Why I named my dresses Eira, Dwynwen and Olwen

On Welsh names, ancient legends, and why a dress deserves a story.

I learned to speak Welsh when I was little, and up until university all my education was in Welsh. I feel very lucky for that now – at the time I probably didn’t think much of it, but it’s such a gift and has helped with my ability to learn other languages.

That said, my Welshness is a bit of a mix because my Mum’s side of the family is English. Mum didn’t grow up with any Welsh at all, but when she met my Dad and they moved to Wales she made the effort to learn some Welsh so she could help us with school when we were younger. She’s very good (she will strongly disagree with that), and she’s now getting even better as she’s learning again with her grandchildren.

My parents gave all my brothers very Welsh names. I, however, may or may not have been named after one of my dad’s celebrity crushes… I can’t confirm this...

Anyway — Blodau means flowers in Welsh. That part was easy. Pronounced Blod-ai btw, not Blod-ow (u is more like an i in Welsh)

Calling the dresses something like Dress 1 felt… a bit sad… So I wanted to actually name them. I didn’t overthink it too much, I just knew I wanted them to feel connected to Wales in some way. So I started looking at Welsh names, and stories, and sort of fell into a bit of a rabbit hole.

I ended up naming each dress after a Welsh woman – either real or from folklore — ideally with some kind of link to nature or flowers (very on brand of me).

Here’s what I landed on:

Eira 🤍 Eira means snow in Welsh. It’s such a lovely girl’s name that’s growing in popularity. Also, the Eira dress was designed with bridal in mind, so Eira felt really fitting.

Dwynwen 💙 Dwynwen is the Welsh patron saint of lovers. Her day is 25th January — Dydd Santes Dwynwen — which is basically our version of Valentine’s Day (and, I stand by this, better).

The short version of her story is that she fell in love with someone she couldn’t be with, prayed about it, was given a potion to forget him (handy), and then got three wishes. Instead of using them for herself, she wished for other people to be happy in love, which is actually very wholesome of her.

She later went to live on Llanddwyn Island, off Anglesey. There are still the ruins of a church there, right out on this narrow bit of land surrounded by sea. It’s one of those places that feels a bit unreal when you’re there.

Olwen 🌼 Olwen is from the Mabinogion, which is a collection of old Welsh stories that I’ve been mildly (read: deeply) obsessed with for years.

She appears in Culhwch and Olwen, and her name is usually translated as “white footprint”. The main thing people remember is that flowers, specifically white trefoils, would grow wherever she walked. So basically: she walked around and flowers appeared behind her. Which is… ideal, really.

That one didn’t take much convincing.

And that’s why I chose these names. Three dresses, three names, all slightly more interesting than numbers, hopefully!

If you want to go down the Mabinogion rabbit hole — and I genuinely hope you do — the Sioned Davies translation is widely considered the most readable modern version. You won't regret it.

Ciao for now

Olivia, Blodau 🌸