After more than a decade of experience doing alterations out of her home and through bridal shop referrals, seamstress Nga Dinh has opened up her own shop in Cypress, Be Lan Couture.
The name of the shop is that of Dinh’s kindergarten-age daughter, who enjoys playing dress-up in child-size gowns her mother crafts for her. “Be” is loosely translated from the original Vietnamese for an affectionate nickname for a baby or child.
“Every Halloween, she picks out a pattern for me to make her a costume,” Dinh said.
Yet Dinh’s sewing skills are by no means limited to homemade costumes. She does alterations for bridal gowns, prom dresses and other formalwear and can even make a one-of-a-kind custom piece upon request.
“If they cannot find a wedding dress they like at the store, if they have some pictures or ideas, then we can put it together. I can make all sizes for women,” Dinh said.
She can make a bride’s dream wedding dress in as little as four weeks — plus a little extra time for tweaking post-fittings to ensure the perfect fit. Sometimes the work can be time-consuming, such as when a design calls for stitching on beadwork by hand or crafting dozens of tiny fabric pleats, but Dinh is passionate about the art of fashion.
“I love to sew. I love to design and to create,” she said. “It takes a lot of work, but I love it.”
Dinh recently went back to school at Austin Community College to study fashion design. While she was there, she designed a wedding dress entirely out of white plastic trash bags for a fashion show featuring alternative or recycled materials.
She displays that creation in the front window of her new shop, along with one of her original gowns from her Copper collection. These are a series of silky, floor-length evening gowns featuring a variety of carefully pleated bodices.
“I call it ‘couture’ because I like to do more detailed work,” Dinh said. “With the dress in the window, I had to make all the pleats before I completed the design of the dress.”
Dinh gets inspiration from magazines, and then makes sketches of her initial idea for how a dress should look. She then uses muslin and pins to create a mock-up of the gown on a dress form, making any alterations before using the muslin as a pattern to cut out the fabric of her choice.
In the future, Dinh hopes to display several sample designs in the shop, which she can then recreate in the fabric and particular size of a customer’s choice.
She has previously worked with many clients throughout northwest Houston, which influenced her decision to open her business in Cypress only a few weeks ago. Already locals have filed in with alteration requests.
“Women like different things from the store, like different fabric and something that fits their body,” Dinh said.
With prom season and plenty of spring and summer weddings in the near future, her nimble fingers will stay busy helping many women’s fashion fairy tales become a reality.
