there. So tell me a little bit about the process of how your lines come together. Is it that you like you go on vacation and then you come back and you're very fresh and you're like, ok, I'm going to do, you know, try to do 12 dresses? And you said you probably are curating down at that point. But so what's the process? That you come back and you sketch first, or you go, like, sit in the room with fabrics and then you make patterns?
Speaker 2: 8:58
Mostly sketches. I mostly start from sketches. That might be just ideas or elements and then bring them together. Then I'm always at fabric meetings and looking at new things, so sometimes one of those will jump out and it'll work really well in sketch already have, or sometimes that might trigger something?
Speaker 1: 9:16
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2: 9:18
And you create it together. So usually then we'd lay them all out, all my sketches out, and then see which ones are kind of standing out the most, which ones complement each other, obviously what clients and brides are asking for and what we feel can elevate for the next year and offer our brides the most.
Speaker 1: 9:37
When you say that, when things that they're asking for, do you mean that when they come in, they're asking for changes to dresses that they already have and that inspires you for the next line, or that you're seeing a trend there?
Speaker 2: 9:55
Yeah, there are trends a lot of the time. They say, for example, sleeves. I'll say look, I want a sliver. I kind of want to cut my arm, but I don't want it to be too hot. So they give you direction of what they want, but not necessarily what that looks like. So for us it might be. That sleeve is made of silk chiffon, so it's billowy and it's really light and it's kind of translucent, so it's not too solid and maybe it's also removable so they can have it for the ceremony, take it off in the evening or if they're feeling, and they're feeling confident and they don't mind their arm showing, they can slip it off. But if they want to keep it on all night, they can too. So I think, filling that space and giving them design options and being innovative in something that they don't even know what they want, they have the idea and you give them something better than they thought.
Speaker 1: 10:42
Do you think that or not? Think when you were in school and they were teaching you up when you went to school, where did you go and like were you tuned into bridal fair at school? Do they have like a lane for that?
Speaker 2: 10:59
Or I'm very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very very.
Speaker 1: 11:02
So I mean, you dress, I was going there and they're like how am I going to do bridal? And they have like set classes for that. No, that was just me, just me.
Speaker 2: 11:10
So a lot of people want to work in fashion. So they'll set you projects and they'll say you need to design with this kind of criteria in mind. And I just used all like silk, some fabrics that you would use in bridal. I would just use those elements so I could learn how they work, what's possible, what's not, and then you have that real base knowledge of patterns and what you learn, the rules before you break them Right. So that was the base knowledge and that worked really well. My final collection was all of that. Ironically enough, it was bought by a fashion label and ended up in a fashion line. My final collection was actually at London Fashion Week, which was amazing. From school From school, I mean then they couldn't use all the silk, so they refined it and made it a bit more every day, but that was great to walk down Oxford Street in London and see my designs on someone walking in the street was amazing.
Speaker 1: 12:03
OK, I was going to say like that's like coming to New York City and seeing your name on the billboard.
Speaker 2: 12:09
It was as a fashion student.
Speaker 1: 12:11
Yeah.
Speaker 2: 12:12
It was brilliant, yeah, but it also reaffirmed me that I loved. I loved bridal. I learned if you were putting that much of your heart and soul into something, make it for someone who's going to remember it forever, not someone who might put it on one day, might sit in their wardrobe or, by the time it was dialed down and sent overseas and made so they could get the most out of the fabric, it wasn't as special anymore, when what we do, we make what we really love and then work backwards from there.
Speaker 1: 12:47
One of the things that I loved so much when I was looking through all of your work online was that you it wasn't just the dresses. I loved that you had the veils. To me, it just showed that you encapsulate all of that. The whole look means something to you. It's fashion forward, I would say, but also timeless, really, really timeless. So beautiful, beautiful work, and so the alchemy that would be available to brides early next year is that when they start seeing it, it's just launch now.
Speaker 2: 13:26
So brides getting married in about a year's time they'll start seeing in shops now and boutiques hopefully around the world after bridal market. That's so exciting. It's so exciting. Is it your first time here?
Speaker 1: 13:39
It's my third time here, your third time here. Post photos, post photos, post photos.
Speaker 2: 13:44
So first time in a little while and had a family in between. So we're here. We've worked on a lot and we're really ready to take it all on this year.
Speaker 1: 13:54
That's so great and I wasn't obviously none of us were here during COVID all those years that we had to skip it. But it's just what it's developed into at Melange de Blanc and Coded Agency, what they brought in To me. It is so much better. It's just so much more available, but I feel like there's just a different vibe, there's a different feeling here. Now it's amazing and wonderful and everyone's here so excited about their lines and everything that they've brought.
Speaker 2: 14:27
Yeah, there's a new level of being grateful, I think.
Speaker 1: 14:29
I think you're right. You see, when it's taken away, what it can be.
Speaker 2: 14:34
And same for Brides. They're really excited to get married there, Excited to be able to dance and have everyone they love there and to have their own personality. I think that's really been. The thing is that Brides want their own personality on the day. They don't want something generic or something like everyone else has already.
Speaker 1: 14:49
Do you? I didn't look that far, but do you have dresses other than?
Speaker 2: 14:53
wedding day. We have an earrings range, we have jewelry. Oh, okay, again, come from a place where Brides just weren't finding what they wanted. So we developed it and it's been. We sell out all the time, you sell out All the time, and we have a few day after or a day before looks again from, I see, for our destination of Brides or Brides that have a night before the wedding and a day after exactly, so we have those elements and we have done Brides Maids a lot in the past. But you know, really we focus on Brides, yeah, and we also have the wedding dress.
Speaker 1: 15:28
That's nice, though, that you do have the pre and post event dresses as well because then you can have that continuous influence and then you can see the thread in all of it, you know, from starting to finish, throughout their weekends.
Speaker 2: 15:43
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1: 15:45
Moira, thank you so much for coming and talking to me today. I'm so excited for everyone to go see, especially the dresses that I like in the picture.
Speaker 2: 15:54
What's the site?
moirahughes.com.au/
Speaker 1: 15:56
Which, right when you go to the website, you're going to see and you're going to be like, oh yeah, so, kelly. Thank you so much. Appreciate it, Kelly, thank you. Peace, absolutely. I'm so glad to be able to share my wedding experiences and expertise with you and that my co-hosts are so giving it theirs. We truly do want you to have the best time at your wedding, and our hope is that this podcast is helping you to make your engagement time while planning your wedding that much easier. May I ask a favor of you? If this is the case, would you just take a moment to leave a review of this podcast on your listening platform? It helps people just like you to find the podcast and to also find out their answers so they can make decisions. I would also absolutely love for you to give this versus that podcast a shout out on your social media. You can find us at this versus that wedding podcast on Instagram and if you would like me to help you with a specific question a wedding decision please by all means ask. Send me a DM. I would love to hear from you and maybe, just maybe, even have you as a wedding cast on a future episode. How fun, we'll see you soon at another great wedding.
