It’s all about The Dress

BY KAREN BROCKMAN
 
If you live in Norfolk and have a daughter who is getting married, you will be thinking about “The Dress”.
 

Katrine Mogensen

 
There are shops selling wedding dresses off the peg in Norwich, London and elsewhere and it is probably unfair to picture “meringues”, yet imagine going in to a lovely old building, up the stairs to a warm studio, where a sympathetic designer will make a dress to your requirements.
 
This actually happens in the centre of Reepham, at Ivy House, where the solicitors used to be: Katrine Mogensen is currently busy with six wedding dresses to finish before June.
 
Katrine grew up in Denmark, studied at Central St Martin’s College in London, graduated with honours in 1996 and has been designing wedding dresses ever since.
 
With the help of a grant from the Prince’s Youth Trust she went into partnership with a like-minded friend. They sold their dresses through London stores, including Harrods, and the following year Horton-Mogensen won The New Designer of the Year award through Brides & Setting up Home magazine.
 
In 1997, Katrine married Ian Boldero and moved to Reepham. Two years later, she opened her own shop – Katrine Mogensen Bridal Couture.
 
For many years, her shop window was in Norfolk Country Cottages’ building in Melton House and anyone who walked through the Market Place must have admired the elegant dresses with their classic lines, trimmed with fabric rosebuds at the waist, centre back.
 
Katrine has a website, designed by Josie Johnson, and increasingly clients search “made to measure wedding dress”, for example, and look at the dresses photographed so beautifully.
 
Word of mouth still brings most of Katrine’s business. Bridesmaids often become brides and seek her out. Some clients use Pinterest to show her the ideas they have for their own dress, the kind of things they like.
 
Lace is especially popular since the wedding of Catherine Middleton and Prince William. Katrine sources her silks and lace in London and Nottingham, using the contacts she has made, sometimes incorporating old lace from the client.
 
Do you have to be young and slim to wear a dress like these? No, you can add lace sleeves, raise the hem to calf length, whatever suits you. Older clients tend to know what they like, she notes.
 
Every dress is different. The clients inspire Katrine and she often learns something new, enjoying the personal contact, which contrasts with how she had to do business in London.
 
Her former business partner and friend, now living in France, is available by telephone to bounce ideas off, solving one of the problems faced by those who work on their own in rural locations.
 
Katrine’s husband, Ian, also works in Ivy House in his chartered accountancy business, and there is a florist, Angelica, which offers wedding flowers.
 
Small businesses in Reepham bring in people who then may use several others. It is remarkable how many businesses operate from Reepham. The photographs on Katrine’s website include those taken by Ian Aitken.
 
Katrine goes back to Denmark twice a year to visit family and friends. Weddings there tend to be smaller than in the UK and hats are rarely worn, she says. But the Danes are great at parties, often making up songs about the bride and groom, and everyone singing.
 
Denmark, with a population of only 5.5 million people, has been widely seen lately in its TV series, Borgen and The Killing, which Katrine enjoyed very much.
 
Katrine Mogensen Bridal Couture
Tel: 01603 872790
www.katrinemogensen.com

Katrine Mogensen’s studio in Ivy House, Market Place, Reepham

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