Bridal atelier, Ljubljana

One dress, cut for one person

Every gown here began as a calico toile on a stand, pinned and cut again until it fit, before a meter of silk was touched. Twenty-two of them leave this room a year and no two are the same.

Made in
One room, start to finish
Fittings
Four, plus the toile
Lead time
9 to 12 months
Silk crepe on the stand, three weeks before the wedding

Lookbook

Six of the last twenty-two

Each one is filed with the cloth it was made in and the hours that went into it by hand. The whole rail is on the lookbook page.

The atelier

How a dress gets made here

Three things that never change, whoever is standing on the block.

In the workroom on Eipprova, the week before a wedding

I learned to cut on other people's patterns and spent six years unpicking them. Now I keep one rule above the table: the dress belongs to the person standing in it, not to the drawing.

The toile comes first

Nothing is cut in silk until a calico version has been fitted on you, taken apart and cut again. It costs a month and it saves the dress.

The cloth is chosen in daylight

We stand at the north window with three or four bolts and rule out the ones that go gray on you. Ivory is not one color, it is about forty.

The last fitting is three weeks out

Late enough that nothing changes afterward, early enough that there is still time to take a sleeve off and start it again. Twice I have.

Klara Rebec Cutter and fitter, since 2012

By hand

What is done by hand, and what it takes

The work a machine cannot do, counted honestly.

The work
Hours
The calico toile Cut, fitted, taken apart and cut again
26
Hand-rolled hems Chiffon and organza, no machine touches the edge
14
Covered buttons and loops Each button cut from the dress cloth and worked shut
9
The foundation Boning, coutil and tape, built like a separate garment
31
Lace joined by hand Motifs cut apart and rejoined so the seam disappears
22
Finishing and pressing Bar tacks, thread eyes, bindings, three days at the iron
18
A typical gown Cutting, machine work and fittings sit on top of this
120

These are the atelier's own hours, averaged over the last thirty gowns. They are why a dress takes months rather than weeks, and why the price is what it is.

What you can commission

Three ways in

Every route ends in a dress that fits you and nobody else. They differ in how much of it starts from a blank sheet.

Made to order

A dress from the collection, cut to your measurements and finished in the cloth you choose. The shape is already resolved, so the work goes into the fit.

  • Your measurements, not a size
  • Cloth chosen together from the shelf
  • Sleeve, neckline and back adjusted
  • Three fittings in the atelier
  • Final press and a travel bag
Fittings Three Start 9 months out Ask about this

Bespoke

A dress that does not exist yet. We start with a conversation and a pencil, build it in calico, and only then cut the silk.

  • Two design meetings and drawings
  • A full calico toile, fitted twice
  • Cloth sourced for the dress
  • Four to five fittings
  • One year of alterations after the day
Fittings Four to five Start 12 months out Ask about this

Your mother's dress

A gown already in the family, remade to fit you. Old cloth is fragile and has its own rules, so this begins with an honest look at what it can take.

  • An assessment before anything is promised
  • Cleaning and repair where it is needed
  • Recut, relined and refinished
  • New cloth added where the old runs out
  • Three fittings, sometimes four
Fittings Three or four Start 10 months out Bring it in

Prices

What a dress costs

Written down, because nobody should have to ask twice. Every figure is a starting point and the cloth is the part that moves.

Made to order A dress from the collection, cut to your measurements
From $4,200
Bespoke Drawn, toiled and cut for you from a blank sheet
From $7,800
Your mother's dress An existing gown assessed, recut and refinished
From $2,600

In every figure above

  • All fittings in the atelier
  • The calico toile
  • A foundation built into the dress
  • Hand finishing throughout
  • A final press before you collect
  • Alterations for a year after the day

Terms

Deposit
40% holds your date, the rest in two payments
Cloth
Charged at cost, $300 to $2,000 depending on what you choose
Veils and capes
From $480, made in the same cloth
Travel
Fittings are here in the atelier; I travel for the fitting before the day within Slovenia

Timing

Counting back from the day

The question I am asked most is when to start. Here is the whole thing, measured backward from the wedding.

12 months before

The first meeting

An hour in the atelier. You bring the date, the place and whatever you have torn out of magazines. I bring cloth to touch.

9 months before

Drawings and cloth

Two drawings to choose between, then the cloth is ordered. The deposit holds your place in the book.

6 months before

The toile

A calico version of the dress, fitted on you and marked up. This is where the shape is actually decided.

3 months before

Silk on the stand

The real cloth is cut and put together loosely. Second fitting, and usually the one where you first see it.

3 weeks before

The last fitting

Hem, closures and the foundation set to your body as it is now. Nothing changes after this.

1 week before

Collection

Pressed, bagged and handed over, with a small kit of thread, a needle and two spare buttons.

Shorter timelines happen. If your date is inside six months, write anyway and I will tell you honestly what is possible.

Brides

Written after the day

Each one filed against the dress it was written about, because that is how I remember them.

I went in with a folder of pictures and came out with something none of them looked like. Three fittings in I understood she had been listening to what I kept touching, not what I kept saying.
Nika June 2025 Wore Line, silk crepe
My mother's dress had been in a box since 1989 and I was told twice it could not be saved. It was cut down, relined and I wore it with my own back on it.
Tea September 2025 Wore Nineteen eighty-nine, remade duchesse satin
I danced for six hours and never once thought about the dress. That is the whole review. It stayed exactly where she put it.
Ana August 2025 Wore Slip, bias-cut silk satin
The toile fitting is where I stopped being nervous. Standing in a plain calico version of my own dress, marked up in pencil, made it feel like a piece of work rather than a purchase.
Manca May 2025 Wore Sleeve, silk organza

Press

Written about elsewhere

The pieces I did not write.

Vogue Adria
Six ateliers still cutting a toile before the cloth
2026
Delo, Sobotna priloga
The dressmaker on Eipprova who keeps every calico
2025
Elle Slovenia
A quiet answer to the bridal warehouse
2025
Ljubljana Design Week
Talk: what a dress costs, and why
2024
Mladina
Handwork, and who is left doing it
2023

Before you write

The questions I get asked

If yours is not here, ask it. Nobody has ever asked me something silly about a wedding dress.

How far ahead should I come?
Nine to twelve months for a bespoke dress, nine for made to order. That is not a queue tactic: the toile alone takes a month of back and forth, and cloth is often woven to order.
What happens at the first appointment?
An hour, no charge, no commitment. You try three or four shapes in calico so we can see what your shoulders and back actually want, and we talk about money before anything else.
Can my body change between fittings?
It always does, and the dress is built for it. The foundation is laced or hooked in a way that carries a few centimeters either side, and the last fitting is deliberately three weeks out.
Do you travel for fittings?
Fittings happen here, where the stand, the mirrors and the cloth are. For the fitting before the day I will travel anywhere in Slovenia; further than that we talk about it.
What about veils, capes and alterations after?
Veils and capes are made in the same cloth and quoted with the dress. Alterations to anything I made are free for a year after the wedding, including taking it in or letting it out.
Can I bring my mother's dress?
Yes, and bring it before you decide anything else. Old silk can be beautiful and it can be dust, and only an honest look at the seams will tell you which one you have.

Appointments

Come and stand in front of the mirror

The first hour costs nothing and commits you to nothing. Tell me the date and the place and I will tell you honestly whether I can do it.

The street door on Eipprova, one flight down from the pavement
Where
Eipprova 14, Trnovo, 1000 Ljubljana
Appointments
Tuesday to Friday, 10 to 6, and two Saturdays a month
In the book
Six commissions open for 2027, two for late 2026
Elsewhere
Your name
Your email
The date
The place
What you have in mind