Anna-Philippa Wolf Wore a Sequined Rick Owens Cape for Her Austrian Village Wedding
Anna-Philippa Wolf and Archibald Pearson met at the Paris flea market back when he used to have an antiques store there. “Some friends in common suggested she introduce herself,” Archie, a furniture designer and antiques dealer, remembers of how he and the head of productions and special events at Rick Owens first connected. “At first, I hadn’t a clue who she was referring to. But she was very lively and outgoing and I, being rather the opposite type, was immediately drawn in.” They saw each other twice, briefly, before she left for a long trip. “At which point we initiated an intense epistolary relationship,” Archie jokes. “I would say that is when the sparks started flying.”
When Anna finally came back, Archie took her out for dinner and expressed his feelings towards her. The two got engaged in November of 2019 on Anna’s birthday. “We were in Los Angeles for work, and I had brought two rings with me,” Archie remembers. “I gave her the first one on the night before as a birthday gift, and although she liked it very much I could sense she wished it had been an engagement ring. She was actually pretty upset. But this was the perfect setup for the next morning. We woke at sunrise, and I said I still had another gift for her and pulled out the other ring. It was the last thing she expected, and she couldn’t believe what was happening. It worked quite nicely!”
The couple held their civil ceremony in Les Hermites, a small village in the Loire area of France where Archie’s grandfather Guy De Brantes is mayor. He performed the ceremony on March 14, 2020. “It was the day before France shut down, and as Austria had closed the day before, my family was not able to attend, which was hard,” Anna explains. “My sister was already in France on a business trip and thank god was able to be with me. Archie’s family made very sure, though, that this became an unforgettable day and his mom Pia organized it all perfectly.”
A church service and celebration was planned for July 23, 2020 in Austria, but this had to be completely postponed until July 24, 2021 due to the pandemic. “Events are my job, so I planned everything myself along with my sister Katharina and the support of my brother Konstantin,” Anna says. “It was of course hard due to the pandemic. In April 2021, we weren’t even sure if we could go ahead with the organization. We had to make the guest list smaller, which was not easy either, but in the end, we went on with the planning, hoping it would be ok, and it was.”
In 2020, Anna told her boss, Rick Owens, that she wanted to order a dress from him. “I was lucky in that I never even imagined wearing a dress by someone else,” she says. “Rick did not want me to order, instead he wanted to create something from scratch. He and [model and designer] Tyrone Dylan Susman asked me for inspiration, which was impossible for me, but I, at some point, managed.” Eventually, one day before the Fall 2021 women’s show, Rick and Tyrone told Anna they were ready to do a fitting. “It was so very special because Rick and his beautiful sewer and creation team pulled in the rack full of beautiful gowns, while Tyrone opened a bottle of Ayala Champagne, turned on ABBA, and I even had my girls support as my friend Eugenia was there with me too. All of this happened in the factory in Concordia.”
The first dress they showed Anna was called “AL” gown, named after Rick’s nickname for Anna, Anna Lupo. “I was in love! They made it in classic bridal fabrics, but also one in all sequins,” Anna says. “Rick said, ‘I made the others because I really want you to feel perfect. Putting on the sequin gown I felt so beautiful and special. I thought that was it! But no—they even had the party looks for me to try and several other gowns in case…the entire afternoon was extremely unique and bonding but also efficient as decisions were made then and never changed.”
