It's the Corrie wedding everyone’s been waiting for – and the designer behind the dress graces Macclesfield’s own cobbled streets.
Couturier Slim Chadwick, based at Lower Withington, has been working in preparation for character Tracy Barlow’s marriage to Steve McDonald.
His bespoke creation will be seen on screen on Monday, but it’s not the first time he has been contacted by Lance Milligan, the soap’s head of costume.
Slim, who owns Chadwicks & Co on Holmes Chapel Road, said: “Tracy’s is the third dress I have worked on for Coronation Street. Everyone in the north west grows up with Corrie so it’s an honour.”
In 2008 he designed a gown for Carla Connor, played by actress Alison King who needed her real pregnancy disguising.
He later designed a gown for character Becky Granger, played by Katherine Kelly. He said: “I had to make four identical – and very lavish – dresses because all sorts of things happened to it, including a champagne ‘accident’.
“Kate Ford who plays Tracy only needed two. It’s simple and elegant, nothing too grand.
“I met Kate and Lance and it was agreed that Tracy could go to town with her dress on the basis that she had been left some money by her grandmother, so she could splash out.”
The silk dress with a corset and headpiece with full-length veil is worth around £2,500.
He added: “The trick is to get a dress which fits the character but which the actress is comfortable in to do her job. It’s satisfying when you pull that off.”
The father-of-two has no formal training and learned dressmaking from his mother and aunt, both seamstresses.
He and his three seamstresses also make bespoke gowns for other occasions – and Victoria Beckham has worn his designs in the past.
