There are some that believe that it is never to early to being preparing for your very special day. Some young girls start planning their wedding day when they are just little teenagers. But conventional thought says a bride should actually purchase her bridal gown approximately one year in advance. This gives the bridal shop time to take the measurements, order from the fashion designer and have it arrive in plenty of time for any potential alterations or tweaking. This is especially important if you are having a custom design produced.

I have heard on several occasions a custom saying they are ordering a custom gown when in fact they are simply submitting a made to measure order. It is not widely understood that having a dress from a designers collection made to order is not a "custom" garment. To most designers a "custom" garment means a totally custom design. This is where you have the design company (or bridal salon) sketch several brand new designer wedding dresses just for you based on your needs and wants. Then you pick from those sketches the one you like the most. If this is the route you are going it is extremely important to leave a year between your order time and your wear date. Since this is a new design that has never been seen you may want to just leave room for any potential error or time for corrections if ever necessary.

Because of this reason most brides today opt to have a dress from the collection made in a size close to them instead of ordering custom designs. This way they have seen the design in person and do not have to wonder if it will turn out ok or look like the sketch. Since the designers team has already produce that design many times it will also not take them as long to get it to the bridal salon for you to try on. In this case I would suggest for the client to leave at least 6 months prior to your wedding for the production of your made to measure garment.

So when you are looking at designer wedding dresses and thinking that you do not want to buy to soon or too late just keep this in mind. If it is a custom or customized bridal gown allow at least one year. If you are buying a design from a collection that will be made to measure it would be wise to purchase 6 months prior to the wedding. And if you are not planning a huge wedding or if the wedding gown will not play a factor in any other part of the wedding planning then the latest you should order off the rack is around 3 months prior to the event. Ordering designer wedding gowns earlier will almost always alleviate some stress and allow you to plan other parts of your special occasion with a bit more ease and relaxation.

The team at Darius Cordell Couture has produced couture bridal dresses since 1996. For more information about our collection please visit our main site at www.DariusCordell.com

People think Capitol Hill is filled with boring black suits and bad fashion sense. But there's more--here are some awesomely bad fashion trends in politics.



Politicans in Cowboy Hats This fourth of July President Obama had Independence Day on the mind and on the head. Obama tried on an awesomely bad American flag-patterned cowboy hat on the South Lawn of the White House. President isn't the only politican sporting cowboy hats these days, Fla. Rep. Frederica Wilson wore a flamboyant, hot pink cowboy hat while speaking about the Trayvon Martin shooting. Politicans including Herman Cain and Rick Perry have also been known to sport the western-style head wear.

Seersucker Suits With the summer season upon us, it is only appropriate to don a seersucker suit to work on Capitol Hill. Former Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi proposed "Seersucker Thursday" to his colleagues in the late '90s. The former senator told an ABC Reporter that "the tradition came about by accident" when "one day I wore a seersucker suit and everyone in the office harassed me about it." That's all it took for the former majority leader to create this new tradition on Capitol Hill. "I figured it was a way to develop camaraderie and a sense of bipartisanship in the Senate," Lott continues. "If you can't be bipartisan about seersucker, what can you be bipartisan about?"

The traditionally light blue (other colors pop up, too) and white striped all-cotton fabric suit is intended to combat the brutal D.C. humidity. It's worn on the Hill on the first official day of summer which is also the day that Republican leaders hold an ice cream social in their office.

Lott has kept the seersucker sentiment alive in his office at Patton Boggs, a public policy and lobbying firm. "We still celebrate seersucker Thursday in my office," Lott confessed. "Over 40 men and women dressed in seersucker outfits, all the interns in the firm even caught onto the trend." When asked if this tradition should be kept alive on Capitol Hill, he replied, "Of course, it should be kept alive so people can laugh at each other!"

Cowboys in Congress If you thought there were no cowboys in Washington, think again! Legislators love sporting their leather, block-heeled cowboy boots around the Capitol. Congressman Jim Matheson, D-Utah, said he has worn them since he was a young man. "As a member of Congress it's fun wearing cowboy boots on Capitol Hill. A bipartisan group of folks from the West wear them," Matheson says. "It's a way to establish a sort of camaraderie and regional distinction and I think that's fun."

When asked if the boots match his suit, the Congressman replied, "Well, I sure think they do. I usually wear Lizards or Kangaroo's and those are great boots, I think they look really nice. I don't wear old scuffed-up boots at work like the ones I wear while riding my horse."

Matheson claims that close to 15 or 20 members of congress sport the sturdy boot on Capitol Hill but they are not the only ones. Cowboy boots have even been in fashion for former Presidents Reagan, Clinton, and the Bushes.

