Tara La Tour creates beautifully handmade wedding gowns for brides who appreciate craft and function. Her designs are impeccable and Tara’s work often leads wedding gown trends, (hello – she debuted the crop top gown a season before everyone else!) With a focus on color and pattern design, Tara’s work is surprising and transcends fashion, each gown is a true work of art. She’s a talent and someone who’ve I been lucky enough to call friend for the last 15 years.

Tara: You there?

Ms. Made: Hey, Hey! So Tara, are you ready to Ms. Made’s very first interview?

Tara: So ready!

Ms. Made: Too Fun! So Tara, I’d love to hear a bit about your creative process. How does your mind get to that place where is turns an idea into a dress?

Tara: For every collection I create, the process starts a little different.  It really depends on what is inspiring me at the moment. Usually I start with a solid inspiration source.

Ms. Made: What is inspiring you’re current project?

Tara: Well for example right now, I’m starting my next collection and at the moment, I find that I’m really inspired by the ideas of texture and innovation—Hard versus soft, opaque verses sheer.

gown by Tara La Tour/ photo by Eliesa Johnson

Ms. Made: I love juxtaposition!

Tara: Ha ha, that’s funny because that was the name of my last collection.  I guess that is something inherently in me.

Ms. Made: So tell me, when you’re designing a gown do you have a concrete piece of inspiration or just an idea of what it is?

Tara: I’ve really been overly in love with fabric lately.  So, that is what is really driving my ideas right now.

Ms. Made: I’ve always found that materials influence my own creativity as well! One of the things I admire about you is how innovative you are in your use fabrics. What are some of the more successful fabric manipulations that you’ve been able to pull off?

Tara: I think my most successful fabric manipulations come in the form of our use of petals, they come together in a really nice raw and delicate way—They’re never very overworked. I also love how we have been able to manipulate fringe by applying it to wearable pieces.  And then of course there is our ombre’ effect, it’s always a signature element in each collection.

Ms. Made: Are there a couple gowns that just blew your mind when you finished them?

Tara: Hahaha, I was just talking about this with my staff the other day.

gowns by Tara la Tour/ photos by Eliesa Johnson

Tara: They were very early in my career and they were both from my first collection. One was The Angela.  I remember when I was done with that dress, I put it on the dress form (it was about 2am) and I sat in a chair across the room and stared at it for about 15 minutes.  I couldn’t believe my human hands had made that. The other was The Kelsey—one of my favorite dresses of all time.  Every piece of that dress is made from a rectangular shape.  I still can’t believe I really could morph a single shape into a dress.

Ms. Made: It’s interesting that both gowns were in your first collection. What is about these designs that makes them more than a dress? (I fully believe that your designs are pieces of art.)

Tara: I believe that art and fashion can go hand in hand. I find it important to make sure that our pieces are very wearable, but it’s our handcrafted details that truly transform each dress into something artful.

Ms. Made: Share with me a vision of the perfect gown. What does it look like? What is it made of? Who’s wearing it? How is it styled? When does it go on and when does it come off?

gown by Tara la Tour/ photo by Eliesa Johnson

Tara: I have a perfect gown in my head right now for my next collection, it’s very heavy on the couture side—I really want to push the limits, I want to create that thing that is so new and exciting it stops people in their tracks. At the moment, I’m dreaming about playing with sheers, pairing soft details with rich textural fabric and interesting shapes.

Ms. Made: You’re killing me. I’m so excited!

Tara: It’s really going to be a quite the collection to see!

Ms. Made: It sounds divine! Thank you so much for your time and for sharing with us a glimpse of your creative genius.

Tara: Thank you Ms. Made!  kiss kiss