The Bride Wore a “Naked” Dress to Her Wedding at a Medieval Cathedral in the South of France
Lolita Cros, an independent curator and art adviser, and artist Charlie Klarsfeld first met as students at Bard College. They started dating when Lolita was a sophomore and Charlie was a senior. “Lolita’s friend introduced us, and despite an awkward first date at the former upstate institution Max’s BBQ, we pretty much started dating right away,” Charlie remembers. They got engaged in June 2022 “in the most Charlie possible way,” according to Lolita.
“I called Lolita’s parents to get their blessing and asked if they would be willing to fly to New York from France to attend our engagement party,” Charlie says. “They said yes and asked when I planned on proposing. I told them they should come incognito, so I could propose in front of them along with a tight-knit group of family and friends.”
What Charlie didn’t share, however, was that he was secretly planning on getting Lolita’s name tattooed across his ribs. “I filmed the process at Fun City Tattoo—the same day as the proposal!—and had my DJ tech set up a screen along with some sound and lighting in my parents’ backyard,” Charlie remembers. “I tricked Lolita into dressing up and stopping by the house under a false pretense, and coaxed her out into the back, where she found the garden beautifully lit and a video of me getting her name inked while our loved ones looked on from the balcony. It was very elaborate: Lolo was fully a deer in headlights!”
The two were married in July at a 13th-century cathedral in the Languedoc region of France. The reception, dinner, and party took place at the bride’s family house, a 19th-century classic French home a short drive from the church. “Being two creatives, we always knew we would collaborate on the planning of the wedding. We’re both…detail oriented and some would say stubborn,” Lolita jokes. “It was a lot of fighting over font sizes and the napkin color, but ultimately a great exercise in compromise. Looking back at it, the wedding looked exactly like us, a true collaboration.” Charlie’s godmother, Lisa Love, a legendary event planner, acted as the couple’s lifeline throughout the whole process.
“The planning process was every bit as insane as people say it is,” Charlie adds. “Lolita and I had collaborated on a large-scale and complex event some years back at Art Basel, so it wasn’t necessarily new territory, but thankfully, this time we had Maude Vergote and her team at Opus Collective at the helm so we could focus on the creative without getting bogged down with the logistics. They did an outstanding job and were beyond accommodating, from the ambitious aspects to the most minute details. Weddings are intimate and profound experiences, so my advice is to make sure you like your wedding planner!”
Lolita and Charlie discovered that when planning a wedding, especially in the South of France, the packages many vendors offered felt a little predictable. “We were adamant about finding someone who was fluently bilingual and familiar with the region so they could bring in local vendors as much as possible,” Lolita explains. (They also wanted someone who wouldn’t flinch when they asked them to install the equivalent of a New York nightclub in Lolita’s parents’ backyard, she notes.)
When it came to her wedding wardrobe, Lolita was clear on the unconventional direction she wanted to go in from the very beginning. “The motto for my wedding looks was ‘naked,’” she says. To that end, on the first night, she wore a piece designed by Interior, which was intended as a shirt but worn as a dress. “My friend costume designer Ava Yuriko Hama and I accessorized it by improvising a brooch with a broken earring,” Lolita explains. “And with it, I wore my mother’s Louboutins and an Olympia Le-Tan clutch that Charlie had commissioned for my birthday.”
Just like the wedding celebration itself, Lolita wanted her dress to feel unique. “It took me a while to find a designer or a tailor that would fully collaborate with me,” she says. “Charlie’s godmother, fashion editor and stylist Brana Wolf, recommended a dressmaker who worked with me on what then became a Thierry Mugler-meets-Gaultier-meets-Playboy Bunny design. My 15- and 16-year-old nieces, Agatha and Fanette, and my mother finished it by embroidering hundreds of hand-cut flowers from her old silk shirts.” For shoes, Lolita wore her go-to Louboutins and opted for a nude colorway so that the dress appeared to float.
Charlie also wanted to create something that felt unexpected but that spoke to the wedding’s location in the South of France and his own personal style. “There’s a long tradition of bullfighting in the region, and I’m a huge David Bowie fan, so a matador’s outfit and a ’70s men’s suit were the base ingredients,” he says. He showed some references to Matthew Woodruff at J. Mueser, and they developed a custom suit pattern with shoulder pads and wide lapels on the jacket and flared vintage-style pants. The groom then wandered around various trimming stores in the Garment District to find handmade embroidery to sew on the jacket and pants. “The detailing was done at a same-day tailor the morning of my flight!” he says. Finally, Charlie tied the look together with vintage green Wedgwood cuff links and a Wedgwood brooch in place of a tie.
The ceremony took place in the grand medieval cathedral that towers over the quaint surrounding village. There was a traditional procession with the flower girls—Lolita’s nieces and nephews dressed in green—leading the way. “Lolita was an otherworldly vision floating down the aisle as the chorus sang an a cappella arrangement of ‘Because’ by the Beatles,” Charlie says.
“The ceremony was deeply moving,” the groom adds. “I felt a profound sense of gratitude for the community around us, many of whom had traveled from far and wide to experience Lolita’s roots and culture. We’ve been together for close to 13 years, so our vows were rooted in a pretty candid sense of how much work it takes to maintain a relationship and a deep commitment to continue that work. I was crying like a baby.”
The exit was timeless and classic, with the bride and groom walking down the church steps and into a white vintage convertible as guests applauded and threw lavender. “Charlie revved the engine, and we tore off through the winding alleyways of the local village,” Lolita says. “He almost clipped the mirror on the way out!”
