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NW e d d in g g o w n d o ye n n e J o yc e Y o u n g s h a re s h e r s e c re ts to s tre s s -fre e d re s s e s fo r th e b ig d a yW OR D S RUTH WALKER

ONE of Joyce Young’s key

pieces of advice for brides-

to-be is to get organised

as early as possible. That

way, your frock is one less

thing to stress about. But

when she’s running out the door of her

Glasgow home next month to receive

her OBE, how much of her own advice

will she have taken?

“I’ve known about this for a year,”

she says, “but I still don’t know what

I’m wearing. I’m the first one to tell

everyone they should get organised in

advance to take the pressure off and

I’m always the last to make a decision –

usually I’m being sewn into something

as the taxi’s there. But I have some

thoughts and I have a little mood board

put together – I just have to wait to find

out if the suppliers can get the fabrics.”

Although Young has been in the

public eye for decades, having set up

her business in 1993, designing for the

diverse likes of Sophie Kennedy Clark

and Susan Boyle, the announcement of

her OBE – for services to fashion and

the Glasgow community – came as a

complete surprise.

“We had no inkling whatsoever, I’d

never even thought about it,” she says.

“The letter arrived from Buckingham

Palace in the shop post. I opened it and

read the first sentence and I reread it,

then looked at the envelope again to

see if it had come to the wrong place.

Then I read the first paragraph. I was

just so full of surprise and shock. It was

completely surreal."

She’ll be in stellar company when she

rocks up at the palace. Other fashion

folk who have already received honours

include Mary Quant, Karen Millen,

Jimmy Choo, Stella McCartney, Jasper

Conran and Amanda Wakeley. Sarah

Burton, the designer at Alexander

McQueen, received her OBE after she

designed the wedding dress for the

Duchess of Cambridge. Phoebe Philo,

the French-born, British designer who

has revived Celine, will also collect a

gong next month. And Judy Murray

wore an embroidered vibrant purple

dress and coat with contrasting jade

collar and cuffs, designed by Joyce

Young, when she accompanied Andy to

pick up his OBE in October.

Having graduated from Glasgow

School of Art in 1975, she had been

designing for Marks & Spencer when

she took the decision to leave the high

street behind and create something

much more special. “I got fed up with

working with a tight budget all the

time," she says. “I just love working

with good fabrics. It started as cruise

wear, and we made everything from

swimming costumes to evening gowns.

But people started wearing the evening

things to dressier events like weddings,

then a girl came and asked me to make

a wedding dress."

Ironically, this is where

she’d begun back in the

1970s, making bridalwear with a

BRIDE ON TIME

13SCOTLANDonSUNDAY January 12, 2014

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F R E S H s tarts and re s o lutio ns

b e g in w ith a h e alth y c le ar-o ut.

S o S p e c trum is tak ing a lo ng ,

h ard lo o k at its o v e r-fille d

m ak e -up b ag and m ak ing

s o m e to ug h d e c is io ns . O ut

w ith th e o ld and all th at…

STY L E NEW S

AISLE STYLE L e ft: C h ris tie d re s s b y Jo yc e Y o ung ( £ 1,9 9 5 ) . A b o v e : Y o ung , w h o w ill re c e iv e an O B E ne x t

m o nth . B e lo w : Jud y M urray w e ars a Jo yc e Y o ung -d e s ig ne d e m b ro id e re d d re s s and c o at as A nd y M urray

p ic k s up h is O B E alo ng s id e K im S e ars and h is fath e r W ill. P h o to g rap h s M artin M c C re ad y/ F io na H ans o n/ G e tty Im ag e s

business partner. “So I almost fell back

into it.”

Creating bespoke bridalwear can

be a demanding business, when the

hopes and dreams of a lifetime can

be at stake. So consider the challenge

at hand when one bride-to-be, a Game

Of Thrones fanatic, wanted a medieval-

style wedding...in just six weeks.

“She came with some ideas and I

brought out some fabrics and did some

sketches. She was pregnant as well,"

says Young, “so she had this growing

bump, but wanted a backless dress, and

wanted her bridesmaids to be backless

too. Everything was done very quickly."

