Story by Hope Thompson
Photos by Rebekah Martin

Perhaps one of the most important elements to a wedding is the bride’s dress. Aside from the extravagant bouquets, the picturesque venue, and the exquisite food, the dress is what makes the wedding an event to be remembered. It is this thought that designer and seamstress Jeannette Fiore keeps in mind while making her client’s dreams come true.

From evening gowns to christening gowns to wedding gowns, there is no wish too big for Fiore to fulfill. In fact, making her clients dreams come true in front of their eyes is the goal and passion for Fiore with each new piece of fabric she puts her hands on.

“This is art for me,” Fiore explained with excitement in her eyes. “I enjoy the science behind this art and helping my clients see their vision.”

With this passion for creating a type of art that you can see, feel, and wear, Fiore opened her shop, Greco Fiore Designs, on Main Street in Hartselle ten years ago. Fiore’s hope for opening her business was to bring back an inspiration and a new life to her trade that has become a forgotten art form. This passion for creating art with her hands was ingrained in Fiore at a young age.

“My mother was a seamstress on Broadway,” Fiore reminisced fondly. “She (her mother) was what they called a sample maker in those days. I grew up crawling around the floor of my mom’s work space, playing with fabrics.”

While Fiore was growing up, watching her mother create a masterpiece from a piece of fabric with her hands, a needle and thread, Fiore began working on small projects of her own by sewing bundles. As Fiore explained, a bundle was a set of 500 pieces of fabric that had to be sewn into shirt collars, or other various aspects of clothing. This laid the path for Fiore to fall in love with creating fashionable art by hand. The major turning point for Fiore however, was when her mother brought home a piece of fabric that she intended to turn into a costume for a famous actress.

“My mother wouldn’t let me in the room while she was working on this project,” Fiore laughed thinking back on this fond memory. “It was the most beautiful piece of fabric I had ever seen and I asked my mother if I could have the scraps of fabric she didn’t use. I then took those scraps and made my Barbie Doll a new cocktail dress.”

As Fiore explained, she made the dress for her doll and took it to school in hopes of winning a bit of popularity with her classmates. To Fiore’s surprise however, it was her teacher who the most intrigued by her work. In fact, her teacher offered to buy the dress off the doll.

“My teacher wanted me to sale her the dress for my doll for $25. I couldn’t believe that my teacher would want this little cocktail dress that I had sewn for my Barbie Doll. But, I sold it to her and went home to tell my mother that I made $25 from the doll’s dress I made.”

It was this moment that made Fiore fall in love with the art of designing clothes.

With this new found love ignited in her heart, Fiore allowed this interest to take her into making wedding gowns. One of the first larger projects that Fiore worked on early in her career was a wedding dress for a friend of hers who asked that her wedding gown have a bit of historical, Scottish elements added to it.

“When my friend asked me to do this I started researching the history for Scottish designs in a wedding dress. Knowledge is power, and the more you know about the functions of a wedding dress throughout history,” Fiore explained, “the more significant it will be at the wedding and to the bride wearing it.”

In fact, knowing the history and the functions of wedding gowns through the centuries is one bit of education that Fiore enjoys imparting to her clients. For example, when a bride comes into Fiore’s studio to discuss her vision for her wedding gown on what is to be one of the most important days of her life, it is not uncommon for Fiore to break down the different pieces of the wedding gown to explain to the bride what each pieces function is. This is knowledge that Fiore says she learned while living in Europe.

As Fiore explained, “The closets in Europe are very small. So, clothes have to be multi-functional.” The same, therefore, cane be said of a wedding gown.

One very unique aspect to Fiore’s work, is that she enjoys taking old wedding gowns and creating new gowns. For example, one project of mention is a wedding gown that Fiore’s friend, Anna Williams, wore in 1973 for her wedding that Fiore has recently reused to make various heirlooms such as beautifully fashioned christening gowns with matching a bonnet for the little girl in Williams family and a hat for the little boy in Williams family. Made from Williams’ wedding dress also were buttons covered in the original lace of Williams’ dress. These buttons, with their elegant simplicity, can be used more than once as they can be added to a new dress or to the bouquet of the next bride in the family. The amazing aspect of Fiore’s work, and an aspect that absolutely amazing Williams, is she reuses every single piece of material from the previous garment. She finds a purpose for each piece that she reuses. This project of reusing Williams’ wedding dress began with a friend of Williams’ visiting from out of town.

“A friend of mine was here visiting from Texas and I wanted to bring her to downtown Hartselle and look at the shops,” Williams began her story. “We passed by Jeannette’s studio and my friend was very curious about it.”

Up until that point, Williams said she had never stopped into Fiore’s studio but after the peaked curiosity Williams’ friend seemed to have about Fiore’s business, Williams contacted Fiore with her idea of turning her wedding dress into sentimental items to pass down to her family.

Williams explained that her wedding gown has significant sentimental value as her mother sewed the dress by hand specifically for her wedding day 45 years ago. This same dress, after being passed along to another family member in Williams’ family for their own wedding.

Almost brought to tears by discussing the beautiful work Fiore created, Williams said the experience of watching her dress become a new work of art was an experience that she is thankful for and enjoyed every minute of.

“It is absolutely remarkable to be able to have this gift (Williams’ recycled wedding gown) to pass on to my family. This whole experience has just been marvelous!” exclaimed Williams’ with gratitude.

Another project of mention for Fiore is the process of turning a wedding dress from the 1940’s into a new, functional wedding gown for a bride getting married this summer. These are the sorts of projects that Fiore finds excitement in, not only because this is a chance for her to bring a piece of history back to life, but also because the art that she will be creating will be telling a story at that bride’s wedding.

This particular bride who sought Fiore out, came in with her mother’s wedding dress that was worn in 1991. This same wedding dress was bought by the bride’s mother at an antique store for her wedding day. Interestingly, this same dress was first bought and worn by a doctor’s daughter in the 1940’s. Bringing a piece of history back to life while adding a new story to the piece of art that another set of hands once worked on, gives Fiore the inspiration she needs to recreate a new fabulous gown her client.

Fiore explained that simply creating the gown for a special event takes more than just sitting down with a needle and thread. Rather, Fiore likes to ask her clients all the details of the big event planned so that she is better able to create the gown that will make the statement for the event.

“I like to ask my clients to come in for a few fittings,” Fiore began. “I like to see the bride in her dress at the time of day that her pictures will be taken so I know how to fit the dress to her to be the most flattering. I also like to know the setting for the event, what the flowers will be, and what the bridesmaids dresses will look like. All of these factors go into the art of making the right dress for my client.”

Fiore explained that it is this special attention to detail that she takes great pride in while creating a one of a kind piece for her every person that walks through her door.

“It’s all about a kind of perfection of detail for my clients,” Fiore explained. “I want my clients to feel sure of themselves when they wear what I’ve designed.”

This passion that Fiore has for her work and her clients is obvious with each new masterpiece that she sews. It is something she hopes her clients experience when they step into their wedding gown on their wedding day. Or when they walk into the special event they are attending, she hopes that they step into the event feeling as though they are stepping onto the red carpet.

“I want my clients to be comfortable with me and what I design for them,” Fiore explained. “I want to help bring their vision to life.”

To help see your vision brought to life for your wedding or your next special event, schedule a free consultation with Fiore at Greco Fiore Designs. Fiore can be reached by Facebook at Greco Fiore Designs or via email at grecofiore@aol.com.