Custom theater and Victorian costumes. Phoenix, AZ

Wedding, Evening and Formal Wear

We create exquisite formal wear for all occasions. Our gowns are often highly embroidered and encrusted with pearls and crystals. In producing each item of formal wear, we take your specific desires and create a gown designed to your specific requirements from fabrics that will make you feel eligant and beauiful. We have suppliers of the finest silks and laces, all at very reasonable prices.

We spend time with you on the design of your outfit, assist you with your fabric choices and colors and produce a pattern for your gown to your exact size. Our pricing structure includes multiple fittings to ensure just the right fit and hem length. If your purchase is intended to be shipped and you are unable to attend fittings, we have worked that out to accomodate your needs.

Kate came to us with only a few yards of vintage lace that she wanted to include in her dream wedding dress. We worked out a design in matching cream silk and pearls, using her lace over the silk skirt. The seperate bodice has a full corset built into it to give her a lovely hourglass figure withough adding additional layers. We hand strung the freshwate pears across her arms and added additional pearls to the bodice front.

This Victorian era ball gown was years in the making. It is worn by our designer, Claudia Villa. Claudia had seen this beautiful deep purple tulle lace and waited for years for it to go on sale, when she bought it all. She designed the gown to show off the incredible bead-work.

This photo shows our designer wearing the dress in the picture at the left to a formal Victorian ball . It also shows the matching hat we created for her as well as the matching handbag. She is accompanied by her nephew, Asa, whom we also costumed for this occasion. Villa Costuming can produce fantastic outfits for any era and especially cater to the reenacting communities.

Sonya found this lovely wedding dress online, but when it came in it didn't fit quite right. In the course of doing the alterations to complete the remake of this gown we had to open all the side seams and remove the skirt to make it fit properly. When the alterations were completed, we bustled the skirt to take up the train enough so that she could waltz with her groom. We used a 19th century technique to bustle the skirt so that it could be worn full length for the ceromony but be shortened with little effort for the reception and dancing

When we opened Sonya's bodice to do the alterations, we discovered that the bead-work on the bodice was sewn through all the layers. We had to remove the majority of the beads as well as the lovely drapes over the arms and neckline. Because the gown was made overseas, there were no knots holding any of the bead-work together. Part of our alterations included completely reworking all the draped bead-work as well are replacing the beads on the bodice. We think it was worth it.

Anna wanted a simple yet elegant gown that could be dyed after the wedding so she could wear it again. We make the gown of simple undyed silk, sewn in dyable thread so that it could be dyed afterward. Simple spaghetti straps cross at the back and the dress includes a short draped train at the back. The front of the gown has a silk gauze over drape as well, which sadly doesn't show well in this photo. This is her husbands favorite wedding shot.