The Secret Garden book was first published around 1911, I thought I would try and blend in some of the fashion from that era with the bridesmaids dresses.
So the research begins...

Thanks to Wikipedia I learnt that the fashion era from 1890 to 1914 is quite lovely and it is described as Edwardian. The Edwardian Silhouette which imerged around 1908 had the waistline raised until it was a column like empire line.

(www.fashion-era.com)

At this point I'm thinking this style wouldn't look very flattering for a bridesmaids dress. However there are some elements that I could incorporate.
For instance as my bridesmaids are curvy, I think empire line would look lovely. Long sleeves wouldn't be ideal for Summer time, so perhaps we will try cap sleeves.
One thing we haven't decided is whether we're going to have long or short dresses. We'll see!

Here are some empire line dresses that I found with cap sleeves which I really like...in fact we might be going backwards with the fashion era around 1800s...because I think we're stepping into the Jane Austen world. Oops!

Melanie Potro has these amazing dresses which are actually for brides but I thought they would be just as lovely for bridesmaids (not in white of course).

Sarah Houston also has this gorgeous Jane Austen inspired dress with an empire line. The cap sleeves are just so gorgeous.

This is where I'm at with bridesmaids dresses so far. The girls will just have to try on a few similar dresses to see if the empire style suits them, if it does then we're going to try and hunt down an awesome dress maker and if not we'll have to consider another style. I'll keep you posted..

PS. Happy Australia Day!

xoxo

Farrah