Pamela Johnston wanted a perfect wedding dress. Nothing bought off the rack. Something unique and made especially for her. Someone she knew agreed to the task. Sadly, mere months before the November nuptials in Palm Springs, that person backed out for unforeseeable reasons. Johnston was devastated.

Johnston, who owns her own jewelry line, Plume, sold at Bergdorf Goodman, is co-owner of the boutique Council, in Brooklyn. She quickly jumped into action. With only two months to find a dress, she called upon her friend Alireza Massoumnia. Massoumnia, who has designed his own label and for Zac Posen, Monique Lhuillier, and Marchesa, agreed to design the dress on the fly as a gift.

After a few glasses of wine and an evening spent carefully reviewing Massoumnia’s impressive art-book collection, the two focused on a single image taken from a Balenciaga collection from 1965. The dress, with an open back and downward bow, was the style Johnston had envisioned. A month and a half before the wedding, Massoumnia started sketching. Johnston sipped her wine, anxiously waiting.

The Wedding Dress is a four-part post on the creation, fitting, and unveiling of Pamela Johnston’s wedding dress, designed and made by Alireza Massoumnia. Part 2 will document the first fitting; part 3, the second; and part 4 will unveil the dress after the November 7 wedding in Palm Springs.