Bride cuts dress, dyes it green as way to keep wearing it: 'Too expensive to just wear once'
WEYBRIDGE, England - Well, that’s one way to go green.
Emma Male, 36, got married in a $616 wedding dress, which she has now recycled into her favorite item of clothing.
“It was the first designer dress I tried and as soon as I put it on I just loved it,” bride Emma Male said of choosing the dress, which she purchased at a sample sale at her friend’s boutique. (Photo credit: VLA Wedding Photography/Mercury Press)
Male, an account manager from Weybridge, Surrey, got married in a woodland-themed wedding in 2016. After the wedding was over, Male was sad that she would never be able to wear her dress again, which led her to make an extreme decision – cut it up and dye it green.
“It was the first designer dress I tried and as soon as I put it on I just loved it,” Male said to the Mirror of choosing the dress, which she purchased at a sample sale at her friend’s boutique.
Though Male wanted a way to wear the dress again and again, remarking it was too “expensive [a] dress to just wear once,” she was dubious at first about dying it.
“When I first saw it going into the green dye, it looked so dark. I thought ‘Oh my god. What am I doing?’” she quipped.
Male decided to transform the dress by cutting off the bottom and dying the fabric green so she could wear the dress again and again. (Photo credit: VLA Wedding Photography/Mercury Press)
But Male’s cousin, Katie, reportedly helped push Male into transforming the dress. Together, the pair cut the full-length gown into a midi-dress and soaked the fabric in green dye.
“But I absolutely love it. It gets so much attention but nobody recognizes it from when we got married. My husband does, but that’s only because I go on about it all the time,” Male said to the Mirror.
Now the repurposed dress is the aspiring singer’s go-to dress. She reportedly wears it on stage when she performs.
A side by side shows the wedding dress transformation. (Photo credit: VLA Wedding Photography/Mercury Press)