When British pop star and music scion Mabel married record label A&R executive Preye Crooks last month, fans might have expected her to wear a major label like Vivienne Westwood, or a rising bridal star like Danielle Frankel for the nuptials. Instead, Mabel opted for emerging London-based designer Feben to outfit the rehearsal dinner, followed by archival, Spring/Summer 2006 Dolce Gabbana for the party. It’s the first time Feben, better known for her textured black evening gowns, has done bridal. But it won’t be the last.
“We also dressed her sister Tyson, niece, and stylist Simone Beyene,” the designer says, speaking from her London studio. “The [luxury] market has been really hard lately, but as hard as it’s been, it’s made us think of different ways of working such as bridal, which has led to exciting opportunities.”
Feben is just getting started, but for some young designers, bridal has become a lifeline, as the luxury slowdown wages on and wholesale sales dwindle for smaller ready-to-wear players. And for brides, sourcing from an emerging designer (or choosing one-of-a-kind archival pieces) allows them to feel unique in a sea of wedding content on social media feeds all summer.
“Young people — mainly women — are not only looking for something they love and can actually afford, but also a wedding dress that makes them feel relevant and modern,” says Mimma Viglezio, a creative consultant and former fashion executive. She cites Molly Goddard, an early adopter who spotted the trend and launched bridal in 2020. “Her bridal has been great from day one, because it is expensive but reasonable and in a style that is cool. Young women like it.”
Earlier this year, Ssense launched its third bridal capsule since 2023 (when it began the series), working with a handful of smaller designers who had never previously executed bridal collections, such as Shushu/Tong, Aaron Esh and Vaquera. Tellingly, the first capsule was entitled ‘Anti-Bridal’, focusing on non-traditional designs and names newer to the category, speaking to the opportunity for fashion’s smaller labels to bring their creativity to the bridal market.
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More longevity, higher margins
New York-based designer Jackson Wiederhoeft launched their eponymous ready-to-wear label in October 2019. “Getting into bridal was initially a business decision,” they say. It paid off: bridal now represents 70 per cent of the brand’s revenues. “When I started out, the majority of our bridal projects were custom, and I really leaned in that direction.” Nowadays, the designer has converted their custom programme into a couture offering, alongside a lower-ticket made-to-order business, too. “Our made-to-order entry is around $5,000 for one look, with most clients in the $10,000 to $15,000 range,” they add. “Our exit pricing for looks within the [runway] collection is around $35,000.”
The New York-based designer best known for bridalwear and lavish corsets talks about venturing into RTW and wholesale. The challenge? How to grow the business but remain true to the original creative vision.
The benefits? Wiederhoeft notes the minimised financial risk that made-to-order offers. Brides usually order months — if not a whole year — in advance, and unlike seasonal ready-to-wear collections, each piece Wiederhoeft designs has a longer lifespan. “There are pieces from my first bridal collection in 2020 that clients still request to see all the time,” they say. Wholesale is part of their business, but unlike bridal, it’s at the mercy of general market fluctuations and political moments that bridal is more impervious to.
While young aspirational consumers have pulled back fashion spending, bespoke wedding dressing might be an exception to the rule because it sits at the intersection of consumer goods (luxury clothing) and experience, or service-led categories. “Where the general luxury consumer is a bit fatigued by high prices right now, when it comes to bridal, it’s (hopefully) a once-in-a-lifetime experience — when people will splurge, and cost is not the number-one concern,” says industry advisor Robert Burke.
Building brand awareness
Working with the right brides can also be a marketing play. Conner Ives, another London-based designer popular with a new class of society girls, has leaned into weddings over the last couple of years, both as a marketing and direct profit-making opportunity. The demi-couture wing of his business has garnered a lot of interest, the designer says, especially when a wedding he’s outfitted is then featured in publications such as Vogue (Ives’s Vogue-approved brides include his friend-cum-muse Amy Czarnecki and author Iman Hariri-Kia). “We see the fastest growth in the business in our private commissions and bridal clients,” he says, explaining that this area has filled a gap where department stores have increasingly turned their buying towards low-risk ready-to-wear products like branded T-shirts and sweaters, or already-viral items.