It’s an indication, perhaps, of how far

the bridal market has come in recent

years. “When we started in the 1990s it

was all very much the Princess Diana

dresses – all very full – and what we

did then was very different because we

were doing coats with mandarin collars

and long slips; that east meets

west style is still very much

our signature. It’s a lot more

difficult to be different now.

Anything goes and people are

less stuck to convention.

“Most girls though,

even if they are

unconventional, can

be quite conventional

when it comes to their

wedding. You don’t

get a lot of people who

really want to be very

different."

But many brides

still like to stamp

their individuality

on their big day. At

the 2012 wedding of

Inbetweeners star James

Buckley to Clair Meek

from Kilmarnock, the bride

teamed her 1950s-style

Joyce Young dress with a pair of bright

blue skyscraper heels.

Her most recent high-profile wedding

was Anne Reid’s nuptials to Derek Jacobi

in the BBC’s Last Tango In Halifax. But

more important than that was designing

the wedding party’s dresses for her own

daughter, Susie, three years ago. “That

was lovely to be able to do," she says, “it

was very special."

It was also, as things turned out,

a little last minute, as her scheduled

flights were grounded by the Icelandic

volcano, cutting her planning, buying

and sewing time by two weeks. “I work

better under pressure," she says, “but I

don’t recommend it to anyone else."

Twitter: @Ruth_Lesley

Joyce Young’s wedding dresses cost from £1,500

to £8,000 (www.joyceyoungcollections.co.uk)

SK I N CRO W DO U R ne x t b e auty e s s e ntial h as

w o n s o m any aw ard s w e ’v e lo s t

c o unt. It’s b e e n aro und fo r ye ars

and h as b e e n im itate d o fte n, b ut

th e re is s till no th ing to m atc h th e

e ffe c t o f C liniq ue ’s B e auty F las h

B alm o n tire d , s tre s s e d -o ut s k in.

T h e b e s t-s e lle r ins tantly m o is turis e s ,

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£29 (www.clarins.co.uk)

B RO W UNB EA TENT H E b ro w , th e y s ay, fram e s th e fac e . A n

o fte n ig no re d e le m e nt o f th e m ak e -up

re g im e , it h as c o m e to th e fo re fro nt,

lite rally, re c e ntly th ank s to th e lik e s o f

C ara D e le v ing ne ’s o ft-p h o to g rap h e d p o w e r

b ro w . W e ac h ie v e th e p e rfe c t lo o k w ith T o m

F o rd ’s m ag ic al b ro w s c ulp ting p e nc il. W ith a

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£34 (www.tomford.com)

L A SH PA SSI O N

Y O U c an s p e nd yo ur life s e arc h ing fo r th e

rig h t m as c ara. T h e b rus h ne e d s to b e a g o o d

s iz e , it c an’t b e g lo o p y o r rub o ff e as ily, th e re

c an b e no flak y b its th at g e t in yo ur e ye s …

it’s a to ug h c all fo r o ne o f th e m o s t h ard -

w o rk ing p ie c e s o f b e auty k it. B o b b i B ro w n’s

S m o k e y E ye m as c ara c o m e s o nly in je t b lac k

– b e c aus e th at’s th e o nly c o lo ur yo u’ll e v e r

ne e d – and d e liv e rs a h ig h -inte ns ity inje c tio n

o f g lam o ur in a s ing le s tro k e . Jo b d o ne .

£22 (www.bobbibrown.co.uk)

SEEK A ND H I D EB U T th e b e auty e s s e ntials th at s tay

s tart w ith January’s m o s t-us e d p ro d uc t:

c o nc e ale r. W e ’re ye t to find a b e tte r o ne

th an M ac ’s S tud io F inis h .

L ig h tw e ig h t and c re am y,

s o e as y to ap p ly w ith o ut

d rag g ing , it is a d is c re e tly

o p aq ue c o nc e ale r th at

p ro v id e s lo ng -las ting

c o v e rag e fo r d ark

s h ad o w s , b le m is h e s and

o th e r b its yo u’d rath e r

h id e .

£15 (www.maccosmetics.co.uk)