small talk Jo Hill’s miniature wedding dress replicas
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by Diana Coon Years ago Joanne Hill was looking for a unique wedding gift for a fellow teacher. After much thought she hit upon the idea of recreating the bridal gown in miniature; she talked to the bride’s mother, who gathered up the sewing scraps from the original gown. That was in 1989, and since that time Joanne has created over 150 gowns for friends, family and commissioned clients. Joanne’s creations are usually about two and a half feet tall, often with long veils. She shies away from putting the gowns on dolls because of their unrealistic figures; instead she uses wooden stands she purchases in Chicago to display the finished product. Over the years gowns have changed a great deal. Joanne explained, “In the 80’s many dresses had cut-out areas covered with see-through lace; today, many of the gowns I replicate are strapless.” One of her most complicated gowns was the wedding dress from Gone with the Wind. “My Mom kept talking about this dress, so I watched the movie and discovered it was only on the screen for a couple of seconds. I called MGM Studios and discovered they didn’t own the costume any longer. I finally located it in a home economics department at the University of Texas.” She was fortunate to find a student who had a pattern for the dress, complete with big balloon sleeves and satin oak leaves attached to the skirt. To recreate Jackie Kennedy’s wedding gown, Joanne traveled to the JFK Library in Boston to see it. The next year she went to Philadelphia to see the dress worn by Princess Grace. “I do a lot of research,” she said. “I like to see the dress up close; I need to look at the material carefully.” Creating her own patterns simply by looking at the dress is a talent
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Above left: Gone with the Wind replica. Above right: A replica of the dress worn by First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. Bottom right: Jo Hill
Joanne shrugs off, “You just have to study it and study it. It’s a lot of trial and error.” Last year Hill’s replica of the suit worn by Lauren Bacall at her wedding to Humphrey Bogart, at Malabar Farm, was on display in the Big House during the “Hollywood Returns” celebration. She says it was the most unusual bridal ensemble she has ever created. Joanne, a retired speech therapist, learned the art of sewing from her Mother. She sometimes goes as far as Cleveland to visit a favorite fabric store or vintage clothing store in search of the perfect material. Creating these half scale replicas is work intensive and requires a great deal of skill with a needle. While some seaming can be done by machine, linings,
lace, beading and hems must all be hand finished. “You simply can’t do it all on a sewing machine. It just wouldn’t look right,” Hill said. People find Joanne by word of mouth. “I don’t do a lot of them, just a couple each year. If I had to do it for a living I think it would cease to be fun,” she chuckled.