Our story

We make each gown from our small premises in picturesque Essex, close to the edge of Suffolk.  All of our gowns start and finish here so we are in touch with the entire process.  In purchasing a gown from us you will be helping support products designed and made in the U.K.

Our story begun here with a few metres of silk that, when cut, draped and stitched together with a few metres of cotton, transformed into a beautiful Christening gown for a baby; luxurious on the outside... and wonderfully soft on the inside.  That sounds simple doesn't it?  Well, it's not quite like that!

The Gown Box was born as a result of a fruitless search for the Christening gown we desired.  Every time we looked at gowns in shops we asked,

"How simple and natural do the gowns on the hangers look?"  The answer was, and still is, "Not as simple and natural as can be".

Garments can be made from all sorts of manmade fibres and unnecessary embellishments, such as sequins, which may not easily biodegrade or may claim to be biodegradable but need industrial composting in order to break down.  It doesn't seem right to us that as customers we are not getting the simplest, most natural gowns.  Our aim is to provide you with a gown you will love and want to cherish.  A garment which is an alternative to the mainstream products that are partly or completely synthetic.  A garment that is designed to go back to the earth.

The way we see it, throughout history and right across the world, clothing has always been used to define our identities and hone our personal tastes.  What we wear can be used to mark our rituals, beliefs or traditions, whilst bringing us together.  At The Gown Box we are passionate about the handmade Christening gown that at it's heart speaks for our environment.  We love the unmistakeably simple look.  We have a penchant for silks and cottons.

For us it's also about making the Christening gown that makes a connection with arts and crafts and generational skills.  Manual skills involved in cutting, sewing and assembling (not to mention mending, unpicking, disassembling, re-cutting, re-sewing and re-fitting) have been in existence for millennia.  They are not new to any culture on the planet!  Yet sadly, through the modern-day clothing market we have been encouraged to buy more and more poorly-made, low-priced, mass-produced and sometimes ill-fitting clothing, much of it not designed to go back to the earth or be repaired.  This is a deliberate means by large manufacturers to increase production of the same items.  The manual skills involved in sewing, once taught in school and connecting us to previous generations, help provide hope for a future in which we counteract the disposure culture too familiar to us and better value the things we wear.  

We believe that perhaps the more we know about the clothes we purchase or make, the greater our emotional connection and therefore the easier it becomes to cherish our clothing; maybe to the point of someday even enriching another person's life.

So that's about the gown.  What about the storage box?  We know that the storage boxes we provide aren't just for packaging and posting, nor for temporary protection.  We've researched many of the storage options available.  That's why we offer boxes made from high quality materials and suitable for long term storage to care for your gown over many years.  It's our hope that by combining a beautiful silk Christening gown with a ready-made keepsake box a gown from The Gown Box will be irresistible!

The Gown Box

for your Baby's Christening

a Keepsake Treasured over the Years