Pins are In Pins have undoubtedly become a Congressional fashion statement. Whether it's your standard American flag pin sported by President Obama or an "Article 1" pin worn by Rep. John Yarmuth of Kentucky (as well as 40 other members of Congress) to remind people of Article 1 in the U.S. Constitution, this sticky trend has been making a statement in American politics for decades.

A spokesperson for Congressman Yarmuth told ABC News that the pin was created in 2007 but he traded the "Article 1" pin in for his Congressional pin. The spokesperson said, "He stopped wearing the pin when the new administration came in because he believed that this administration would ensure a new outlook and positive change in Congress; however, now he does not feel that there is any sense of bipartisanship."

Pins have become such a huge fad in Congress because they are an easy accessory that serves as a daily reminder of a message or idea that should be represented in Congress. Plus, it doesn't hurt they give flare to an otherwise bland suit. Men are not the only ones to take part in the pin trend; even the first ladies get in on the action to spice up their wardrobes. Michelle Obama often sports a brooch around her neckline.

The Monochromatic Suit Washington is not known for its fashion sense and it seems as if some powerful ladies aren't doing much to rid their city of that stigma. Monochromatic suits in a rainbow of colors seem to be a favorite of women on the Hill.

Hillary Clinton has been seen sporting mono-toned, red, gold, and blue suits. She is not the only one "power dressing" in single-hued ensembles, Nancy Pelosi and Sarah Palin have also joined in on the action, though Palin is no Washington devotee.

Man's Best Accessory Politicians, like everyone else, look to their furry friends for support and friendship at home but some legislators want to bring their pets to work too. Dogs have become a staple accessory of American politicians.

Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., brings his two pups, "Monique" and "Tink" to the Hill often. Sensenbrenner reminisces about a funny pooch incident with an ABC reporter explaining, "One time one of my dogs escaped and the chairman of my committee found the dog drinking out of his toilet, so he was walking down the hallway saying 'who's dog is this, who's dog is this?'" Sensenbrenner laughed, recalling the episode. "I picked him up and said 'Mr. Chairman this is my dog and he loves you just as much as he loves me'."

Other legislators such as Sen. Scott Brown and N.Y. Rep. Michael Grimm are also known to strut their stuff down congressional halls with man's best friend by their side.

Anthony Vaccarello Talks Karl Lagerfeld, Karlie Kloss, and Why His Dresses Don’t Need Double-Sided Tape

Anthony Vaccarello, with the help of his muses, has given the fashion industry major whiplash with his head-turning, slit-up-to-there dresses. The 32-year-old Belgian-born designer (with Italian parents, if you're wondering about his last name) graduated from La Cambre in 2006 and was quickly scooped up by Karl Lagerfeld to work on furs at Fendi. Two years later, Vaccarello went out on his own, presenting a capsule collection of miniskirts in the windows of the Maria Luisa boutique in Paris, which led to a photo shoot with Lou Doillon for winter 2010 and a full-scale runway show for spring 2011. Last year, he took home the Association Nationale pour le Développement des Arts de la Mode fashion prize, or the ANDAM — Europe's version of the CFDA Awards. Now he's moved both his atelier and apartment into the same building (albeit on two different floors) in Paris's Marais neighborhood, explaining, "For me, work and life is together. You cannot separate it properly, especially now. Maybe in the future, I can separate it, but now, work is really part of me." We phoned Vaccarello earlier this week to discuss one of his early, porn-star-inspired collections, his friendship with Karlie Kloss, and how he avoids any wardrobe malfunctions with those dramatic, high-cut slits.

To start, what you were like as a child, and how did you know you wanted to go into fashion design?
I always liked to draw and liked fashion and liked to be surrounded by women, but I didn’t know that it would exactly lead to a job, because for me it was more like a dream than something you can do. It was more like, you could have a real job and then make some dresses [on the side]. But then I realized it could be a job, and in 2000, I began to study at La Cambre in Brussels … I’ve always liked Ann Demeulemeester, or Gianni Versace. [My designs are] always a mix between something very structured and very dark, very controlled, like Demeulemeester, and something more sexy, more easy, more fresh, like Gianni in the early nineties.

Your first major collection after college, which you presented at France's Hyères Festival, was inspired by the porn star La Cicciolina. Why does sexiness or sex appeal speak to you?
La Cicciolina, for that collection, it was not about the sexy side of her, but of course there's the whole image surrounding her. Even now, when I design, I’m not trying to find the urge to make a sexy dress or something. With La Cicciolina, for example, I imagined her reaching to her boyfriend, and it's all about her hair growing into the clothes, so that's the main inspiration of that collection, but it’s not about her sexual appeal or something like that. It was more about her hair, and the time that goes by, and all that kind of stuff, which is more Belgian than Italian, I guess. [Laughs.]

