Bride cuts and dyes her wedding dress purple for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour

Taylor Swift fan admits she was ‘nervous’ to cut and dye her gown

A woman has detailed how she redesigned her wedding dress into an enchanted look for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour.

TikToker Miranda Mendelson, who goes by the username @slashedbeauty, had sparks flying in her mind when she transformed her long white wedding gown into a Speak Now-inspired dress ahead of the singer’s recent concert in Los Angeles. She posted a two-part video to her page on 24 July to show the step-by-step process that went into cutting and dying the formerly white gown.

Speaking to Insider, Mendelson said that she and her friends had struggled to get tickets for the first weekend of shows in California, but eventually landed tickets from some mutuals. Once their seats were secured, the creator and her peers decided they would each dress up as an era, and of course, she chose Swift’s 2010 album.

“I immediately knew I wanted to claim ‘Speak Now,’ as it’s one of my favourite Taylor albums that I connected so deeply with at the time it was released when I was a senior in high school,” she said. “This was before we even knew that ‘Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)’ was coming out this year.”

Following the theme of the album covers – Swift wore a purple Reem Acra design on both the original and “Taylor’s version” - Mendelson was motivated to reimagine her 2017 wedding gown in a completely different form.

“I’ve been wanting to reuse my wedding dress for something special for awhile now,” she admitted in part one of her series. “I got this wacky idea. It’s been sitting in my closet for six years... excited to give it a second life.”

First, the TikToker wanted to crop the length of her dress to be above the knee, so she left the previously floor-length gown with a seamstress in her neighbourhood. After two weeks, Mendelson picked up the finished product and headed home to try it on.

“It’s so freaking cute,” she proclaimed as she tried on the much-shorter dress. “I mean how adorable is it at this length? This came out way better than I even expected. I love it.”

Next step was to dye the dress purple. Mendelson admitted she was “nervous” about this part of the process because she risked ruining the dress, especially since she wasn’t able to keep it boiling in the colour on the stove as directed as the clothing was too “bulky” to keep in a pot. Instead, she grabbed a huge black bin and filled it with heaps of boiling water.

“Luckily, I live in Las Vegas where our tap water can get pretty hot in the summer - and also added some boiling water to a large bin - and crossed my fingers it would work out,” she said.

The bodice of the dress was first to absorb the radiant purple, while the skirt slowly assumed a light shade over an hour and a half. After letting the fabric dry overnight, Mendelson couldn’t believe the finished product.

“Even though there were some surprises - the top layer of the skirt ended up staying white - I was pleasantly surprised with the results and I actually liked the variation I got in colour,” the TikTok user noted, referring to the contrast of the now-deep purple bodice and faint purple hues in the layered skirt.

In the clips, Mendelson also contemplated adding butterflies to the tulle bottom but didn’t confirm she would.

Both videos were posted to Instagram and Facebook, attracting about 1.5m views across both platforms. While there appeared to be an overwhelming amount of support and awe for Mendelson’s wedding gown transformation, there were also a few critics, who weren’t supportive of the TikToker’s decision to strip the gown of its pure form.

“Should be a tutorial on how to mess up your wedding dress,” one critic claimed.

However, according to Mendelson, “she has no regrets”. And, contrary to the criticism, the Swiftie is excited to give her gown additional “sentimental value” and continue to wear it.

“Personally, I find it much more special that I can continue to wear this dress, and add to its sentimental value through upcycling and rewearing it versus storing it away to collect dust,” Mendelson explained. “Dyeing and shortening it doesn’t get rid of any of the sentimental value for me. It’s still what I wore on my wedding day, except more functional for me at this point in my life.”

She also revealed that, when the gown doesn’t fit her anymore, she plans to donate it to a teenager in an underprivileged community.

The Independent has contacted Mendelson for a comment.