Baltimore Designer Loses Entire Gown Studio In Massive Fire, Begins Rebuilding

By Zak Failla From Daily Voice

A three-alarm fire ripped through Hampden’s Historic Castle at Keswick on Monday night, destroying the bridal studio that designer Jill Andrews poured her life into.

Firefighters battled heavy flames on Nov. 10 after the blaze tore through the historic stone building that housed Jill Andrews Gowns, a Baltimore fixture known for couture bridal design, heirloom restorations, and community connection.

Andrews said she watched from outside as everything she built burned.

“With a heavy heart, I'm here to say the studio is a complete loss,” she said. “I’m shaking still, grateful that no one was hurt, first and foremost.”

She said she was allowed inside for only a moment.

“I grabbed a few armfuls – irreplaceable vintage, Samantha!! But that’s all,” she wrote. “I’m fortunate to have such great landlords and so blessed to have created such beauty with my hands and my heart.”

Andrews said she watched firefighters “risk their lives to save the beautiful historic building that housed my studio for 16 years.”

The loss stretched far beyond fabric and sketches.

“The studio was my creative sanctuary, it was my constant,” she wrote. “Behind the machine was my home.”

Andrews said the space was where life and work blended together.

“Friday afternoon girls club, we would just download the week… community fundraisers and silent auctions, Hopkins students with prototypes,” she wrote. “Fourteen New Year’s Eve parties… we set them up with TV and sleeping bags in the fitting room!!”

It was a venue for bridal showers, engagement parties, photoshoots, baby showers, family gatherings, and, she said, “a very personal memorial service and even my own wedding.”

She described it as the backdrop to milestones. “My daughter’s 21st birthday… the last birthday party with my father and brother, as a complete family.”

Late Monday, she watched the flames take it all.

“Last night I watched a very big part of my identity burn with blue hot flames,” she wrote. “I was surrounded by friends, everyone was out and safe. And the gowns will be all ok.”

When the fire was finally out, she said she returned home to her family.

“I went home and got into my warm bed. I’m so freaking lucky. So lucky. I have my family, I have my home, and I have a whole city sending me love.”

Messages from across Baltimore poured in. “You’re someone who always sees potential,” one supporter wrote, offering to volunteer.

GoFundMe organizer Caitlin Kotchman said Andrews had built “a space filled with love, creativity, beauty, and connection for countless brides and families.”

Kotchman wrote that the studio contained “years of carefully curated jewelry, hand-sewn gowns, and irreplaceable materials,” including heirloom dresses, couture pieces, French silk flowers, handmade hats, imported silks, vintage lace, antique display boxes, industrial equipment, and cabinets — all destroyed.

She also wrote that Andrews’ generosity stretched well beyond Baltimore.

When COVID hit, she “immediately pivoted her work to making masks,” organizing a team of sewers to work from home.

She also “helped design the ingenious Ebola suit for frontline workers in West Africa,” and one of her gowns appears at the Obama Presidential Center.

In the days since the fire, Andrews has begun sorting what little survived.

“There’s hope on those soggy ass pages,” she wrote, sharing a photo of water-damaged pattern books.

She said she inventoried “every single drawer in the work room,” including “every safety pin, skirt hook, inch of spiral boning, rolls of Ridgeline, loops of horsehair, spools of corset lacing…” But mold destroyed most of her thread stock.

“It’s hard to see it all go when you’re someone who always sees potential. But alas, mold is an opportunist.”

Still, she said the support around her has been overwhelming.

“What an amazing community. What an embracing hug from a whole city.”

Even with everything gone, Andrews said she’s already working again — at home — to make sure a bride gets to walk down the aisle in the dress she dreamed of.

“What was despair is now hope,” she wrote. “Send love to the sweetest Miss Jumana, who will walk down the aisle in her dream dress- with just a little hint of its crazy journey …”

“I will figure it out,” Andrews wrote. “I’ll start over.”

Those wishing to support her recovery can donate here.

“Don’t worry, beauty is boundless," Andrews added. "I’ll just make more.”