The Sun Sunnyvale's Newspaper Photograph by Skye Dunlap 'I feel a little like a pioneer,' Dong says of her Cupertino business. Designing Lily Lily Dong has never made the same dress twice By Pam Marino Lily Dong is an artist who loves color, but most of her creations are white. Dong designs and sews custom wedding dresses in her West Valley studio for her own private label, Lily Dong Couture Bridal. She has a growing client list, as happy brides spread the word about Dong to friends and family members. More and more brides are turning to custom-made dresses to ensure they get just the style they want, and the fit they need. In some cases a custom-made dress costs the same as one ordered from a bridal shop or department store. "This is the one time you get a dress made exactly for you," said Sunnyvale bride Leah Raniel. Dong is creating a simple off-the-shoulder A-line dress for Raniel's May 8 wedding. Dong started her business nine years ago, when custom-made wedding dresses were almost unheard of. "I feel a little like a pioneer; there is no set script for this kind of business," she said. Dong's father is an artist, her mother an expert seamstress. Dong started drawing and painting at age 4 and began sewing at around age 7. When it came to a career, it seemed a natural fit for Dong to combine her artistic flair with her skill in sewing. After graduating from the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland with a bachelor of arts degree, Dong started by sewing just about anything for clients, but soon found she found she could channel her creative energy into wedding dresses and evening gowns. Her designs are elegant, with a lot of detail. Her website (which she created herself), at www.LilyDongCouture.com, states that she doesn't do "frou-frou." Dong loves creating wedding dresses--including her own, which she wore when she and Alexander Añonuevo were married in October 1997--but she "just can't stay away from color," she said. Which is why she also sews evening wear and mother-of-the-bride/groom dresses. "How can you tell an artist to stay away from color?" Last year some of the chairwomen for the valley's top fundraising events made a beeline to Dong's studio in search of gowns that no one else would be wearing. The cost of a Lily Dong Couture evening gown averages between $1,600 and $1,800. But bridal gowns, which cost between $2,500 and $3,500, continue to be the mainstay of Dong's business. "The thing about bridal is it's challenging because you don't use color," she said. So Dong turns her artist's eye toward composition, shape and texture. "Essentially it takes me back to painting because those are the same elements you use as a painter," she said. Dong starts each creation with a blank canvas: her client's body. Dong begins by interviewing her client, asking a long list of questions, including what type of person she is and how she sees herself. Next Dong takes extensive measurements. She said she "reinterprets all the little bits of info" she gets from the client to create a dress that flatters her figure and reflects her personality. "My philosophy is you should first see the face, then the gown," Dong said. Dong works to make the gown comfortable for the bride, who will be wearing it for many hours. She also aims to create a dress that is interesting, including from the back--as guests will be focused on it for a long period of time. Dong sketches the dress during the initial consultation with the client, then she sews the dress in muslin. The client comes back to Dong's studio overlooking Blackberry Farm for a total of four fittings, two in the muslin dress and two in the actual dress. "I change along with her changes and can take into account if a person loses or gains 10 pounds," she said. The "construction process" of putting the dress together takes three to four months. Dong said she prefers as much advance notice as possible before a wedding date or formal event. Brides get much more than just the dress, Dong said. She said she has been in the business long enough to be able to advise brides on where to get everything from shoes to flowers, and even caterers. But they also get something else: a new friend. Dong said she has become friends with many of her clients after their weddings. "Because it's so personal," Dong said of the process she and her clients go through to create the finished product. "It's just a lot of fun working with her," Raniel said. Raniel said she decided to go with a custom wedding dress from Dong because she was afraid she wouldn't be able to find something in a store that would fit properly. "I think my body is very hard to fit, in that I have a very short waist," Raniel said. She was prepared to pay the same price for a store-bought dress, so she chose Dong, who could add just the design touches Raniel was looking for. Dong's meticulous attention to detail also impressed her. Size and fit are what bring many clients to her studio, Dong said. Most stores have sample wedding dresses in sizes eight to 10, she said, which makes it hard for women who are smaller or larger to envision how the dress will look on them when it is completed. In addition, no set size will fit a woman's body perfectly. She showed off a dress she wore to a fundraiser--a stunning, beaded straight dress with fabric in various shades of rich blues--where one of her gowns was auctioned off. "It's Lily-size," she said. "See, there is no set size! There's Lily-size, Jackie-size," whatever a woman measures, she said. Dong said she has fittted women as petite as 4-foot-11, and as tall as 6-foot-2. Women also come to Dong for just the style they are looking for, and the individuality of a dress that no one else has, or will ever have, since Dong refuses to sew the same dress twice. Then there are those brides who are so individualistic, they don't want a white or off-white traditional dress. Dong has sewn wedding dresses in red, pink, navy and chartreuse fabric. The color of a wedding dress matters less. "It's what fits your personality best," she said. Dong, who came to the United States from Taiwan when she was 10 years old, also sews traditional Chinese wedding dresses, called chi-pao or cheong sam dresses. For good luck a bride changes from the white wedding dress to the traditional dress, usually red, during the ceremony. But Dong said many of the Asian women who want the dress have been in the country for 10, 20 or even 30 years. So Dong said she reinterprets the traditional style to reflect that. Almost all of Dong's customers come from the Bay Area, but that soon may change. She is placing her first national ad in the upcoming April edition of Martha Stewart Weddings. However, she said the ad is more about letting people know that custom dresses are an option than about expanding her business. The ad will feature both bridal and evening wear. Dong said she is not interested in taking any of her designs and reproducing them for the masses. "I'm pretty adamant about keeping it custom," she said of her business. The artist said she wants each gown to be an individual creation, just like a work of art. Lily Dong can be reached at 408/255-8850. [ Back to Contents Page | Sunnyvale Sun Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, January 13, 1999. ©1999 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.