Catherine Rayner was a British fashion designer specialising in wedding dresses. Her designs in 1999 were admired for "classic elegance and romantic flair" and noted for their very fitted bodices and flattering cuts. One of her gowns, in bead-embroidered satin, was chosen by

Sandra Boler Sandra Boler is an Australian-born British fashion journalist and former editor of '' Brides'' magazine from 1983 to the early 21st century. In this role she was a widely consulted authority on wedding-related matters from the 1980s to the early ...

, the editor of ''

Brides A bride is a woman who is about to be married or who is newlywed. When marrying, the bride's future spouse, (if male) is usually referred to as the ''bridegroom'' or just ''groom''. In Western culture, a bride may be attended by a maid, brides ...

'' magazine, along with shoes by

Emma Hope Emma Mary Constance Hope MBE (born July 1962) is a British shoe designer. Early life Emma Hope was born in July 1962 in Portsmouth. Her father, who died in 2005, was a Captain in the Royal Navy, and her mother is a former fashion journalist. Th ...

and a bridegroom's outfit by Tom Gilbey to represent 1995's

Dress of the Year The Dress of the Year is an annual fashion award run by the Fashion Museum, Bath from 1963. Each year since 1963, the Museum has asked a fashion journalist to select a dress or outfit that best represents the most important new ideas in contempora ...

in the

Fashion Museum, Bath The Fashion Museum (known before 2007 as the Museum of Costume) is housed in the Assembly Rooms in Bath, Somerset, England. The collection was started by Doris Langley Moore, who gave her collection of costumes to the city of Bath in 1963. The ...

's collection. At the time, Boler described her choice as representing that year's nostalgic and period-costume-influenced trends. Rayner's designs were retailed through her boutique and through London department stores such as

Dickins & Jones Dickins & Jones was a high-quality department store in London, England, which traded between 1835 and 2007, although tracing its origins to 1790. From 1835, the main store was in London's Regent Street. In its final years the store had branches a ...

. Another of Rayner's designs, a pale pink

strapless dress A strapless dress or top is a garment that stays put around the upper body without shoulder straps or other visible means of support. It is usually supported by an internal corset and/or brassiere, with the tightness of the bodice preventing the d ...

, is included in the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

's fashion collection, and was featured on the poster for their major Wedding Dress exhibition in 2014.

References

Living people Date of birth missing (living people) Wedding dress designers British fashion designers Year of birth missing (living people) {{fashion-designer-stub