Inside Adelaide’s top 10 bridal boutiques: Meet the people making SA weddings magical
They are responsible for one of the biggest moments before brides walk down the aisle – finding the dress. Meet South Australia’s real-life fairy godmothers.
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Arguably the biggest part of the wedding day is the bride’s dream dress, and it’s only a select few people who can help find the perfect gown.
Bridal boutiques across South Australia work hard to play fairy godmother for their brides, selecting “the dress” off the rack to sewing on the final pearl.
Today The Advertiser profiles 10 bridal boutique owners including those who have been in the industry for more than 40 years, to those who set up shop with no experience in the field.
Like former medical researcher Laura Watson, who quit her career in science to pursue her Unley bridal venture.
“I’ve never looked back once, once this took off. I love it, it feels fun every day,” Ms Watson, who owns The Bride Lab, said.
“My family will ask me ‘do you miss science?’ and I’m like no, I don’t, I couldn’t ever imagine going back to that.”
From starting her bridal headpiece business in her home in Mount Gambier to dressing stars at the Grammy Awards, Ashlee Kalantarian certainly put SA on the fashion map.
“It went from zero to one hundred very quickly,” Ms Kalantarian, who owns A'EL ESTE, said.
“I really enjoy the creative part of things, which are the photo shoots and the runways, I thrive in that kind of environment.”
Here’s how the people behind the state’s top bridal shops go their start and where they are now.
Shannon Hopton
Boutique: Adelaide Hills Bridal
Location: 2/10 Gawler St, Mount Barker
Shannon Hopton always knew she had a creative mind and a knack for sewing — something that has made her into the bridal fairy godmother of the Adelaide Hills.
“My grandma used to make me a lot of clothes when I was a kid, and when I was eight I drafted a skirt pattern with my mum’s help,” Ms Hopton said.
“That really got me going, I even used to make little outfits for my dog.”
At a young age, the now 37-year-old found her passion for sewing and making clothes, but she felt her school wanted to steer her in a different direction.
“I didn’t really have to try hard in school to get decent grades, but I was always more creative minded … I was never going to be a doctor or a lawyer, the sewing bug was always there,” she said.
“I was kind of told through school that there’s no money in dressmaking, and I needed to do something more academic.
“It took me a lot of confidence to pursue it (sewing) and go to TAFE.”
After TAFE, she was lucky enough to score a sewing job in custom bridal two days a week, until she worked her way up to supervisor and pattern maker.
But that was as far as working for someone else’s boutique could take her.
She started creating custom designs and altering wedding dresses from her Mount Barker home but business became so busy Ms Hopton opened a shopfront — Adelaide Hills Bridal – last year.
“I couldn’t be 70 years old and thinking ‘what if I ever tried?’, for sure getting the shop was a big risk,” she said.
“But I couldn’t look back on it, I wouldn’t live with myself if I hadn’t tried.”
Now, Ms Hopton’s seven-year-old daughter Eloise goes to the shop every day after school and sews along with her mum. She even makes her own patterns and is inheriting her mother’s love for the craft.
“I have printed her (Eloise) a mannequin template, so she draws her own dresses and designs her own collection,” the proud mum said.
“We’ve got a domestic sewing machine at home that she uses and she’s also learning hand stitching and a few other bits and pieces as well.”
Laura Watson
Boutique: The Bride Lab
Location: 109 King William Rd, Unley
From pursuing science to sorting seams, Laura Watson launched The Bride Lab after struggling to find her own wedding gown.
She had been working in medical research for 12 years when she decided to start her own bridal boutique.
“I was sort of looking for a career change, but I never thought of owning my own business or going into bridal,” Ms Watson said.
“When we got married in 2014, I just found the experience in Adelaide a little disheartening as someone who was looking for something different but also not really knowing what I was looking for.”
The wedding dresses she tried on in Adelaide didn’t feel right, and after travelling to Sydney and Melbourne to try on other brands, a light bulb went off to bring those brands home with her.
“There was definitely an opportunity there and it was just the right place, right time,” Ms Watson said.
“I went about it in a sort of scientific way, I drew a lot of my strengths from my previous work and did a lot of research and a business plan.”
Opening The Bride Lab in 2016, the 40 year old caters to brides who want something more unique and trendy as their dream dress.
Ashlee Kalantarian
Boutique: A’EL ESTË
Location: 12A James Street, Mount Gambier
A touching nod to her grandmother on her wedding day led Ashlee Kalantarian to dressing music superstars such as Kesha on the red carpet.