From there, you went on to design furs at Fendi. What was that like?
It was great because it was my first job. I just finished school — I didn’t have to apply for a job, they just called me when I finished, and it was great going to Italy, to Rome, working with Karl [Lagefeld] for two years ... He came to the studio and we talked together, thought about ideas for fur — not every day, but sometimes. It was very strange talking to him and working with him, because you just grow [up] thinking about him and then you see him, and you're talking to someone very famous, and you just can't think about that and move on. It’s kind of strange, but it's funny at the same time.

Then you left to start your own line. How does your design process work? Where do you get your ideas?
I always try to imagine the woman that I want to dress. I try to ask myself, What does she want to wear? Where can she wear it? So the main process is making a story about her, and then I do some draping, and I love to work with my hand on the mannequins on the bust with fabrics and find some lines, find some way with the fabrics. And then when I’ve got the idea, I can design pieces. But I never design first. I prefer to work directly on the body before developing pieces.

Who is the woman you want to dress?
I design for a strong woman, that’s very confident of herself. I design for friends, like Lou Doillon … It's a woman that can be a mother, she can work; it’s a woman that is strong, that has no fear about what people can say and who dresses for herself, mostly.

Since you’re so shy, tell me about how you’ve enlisted all of these supporters, starting with Lou.
Well, I think women like shy guys, right? But we met at the dinner, through [Laetitia] Crahay, she is a jewelry designer at Chanel. And we just fell in love, I want to say, and [Laetitia] Crahayalready told her about my work, so she knew what I did before, and we just decided to do a shoot the day after the dinner. And it would just be like that — with no makeup, no Photoshop, nothing, like, in the streets, in the garage. And I really loved the pictures; she loved them also, and she told me, "Okay, let’s publish it." It was for winter 2010. And since then our relationship is — we’ve become very close. I always ask her for advice about what I do — would she like it? If she would she wear it.

And another person who’s been your champion is Karlie Kloss.
She’s amazing. We met at dinner, also. We have a friend in common, and so I met [Karlie], and she knew that I won the ANDAM prize. We just talked, and she told me that she wanted to do my show, which was amazing because supermodels never do that for young designers. So things are going like that: very simply. I guess I am very lucky because things came very randomly without anyone being pushy. It's always been like that.

Was that why she skipped the other fashion weeks — so she could open your show?
No, it was something else. She didn’t do it only for me. I think she took some vacations beforehand, but it was perfect.

Aside from Karlie opening your fall show, people were also talking about the model who fell. Is that a designer’s worst nightmare? Or do you just brush it off?
It was sad for her because it was her first show. She was young, it was her first show, and she told me after that she was stressed because she saw all the supermodels around her, the catwalk was very, very long, and she had a cramp in her foot. And I was very sad for her, but I was not angry at all. No, no, no. We liked Pauline — her name is Pauline. And I think after that she had a few great shows, like Miu Miu. It was not the end of her career.

More recently, you’ve dressed Anja Rubik for the Met Gala and Lily Donaldson at the amfAR Gala in Cannes. What's that like?
Oh, it is such an honor for me because they have the perfect bodies for this type of dress. If they couldn’t wear them, I don’t know who could wear it.

How much wardrobe tape does it take to keep on those high-slit dresses? Or what goes on underneath them?
Ah, that's the big question that everyone asks me. The dress is not a slit — it's more about the construction, it's like a jumpsuit dress. It’s a dress, but it’s also like pants. It’s a slit, but the leg is outside through a hole. It's more than just a simple slit.

Do you think that one day you would ever consider going back to a big fashion house?
For the moment, I don’t think about things like that because I’m more worried about growing my own brand and growing the business, so not tomorrow, but maybe, yes, one day. 

Would you do a fast-fashion collaboration, like with H&M?
I did something with Anja — she was modeling for La Redoute, a French brand of fast fashion. We did it last year. It was five pieces all in white, and the dresses were around 100 euros. It was only in Europe and Russia, not in America. But I really like the idea of making collaborations like that. I think it's good.

So, what’s next for you?
The show in September. I'm still working on that — I'm not sure about how it will look. But I think it will be a continuation of what I did last season. I don’t like when you change your image every season. I like the continuity. You tell the same stories, just you add something new, you know. Something like that.