YSW in conversation with Suzanne Neville
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Thumbing through rails of wedding dresses, eying up the latest trends and poring over new bridal collections is all in a day’s work for the team here at Your Scottish Wedding.
Yet, there’s always something exciting about getting to sit down face to face with one of the designers behind the confections, the creative brains that conjure up the stuff of bridal dreams.
So I’m thrilled when the ‘Corset Queen’ herself, Suzanne Neville, makes time for a chat during a busy designer weekend at Rachel Scott Couture in Edinburgh.
When I enter the Dundas Street boutique on a Saturday morning Suzanne and Rachel have already met their first bride of the day, following a busy Friday at Rachel’s other store on Queensferry Road, meeting women keen to try Suzanne’s occasionwear.
The woman have a weekend packed full of appointments but as soon as you meet Suzanne it’s evident she’s in her element and her enthusiasm for her work is infectious.
“I just love what I do!” she smiles. “I’m basically obsessed with my job. Because of that I’m forever looking forward.”
Starting out as a designer when she was just 19, after graduating from the prestigious London College of Fashion, she travels the world with her shows, meeting brides at stockists along the way.
And she tells me just how important it is to meet her Scottish brides in person.
“It’s lovely for the brides,” she says. “Our first bride was a classic example. She tried on a dress which she loves from the collection but she wanted to change the neckline and add a sleeve.
“It’s these things that we can then get together and put the ideas together.
“I then do a sketch to show what it’s going to look like and make a bride see we can do it. It makes the bride really understand the process and by coming up here I can do that.”
Suzanne always finds it fascinating how different areas receive her collections and says in Scotland you get a whole different vibe, “yet the collection overall still works. There’s something for everyone wherever they are from.”
Speaking of her Scottish brides, Suzanne has often found them to be silhouette-focused and formerly they tended to lean towards more classic styles, but there’s an edge creeping in now.
“Girls want that edge,” she says. “Scottish brides are fashionable, especially with seeing more on social media now.”
Suzanne’s visit coincides with the arrival of her latest collection, ‘Enchanting’ which true to form, offers a wide range of silhouettes and styles.
But interestingly bridal design was not the focus when Suzanne was at college.
“My final collection was black, so the polar opposite,” she laughs.
“I think it’s just the sheer structure, pattern cutting, and the technical side of doing wedding dresses [I love] so even though it wasn’t really wedding dresses I chose to do while I was at colleges after I did a couple of wedding dresses I thought ‘Oh this is lovely, this is my thing.’”
Inspiration
For a woman who is naturally drawn to the mechanics of a dress and getting the fit just so you’d be forgiven for assuming structure is the starting point for each collection.
But Suzanne quickly dispels this. While the fit is of course important (“I like to show a figues off and enhance it. It’s amazing what you can do with a good fit, whether you’re adding bust pads, or pinning that extra tight waist”), fabric is where she naturally begins.
“I’ll spend seven months at least per collection just choosing my fabrics and working with the mills and then once I’ve got them I’ll look and think what am I going to do with it and I’ll start building the designs around it.”
Then once she’s thought out the look she’ll begin to think about the engineering and how she wants it to be made, “which often includes a corset.”
“I couldn’t imagine not having corsetry in my dresses,” she admits. “It’s my thing. I do think how a dress is made is really important.
“I think a lot of that is lost these days in production but because we make everything in-house I oversee everything, everything is manipulated on a mannequin so it’s very very old school after all these years.”
Enchanting
The latest 2025 ‘Enchanting’ collection marries sumptuous fabrics with exquisite tailoring seamlessly, offering something for every bride.
Beginning with the fabric as usual, Suzanne’s eye was caught by a number of floral prints and she began thinking along the lines of a garden theme.
“Then the Met Gala happened and they called it something Garden and I thought I can’t call it that now!” she says.
“So it was going to be a botanical garden theme with all of these flowers and anything really beautiful.
“I took the garden out and just called it Enchanting. That actually covers a lot more.”
While some dresses include floral prints, others take the names of flowers and you’ll find the likes of ‘Begonia’, ‘Buttercup’ and ‘Camomile’ among the newest release.
Of course Suzanne won’t be pressed to choose one standalone favourite – “They’re all my babies!” – but she really enjoys some of the prints, like the beautiful pink flowers in ‘Fantasy’ or the blue motifs of ‘Delphinium’.
And being a completely made-to-measure service, brides can choose to have those dresses plain.
Sign of the times
Having been in the industry for over 30 years Suzanne is well aware of how quickly trends can come and go.
So while the big trend for her this year has been the dropped or Basque waist it’s hard for her to get her head around doing it as she did it the first time around in the 90s.
“You’ve got to make it now, make it current,” she explains. “So in this collection there are a few but I haven’t overdone it.
“There’s a nod to it because I feel like you’ve got to move forward.
“It’s about it being flattering.
“There’s no point in making a trend so obvious that it’s unflattering.”
In demand
The Scottish brides who flocked to book appointments during the designer weekend are among the ranks of women who turn to Suzanne for form-flattering designs and she can count any number of celebrities among her clientele.
Vicky Pattison famously wore a stunning mini dress by the designer and Suzanne recently enjoyed working with Hannah Waddingham on her Golden Globes dress.
“First of all she has the most amazing figure,” she says.
“She’s tall and curvy so I just feel like her shape is everything I enjoy creating for. And she’s got a wonderful personality. She’s good fun.”
And then of course there’s Katherine Jenkins who has an entire room filled with Suzanne Neville dresses.
Suzanne creates everything for Katherine’s tours and loves making the super-glamorous numbers, experimenting with colour and sparkle.
Away from bridal
It’s not just celebrities who get to benefit from Suzanne’s forays into occasionwear.
Her gorgeous eveningwear offerings often feature intricate embroidery and bold colours, again with that emphasis on structure.
Rachel Scott’s occasionwear boutique on Queensferry Street stocks the designs and it’s a good place to hunt for a mother of the bride or groom outfit that will make you feel really special at your child’s wedding.
Suzanne loves when she gets to dress a MOB or MOG, especially when she’s designing for the bride too.
“It’s really lovely,” she says. “You get a buzz making people happy.
“We get tears. It’s emotional. It’s a special day for them as well.”
What’s next
She may already have three decades under her belt but Suzanne could happily continue doing what she does until her 90s.
The key of course is staying ahead of the curve and abreast of all the latest trends.
“I just want to make sure I stay relevant,” she says.
“You can’t stay behind because things move so fast right now.
“I feel that every year we continue to stay modern.
“Brides won’t necessarily know that I’ve been doing it for thirty-odd years, I hope!”
And she adds that there will be lots more eveningwear to come.
“Keep the eveningwear moving and carry on enjoying meeting lots of lovely people.”
Do you see yourself as a Suzanne Neville bride?
Book an appointment at Rachel Scott Couture and try on her stunning gowns
