My name is Gilly and I’m a designer, dressmaker and stylist based in Bristol in the UK. I design and make bespoke finery: bridal gowns, occasion wear and corsets, I style photo shoots, fashion shows, performers and individuals and I party pretty hard too. I’m 30, I’m single and I live with a gay man, a papier mache flamingo and a lot of hats in a little flat in Cotham.

I decided to write this blog to offer impartial honest and realistic advice on style and beauty that comes from years of experience working with women of every age, shape and size and a deep seated, in built passion for making women feel beautiful, feminine, stylish and (above all) confident. Not from a load of celebrity endorsements and beauty industry back-handers often designed to hard sell you unnecessary products by making you feel inadequate. I deal with self depreciating, body dismorphic women every day and it makes me so sad that they can’t see the beauty in themselves that is so obvious to me.

When I go out dressed up, I get as many compliments from women about the way I look as I do from men, on one occasion, in a ladies powder room, I had an actual queue of women asking me where my outfit was from and complimenting me on my look, it took me 20 minutes to get out of the loo!… my date thought I’d climbed out the window

One of these women became a client, I told her her correct bra size, (2 cup sizes bigger that the one she was wearing) made her a corset (a welcome addition to any wardrobe and the only comfortable strapless garment she had ever owned) and altered some of her work suits so that they fitted her properly and drew attention to her tiny waist. I made an empire line dress which was entirely the wrong shape for her and far to small around her bust) into a pretty summer skirt and found a beautiful piece of silk to make a matching camisole (that fitted her bust perfectly). Most of these jobs were small and inexpensive but that woman told me I’d changed her life. By learning how to dress her figure she began to love it for the first time. People asked her if she’d lost weight or been on holiday and complimented her on how well she looked, her posture improved with her confidence and she told me that she was genuinely happier.

I’m not a model, I’m not unusually pretty, I’m an average size 12, I’m not rich or famous (I’m not getting any younger!), there is nothing much spectacular about me it all, except that I know how to dress, I’m not afraid to stand out in a crowd, I know about underwear and structure and cut and fit and how to flatter my figure, I know how to apply good make up, I’m lucky enough to call my hairdresser my best friend and I’m on first name terms with my shoe repair guy.

It’s as simple as that girls, it just takes a little knowledge and a little practise and it could just change your life….

www.gillywoo.com

Gilly Woo