In fine feathers: this Michael Cinco wedding dress took 400 hours to make

Many brides will go to any length to find their dream wedding dress, and for one engaged woman, finding her gown meant travelling more than 5,000 kilometres to the UAE. Filipino designer Michael Cinco shared a video this week of a bride who had journeyed from Kiev to his Dubai Design District atelier for a fitting. Her romantic choice for the big day? A blush-pink strapless gown, scattered with feathers and falling into a theatrical, tiered skirt. The gown was not actually a bridal creation but plucked from Cinco's autumn / winter 2019 collection, which the bride-to-be spotted on the designer's social media accounts. "The moment our Ukrainian bride saw the photo posted on our Instagram page, she immediately sent us an email and travelled from Kiev to Dubai to see it," Cinco tells The National. "She fell in love with the gown the moment she laid her eyes on it and decided to buy it and wear it as her wedding dress." The statement design is made of layered tulle adorned with delicate feathers at the bottom of each ruffle, Cinco added, with each shirred-cut piece of tulle stitched together for a plisse effect. "It took 400 hours to finish by skilled artisans," the designer, who has dressed the likes of Jennifer Lopez and Lady Gaga, revealed. The celebrity-beloved couturier also creates bespoke wedding dresses, and clothed crystal heiress Victoria Swarovski for her big day in 2017. The 26-year-old wore a crystal gem-adorned gown, worth an estimated Dh3.7 million, with a six-metre train as she walked down the aisle in Italy. Cinco, who founded his eponymous label in Dubai in 2003, is even the subject of an upcoming exhibition, held at Savannah College of Art and Design's SCAD Museum of Art in the US. The gallery, located in Atlanta, is giving fans a chance to get a closer look at the couturier's intricate and elaborate work, which has also decorated Hollywood A-listers such as Beyonce, Rihanna and Aishwarya Rai. The exhibition, which marks Cinco's first solo museum show, will take place between Thursday, October 3 and Sunday, January 5, 2020, and will bring some of the designer's most recognisable work from the UAE to the States. "They want to exhibit the dresses worn by celebrities," Cinco told The National earlier this month, adding that his team was busy getting gowns ready for the show. "I never dreamed my clothes would be in a museum, but I'm glad and I'm so lucky." Among those bound for SCAD is the voluminous, fairytale-worthy number worn by Devdas star Rai to the Cannes Film Festival in 2017, a captivating dress that saw the Bollywood actress dubbed a modern-day Cinderella. Another gown worn by Rai at Cannes a year on, a crystal-encrusted sheath finished with a statement train designed to resemble a butterfly's wings (above), is also expected to feature among the pieces on display. "This exhibition ... explores [Cinco's] unique global perspective, evident in his use of French couture techniques alongside traditional Filipino textiles and embroidery methods," a statement from SCAD detailed. Designers previously showcased by the museum include British punk favourite Vivienne Westwood, Venezuelan-born Carolina Herrera and China's Guo Pei.

In fine feathers: this Michael Cinco wedding dress took 400 hours to make

The Filipino designer shared a close-up look at this blush-pink dress from his Dubai atelier, which a bride travelled from Kiev to buy