When planning her Mount Gambier wedding after studying and travelling the world as an Emirates flight attendant, Ms Kalantarian wanted to show off her grandmother’s creative side.
“She has always been a creative lady, she used to make wedding dresses and bouquets for all our family and locals,” Ms Kalantarian said.
“I wanted her to be part of the wedding, so I wore my grandmother’s gloves and we made a brooch bouquet out of all her old brooches.”
This antique bouquet sparked an idea for newlywed with friends asking her to make things for their big days.
Ms Kalantarian started making everything from corsages to combs to headbands, and it took off.
Nowadays, her brand A’EL ESTË is best known for its customised intricate bridal and occasion headpieces.
“It was very much a side hustle,” Ms Kalantarian said.
“I got to be friends with some makeup artists and photographers and we did a lot of creative photo shoots.”
As a graphic designer, the 39 year old loved a polished Instagram feed, which helped the brand go viral and end up at New York Fashion Week in 2017.
Her new found fame also led to styling American singer Kesha for the 2018 Grammy Awards.
“I didn’t really care what anyone thought, I was putting my creativity out there and it just got bigger and bigger because my stuff was so different,” Ms Kalantarian said.
Paula Deduonni
Boutique: Brides and Bloom
Location: 2a/42-48 Garden Terrace, Mawson Lakes
Tired of working for someone else and seeing a niche in the northern suburbs for bridal boutiques, Paula Deduonni started Brides and Bloom.
“Originally I wanted to set up a homewares store, but I looked at what the north needed and it didn’t have a bridal store, so why not set up a wedding store?” she said.
“I started up in Gawler, and I knew nothing about fabric, but I had some amazing designers and distributors that taught me along the way
“Now, 19 years later, here I am.”
Previously, the 52-year-old was an assistant manager at Coles and felt she was “giving too much of her time to them”.
Having loved planning her own wedding, Mrs Deduonni wanted to replicate her magical experience for other brides, even going interstate to multiple bridal functions to “do her homework”.
As her career in bridal grew, she felt the need to move out of Gawler.
“Then I wanted to move closer to the city but still stay in the north, because I was the first bridal store to take the punt in the northern suburbs,” Mrs Deduonni said.
“So I went to Mawson Lakes, and that’s going to be our forever home.”
Nina MacDonald
Boutique: Bridal on Payneham
Location: Shop F/201 Payneham Rd, St Peters
Nina MacDonald started her bridal boutique journey on a whim seeking work opportunities while her children were at school.
“One of the mums knew the owner of a boutique in Adelaide looking for staff and would I be interested,” she said.
“I went along and had an interview and that’s how it all started.”
Before she had children Ms MacDonald worked installing computer systems, a job she loved but couldn’t juggle with raising a family.
After 16 years at the boutique, the St Peter’s woman decided to open Bridal On Payneham in 2021.
“I wanted to offer a beautiful experience but not have to spend thousands of dollars for a bridal gown,” she said.
“That was my mantra when I started here.”
The shop stocks a variety of labels and hundreds of dresses, and Ms MacDonald’s over 20 years of experience in the bridal business caters to hundreds of brides a year.
Kasia Litwinienko
Boutique: Dressmaking by Kasia Litwinienko
Location: 4 Knight St, Willaston
From working in a clothing factory in Poland, Kasia Litwinienko developed a passion for designing and sewing that led her to launch a bridal label.
It started with a small boutique in her homeland making jackets and everyday garments, but when she moved to Australia in 2003 in search of a better life, she scored a job dressmaking at a bridal store.
“I worked with them for a few years and learned a lot about bridal, all the fabrics and everything, and it slowly went from alterations to making custom dresses,” Ms Litwinienko said.
“In the Covid lockdown, I thought ‘why am I doing this for other people when I could start a boutique myself?’”
Now the 50 year old does bridal gown alterations and designs custom made dresses from her Willaston home studio.
“I love working with the fabric draping on the person instead of a mannequin … I rather work with clients directly,” she said.
“I love making up my brides and taking them on a journey.”
Olga Koloskova
Boutique: Olga Koloskova Couture
Location: King William Rd, Hyde Park
It was love that brought Olga Koloskova to Adelaide, and it’s love that keeps her couture bridal business thriving.
Born in Russia and travelling Europe in her youth, Ms Koloskova said her dressmaking journey started with making dolls as a child and watching her “mama” make clothes on a sewing machine.
She moved to Slovakia and studied dressmaking, fashion design and technology, then to Zurich to work for a bridal atelier, which instilled in her a vision to create her own couture label.
