At Gia Kuan’s New York City Wedding Celebration, the Fashion-Forward Bride Wore 7 Looks
“It’s like Gia exploded everywhere,” said Prisca Vera Franchetti of the label Priscavera at the wedding of Gia Kuan and Anatoly Kirichenko, the New York sweethearts who threw the nuptials turned fashion party of the year on June 10. The celebration was decked out with details of Gia and Anatoly’s loves, such as an hour-long compilation of handpicked scenes from Sailor Moon and The Sopranos (as well as K-pop videos from BTS and NewJeans and cartoon skits from The Pink Panther) that played on the televisions, or a performance from the rock band Chanpan that Anatoly discovered while taking a stroll around the city. No one could expect less from Gia, whose downtown-beloved PR firm Gia Kuan Consulting is known for its work with brands like Telfar and Luar. Anatoly, meanwhile, was a longtime brand consultant at Stüssy who later went on to launch his own gallery, Whaam!
Gia and Anatoly, who have been together for 10 years, are a quintessential New York love story. The duo first met in the most fashion-industry way possible: Anatoly, who was interning for designer Adam Kimmel, picked up a garment bag from Gia, who was working at Comme des Garçons. “I don’t know if it was love at first sight. It was just a garment-bag pickup, but he did leave an impression because it was like 6 p.m. and raining and I was waiting to go home and it was the last pick up of the day,” says Gia, adding: “I do remember that he was funny and nice.”
A year later, the two reconnected at a friend’s party, where Anatoly attempted to exchange numbers with Gia but found his phone was dead. A week had gone by when he decided to reach out to Gia on Facebook. “It was just genuine curiosity to hang out,” says Gia. The two were friends for a few months, and then voilà: Sparks flew. The new couple quickly moved in together, along with Gia’s then roommate, the now Khaite publicist Isabella Isbiroglu. “Anatoly was the third roommate for a while,” says Gia. In 2019 Anatoly flew to Gia’s childhood hometown of Melbourne, Australia, where he asked for the blessing of Gia’s father, before the couple traveled to Sydney where Anatoly proposed.
While there was plenty of time to plan for a wedding, the event came together fairly quickly. (Note: Some of the best fashion events are last-minute!) Gia began sending save-the-dates only six months ahead of the wedding, in January. “We were procrastinators,” says Gia. The save-the-dates were portraits of Gia and Anatoly by the photographer Huy Luong, and within the images Gia made quite the impression: She wore two looks by Terrence Zhou’s Bad Binch TongTong, known for its voluminous silhouettes that take inspiration from insects and sea animals. One red dress boasted a skirt that she describes as “an inflatable balloon,” while the other had three saucers that jutted out from it. The final look was a doll-like vintage pink Comme des Garçons dress with puffed ruffled sleeves and matching gloves.
The save-the-dates had an intentionally old-world feel, culling inspiration from a genre of portraits popular in Asian countries from the ’50s and ’80s. But while steeped in tradition, Gia notes that there was a modern touch. “Huy is so good,” she says. “He has a way of making everyone look snatched.”
But a wedding wouldn’t be a wedding without some drama—or at least, in Gia’s case, sartorial drama. The day before the wedding itself, Gia and Anatoly went to City Hall, where Gia wore a white satin dress also by Bad Binch TongTong that she describes as an “easy slip.” For the piece, Zhou created a “giant bow that you put on like a backpack.” The issue? “I was barely getting through the revolving doors,” says Gia.
Gia and Anatoly decided to hold their wedding at a famed New York establishment: the second floor of dim sum restaurant Golden Unicorn, located in Chinatown on East Broadway. The runway treatment began right when guests stepped into the establishment, where they were met by a team to check them in and a powder pink step-and-repeat that read “Anatoly Gia” in red cursive.
This memorable and very Instagrammable moment was brought to life not by a wedding planner but rather—in fashion-industry speak—a producer: Ariella Starkman of Starkman Associates, who works in fashion-show and -shoot production. The couple contacted Starkman in January, only six months before their wedding. “It took us forever to get it together because our jobs were so busy. I felt like once I met with Ariella, it made me feel better,” says Gia. “It was a tight timeline.” The trio immediately hit it off. “I know what speaks to them and their world,” says Starkman. “It was really fun to play with touches and tropes of a wedding but turn them sideways.” Starkman creative directed the wedding while Eli Rosenbloom and Emwhi Nguyen provided the graphic design and art direction, and Gia’s best friend Eri Wakiyama did illustrations for the tables chronicling a love story, a nod to the couple’s mutual appreciation of manga. “A lot of the art direction was friends coming together,” says Gia.
Much of the bride and groom’s cultures were translated through food. Both are immigrants: Anatoly was born in Ukraine and came to America in the late ’80s, and Gia was born in Taiwan, later immigrating to New Zealand and then Australia and eventually moving to America in 2010. “Neither of us are that traditional, but there is the aspect of this mishmash of cultures,” says Gia. Family-style courses included Peking duck in sweet buns by Golden Unicorn, chicken liver mousse with sour cherry and stuffed cabbage by Ha’s Đặc Biệt, pickled squiggly cucumbers by Jen Monroe of Bad Taste, dollops of caviar on tiny blinchiki pancakes by Sidney Starkman, and challah bread baked by Funny Girl Bread―a nod to Anatoly’s Ukrainian and Jewish background. As guests tore from the challah that encircled the rose table settings by Fleurotica’s Robin Rose Hilleary, they sipped on Canetta (a natural canned wine by Clara Cornet and Luca Pronzato), Belvedere Vodka, Glenmorangie Whisky, Volcan Tequila, and Taiwan Beer, the national beer of Taiwan that Gia specially picked out.