35 years as a designer and dressmaker
I have been designing and making bridal gowns, dresses for special occasions and evening wear for over 35 years. After graduating from Bath Spa University in Fashion and Textiles, I worked for London’s top costumier making costumes for the major west end shows. In 1993 I set up my own business, designing and creating bridal, occasion and evening wear.
Bespoke design to meet your wishes
As you see from my gallery, I will design within your wishes using your ideas and the style of the occasion along with the experience I have gained over thirty years, to design and make a gown or outfit that you truly love.
An informal and inclusive memorable experience
I personally do the whole process from start to finish, from the initial concept and design, through cutting and sewing to beading and finishing, with you being involved in the whole process along the way.
Fittings are informal, inclusive and very enjoyable. The result is a highly unique, individual and memorable experience.
I certainly don't recommend Joanne Bell to anyone.I had the misfortune of trusting her and instructingher to sew for me, she agreed withwhat I requested to be done, but she ruined the material I brought to her and charged me extra for amending the mistakes she made.Joanne agrees with her clients but she ignores clients requests.Her greed and her arrogance speaks volumes about her. I reiterate that I do not recommend Joanne Bell as a seamstress.
My friend and I had a terrible and unpleasant experience with Joanne Bell. Unfortunately we requested her services as we needed to find someone to make costumes for us and when we explained so to Joanne, we expressed that the costumes were going to be used for a series of important events around the UK to raise awareness about a serious issue against animal cruelty and inform the public about certain products on sale in certain Chinese medicine shops and on-line which contain bear bile.We asked Joanne to add extra material around the neck area for one of the costumes and even showed her photos of example costumes, we verbally explained how we wanted the costumes to look and we even provided Joanne with the patterns for each costume with written instructions plus we provided her with the pattern for the extra material to be added around the neck area, we gave Joanne accurate measurements for each one and we bought expensive fabric material, elastics, zips and whatever was needed to make the costumes.Joanne gave us a price and although she charges high prices, we gave her the go ahead to make our costumes, Joanne agreed to all our requests and said that the costumes were going to be completed between 3 to 4 weeks.A few days later Joanne contacted us at a very unreasonable hour (3am) and asked us if we would like to go and try the costumes later that morning. Although we live a fair distance from where Joanne is based we travelled to her home, only to discover that she wasn't at home and had left a message with someone else saying that she had to go somewhere, this happened on several occasions and when we finally got a chance to see Joanne she had an arrogant attitude and said that she had to put the work on hold due to some other work.Eventually when the costumes were made we were shocked and disgusted as Joanne didn't use the individual patterns we provided her with, basically she just did what ever she wanted and sewed both of our costumes extremely large and she didn't add the extra piece of material to the costume that we specifically asked her to do and which she agreed to.When we raised these issues with her she even charged us extra to add the material to the neck of one of the costumes and she reluctantly shortened the arms and legs of both costumes. The costumes look ridiculously large and wide and they are actually hazardous making us trip over the extra wide material around the ankles.We were in shock but most unfortunately we had no choice but to accept the costumes and to pay the extra money she demanded as we needed to have the costumes ready for our important event the next day in London to raise awareness about bear bile farming the event was with Jill Robinson the founder of Animals Asia, the actor Peter Egan and Virginia McKenna actress and founder of the Born Free Foundation. Joanne didn't take us seriously and she lied to us and agreed to go ahead with making our costumes when in fact she was just going to ruin our costumes and to charge us her high fees plus extra for shortening both costumes and for adding the extra material to one of them which we previously requested and she agreed to do at no extra cost.We wonder why Joanne agreed to take the job when clearly she isn't competent, we feel as if when we mentioned bear bile farming and our cause she straight away discriminated against us and took a dislike to us and basically took her frustrations out on us.We certainly do not recommend Joanne Bell as a seamstress for any work or alterations needed.
Jo altered my mother of the bride dress to fit me perfectly - took time to see the best way to approach the alteration. Would definitely recommend her ! Excellent service.
A wedding dress is a very personal. Whether you require something more traditional or a little different Jo is certainly the lady to help you create your vision.She has also done several alterations for me. I would highly recommend her
Dave & I were extremely impressed and delighted with the alterations that Jo completed for my wedding dress and Daves groom shorts. Her recommendation on keeping the front shape of my dress by adjusting the height on the shoulders was perfect, it fitted like a dream. Thank you Jo for everything you did for us to make our Jamaican wedding day dream come true.
Jo designed and made my wedding dress. She was very professional but very friendly and approachable from the outset. She listened carefully to what I wanted and also had some really good ideas which I would not have thought of but which would enhance the design. She discussed every stage of the design and making process so that I could approve it before she moved on. Jo was very diligent in the fitting of my dress to make sure that it fitted me perfectly and it looked absolutely stunning. I was absolutely delighted with the work she did and would highly recommend her.
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Contact information
Mobile: 07721 033258
Email: enquiries@jobelldresses.com