“If you want something really badly, then you go for it and you learn,” Ms Koloskova said.
“I have lots of customers say all the time, ‘how amazing, I could never do something like that’, but I don’t see it that way.”
Aged 27, she ventured to Vienna and opened her first shop for her brand Olga Koloskova Couture.
She then studied a master of design and dressmaking and business management.
Meeting her Adelaide-born husband while he was working for the Australian Embassy there, she decided to follow her heart and moved to Australia in 2007.
Since then, she’s been curating custom gowns for brides across the state, each with inspiration from her European upbringing and training.
George and Pat Georgiou
Boutique: Alexis George
Location: 86 Fullarton Rd, Norwood
George and Pat Georgiou couldn’t find the British and European styles they were craving in Adelaide during the 1970s, and took it upon themselves to make their own.
“I grew up in London and came to Adelaide when I was 15, and back in those days, I couldn’t find the clothes I wanted to wear, the more fashion clothes,” Mr Georgiou said.
“There was only one boutique here at the time, the rest were department stores and you couldn’t get the 24 inch flares or high heeled boots or body shirts
“So as I started getting things made for me, I met my wife who was in the same boat, she was pretty fashionable and couldn’t get what she wanted either.”
Mrs Georgiou, who was born in Italy and moved to South Australia as a teenager, made clothing for the both of them, and after a few years in Europe together, they returned to Australia in the mid 1970s to start their own label, Alexis George in 1980.
“We were doing a bit of everything back then, we were doing daywear, suiting, evening and bridal,” Mr Georgiou said.
“Over the years, it’s changed to just bridal because it is not easy to get dressmakers … I feel it’s a bit of a dying art.”
All of Alexis George’s bridal gowns are made in their Norwood boutique, from design to the final fitting.
Penny Lim and Matt Knap
Boutique: ARA Experience
Location: 172 Gilles St, Adelaide
For husband and wife Penny Lim and Matt Knap starting a bridal boutique was a destined part of their journey after a chance meeting in a high school class.
The Mitchell Park couple, both 27, married in 2019 and launched ARA Experience a year later after Ms Lim found her wedding dress experience “quite painful”.
“Wearing a dress that you didn’t like and didn’t suit you for your wedding day, is a very permanent memory that is still very upsetting to me,” Ms Lim recalled.
Ms Lim said she took matters into her own hands to spare other brides-to-be from the same experience.
“I wasn’t the only one, it does happen quite a lot to brides who go down the custom made route,” Ms Lim said.
“We’re actually able to build and show our brides their custom before they commit to the process.”
Mr Knap said they began as a “little studio” working from their garage and nine months after the business took off he dropped to part-time work.
“It was just getting a bit busier, then six months after that I went full-time (after) I quit my job,” he said.
“Ever since then, it’s been busier and busier (with) growing the business and now I take over the finance side.”
Mr Knap said the couple had been a source of support for each other as their business continued to boom.
“The highs are really, really high and lows are super low, so the biggest thing is having someone to share the experience,” he said.
Elizabeth Foubert
Boutique: Calèche Bridal House
Location: 43-45 Chapel St, Norwood
Found in 1973 by her mother-in-law, Elizabeth Foubert runs one of Adelaide’s most renowned bridal boutiques.
The business, Calèche Bridal House, started designing day and evening wear, then after a request from a client to make a wedding dress, the original owners began a bridal boutique.
Collete Foubert made a name for herself and began selling their unique pieces interstate.
Elizabeth began working for her in-laws when they had a workshop in France.
She did a five-year stint in London working in high street fashion and said she had “always loved fashion”.
“I ended up in France at the same time as Collete (her mother in law) had their workroom in France, so I started working for them. That’s how I got into bridal,” she said
In 1996, Collete returned to Adelaide with the business, which gave her daughter-in-law an opportunity to pursue fashion in SA.
When Collete died in 2003, Elizabeth took over as Calèche Bridal House designer.
Twenty years later, Elizabeth husband Herve Foubert is the production manager and cutter and their daughter Jessica Foubert has joined the family business working on social media and marketing.
She said the secret to longevity in the industry was “moving with the times”.
“I found that Australian bridal fashion is actually quite fashionable compared to the rest of Europe, so it’s was just staying up with the trends because people want the latest, inspired by red carpet looks,” Elizabeth said.
“It’s just having a feeling of what’s happening around you, and being aware happening. I don’t know why I seem to be able to pick up on the trends quite early.”
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