Still, for some designers, the switch to bridal might feel a little daunting, especially since many believed doing bridal would historically dilute a cool luxury brand. London-based Wed Studio was founded in 2019 by Central Saint Martins (CSM) alumni Amy Trinh and Evan Phillips, neither of whom ever envisioned working in bridal. Phillips explains that bridal was seen as “quite uncool” during his studies. It was, actually, when Trinh struggled to find her own wedding dress that the idea for a non-traditional bridal business came to fruition. Plus, both designers had worked in ready-to-wear, so were familiar with its issues. “[It’s] a beast,” says Trinh. “We’ve seen a lot of brands struggle with it, often because of the heavy reliance on wholesale.”
It’s true: as we know, retailers add an average 2.2 markup (or 120 per cent) to products, there are minimums designers have to hit — and therefore a substantial quantity of products to produce — and not to mention late payments from stores and charge-backs if they don’t sell. Wed Studio, conversely, swerves this. “Bridal, at its core, is a made-to-order business, and we realised that model was far more sustainable for us. It meant we could focus on our direct-to-consumer (DTC) clients and grow from there,” adds Trinh. Currently, Wed Studio’s typical client profile is a mid to late-30s bride with “a strong sense of personal style”, and their budgets are typically £5,000 to £7,000 (fans include celebrities Celeste and Jennie Kim, and industry figureheads such as creative director Nellie Eden).
Those consumers also want bridal that aligns with their personal style. At artist Nicole Coson’s recent wedding, she switched between custom Sinéad O’Dwyer, London College of Fashion alum Carl Jan Cruz and an archival John Galliano-era Dior SS00 dress sourced by stylist Emman Debattista. Coson chose O’Dwyer because she felt a personal connection to the designer and wears the brand in her day-to-day life. “I’ve been a big fan of Sinéad’s for years,” she says. “Each one of her looks brings me back to a particular milestone in my life, so it just made sense to do something extra special with her for the wedding.”
“Bespoke bridal is a really amazing opportunity financially and creatively,” O’Dwyer says. “Most people are willing to spend on their bridal look, so it’s a really great market to enter. This was my first one, so hopefully more to come.” O’Dwyer was able to work with intricate techniques and fine fabrications for Coson’s dress that would not usually be possible across ready-to-wear. However, despite the high cost for the bride, bespoke can also be a challenge for small independent brands to fit into their production schedules, O’Dwyer acknowledges. The designer works alone and doesn’t have a full-time sample studio, which would be required to make bridal pieces regularly and scale that side of the business.
London-based brand Keogh Dewar, launched this year by CSM grads Kate Dewar and Alison Keogh, is one of the latest newbie labels to capitalise on the weddingwear shift. Like more and more of their contemporaries, the designers operate a predominantly bespoke business because wholesale “just isn’t financially viable”. They’ve just taken on a pair of custom trousers for a wedding. “It never really crossed our minds to delve into wedding customs before our client reached out to us, but it actually makes a lot of sense for us at the moment,” Dewar and Keogh write. “The trust our client [a London-based gallerist called Laurie Barron] has placed in us makes the process even more rewarding and reminds us how powerful the right collaboration can be.”
Even if bridal commissions aren’t a core revenue stream for a business, they can play a major role. “They’re special touchpoints that enrich our story, offer beautiful imagery to share, and keep our work in conversation,” says Hillary Taymour, designer behind New York label Collina Strada. For her, bridal makes up only about 3.5 per cent of her business. “I think if I pushed this part of the business much harder it could be a real sales volume drive, but right now it’s more of a passion part of the business.” It may be this passion that’s driving more and more brides to smaller designers, who treat each commission as a creative challenge.
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