Gemma’s bright orange wedding dress revealed by Coronation Street

Orange is definitely the new Black for Coronation Street’s Gemma Winter when she walks down the aisle next week.

Her huge jaw-dropping orange wedding gown has been co-designed and made by drag queen and fashion designer Liquorice Black – famous for their stunning unique creations for shows such as RuPaul’s Drag Race.

Manchester designer Liquorice Black worked in conjunction with Coronation Street Head of Costume Alex Hatzar and actress Dolly Rose Campbell to create the dress of Gemma’s dreams. On-screen Gemma has bought a charity shop dress which has been dyed and customised by her pal, seamstress Izzy Armstrong, played by Cherylee Houston.

In reality, the impressive two-metre wide dress, with a stunning seven-metre long train, complete with fairy lights, was crafted at Liquorice Black’s studio in Manchester. The dress is so large that a short version had to be made as Dolly’s co-stars couldn’t get near enough to film close-up scenes.

Dolly Rose Campbell:

“Myself and Alex in costume had lots of discussions about what Gemma would want as her dream dress and had put some ideas together. We decided on orange as a nod to Gemma and Chesney being ginger and also Gemma loves bright colours.

“Liquorice and I have a mutual friend and I had seen an exhibition of their work and knew they had worked on RuPaul’s Drag Race UK so I knew that they would be the best person to make the dress, I was absolutely delighted when they said yes.”

Facts and figures:

• The dress has 125 metres of tiny fairy lights on wire & the lights on the train are activated by a remote control!

• There are approximately 10,000 stones all individually glued on by hand

• The dress took over 200 hours to make

• The train is 7 metres long, Dolly wanted it even longer but we had to rein her in!

• We had 2 skirts made, the one that you’ve all seen & another much shorter, smaller one that Dolly wore in the close up shots so her fellow cast members could actually get near her in the scenes

Coronation Street Head of Costume Alex Hatzar:

“Dolly & I have talked about Gemma’s wedding dress for years even before she was with Chesney! I’ve always known I wanted it to light up but wanted something different from just the skirt lighting up as we’ve all seen that before. I knew it had to be something with the wow factor & Gemma was never going to go for a white dress. Orange just seemed to work for the character as Gemma is so vibrant & it also worked for Chesney & the family she’s marrying into!

“We had to storyline quite a lot of it to make it work as the character doesn’t have any money so it was really helpful that Dolly & I had very early discussions, about 6 months prior to filming so we could liaise with editorial & they helped make it happen. I also requested that there were no stunts or spillages on the dress as I knew there wouldn’t be the time or the budget for more than one dress for repeats or for a stunt double to wear.

“It was Dolly’s idea to get Liquorice on board, she knew them from Drag Race UK & loved the costumes they had made for that. I took one look at their  Instagram page and was sold, they were just what we were looking for! We met them originally in December & talked through ideas. I’d put together a mood board of what I was thinking & what I wanted to incorporate into the dress but I also needed to make them aware that it still needed to be practical as Dolly would be wearing it for 12 hours a day & it would be seen from all angles.”

Coronation Street airs Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays on ITV1 and STV.