Big News about "The Dress"

The Sunday Times and The Daily Telegraph are both claiming that Alexander McQueen designer Sarah Burton is making Kate Middleton's wedding dress.

Sarah Burton

According to the New York Times, after McQueen's death, Burton was: "the only person really qualified for the job. She was a student at Central Saint Martins in London when she began working in 1996 in Mr. McQueen’s studio as part of a work-study program. As she told me in March, “We got on very well and he said, ‘Why don’t you just stay?’ I went back to school for a year and I continued working there at the same time. He completely taught me everything.”

Quietly assured and dedicated to the small details, Ms. Burton remained his first assistant until his death this past February. She was also responsible for translating Mr. McQueen’s runway collections into commercial pieces, translations that have become sharper in recent years. She is not a star [until today], but she is very well known in the fashion world and, most important, has worked closely over the years with the pattern makers and other technical people, especially in Italy, who produce the McQueen line. In promoting the best-qualified person for the job, and not going outside the house for a name designer not intimately connected to the McQueen story, Gucci Group and McQueen executives have a very positive statement about the business."

If this is true - and Sarah Burton's name is everywhere this morning, Ms. Middleton has made a brilliant choice. Perhaps a look at Ms. Burton's first full collection will provide a few clues as to what we can look forward to in April.