A Wedding Dress Beyond Trends
If you’ve been following my work, you know I don’t believe in trends when it comes to a wedding dress. There is too much meaning behind what I’m creating to let what might be popular at the moment define each season. Of course, I live in this world, so it's impossible not to notice the trends that come and go. For several seasons, minimalism seemed to have a particular hold on bridal fashion. Sleek satin, restrained details, simple silhouettes. It can be elegant and beautiful, but it has never been where my imagination takes me.
Abundance, with a Light Touch
I’m drawn to heirloom lace, layers of sheer embroidery, a touch of color, and details that reveal themselves slowly. I love a reference to another time, balanced with an ease that allows the woman wearing the dress to feel entirely herself. So perhaps Rococo began, in part, as my response to that season of simplicity. An invitation to indulge in the beauty of adornment and intricacy.
As I explored the era that inspired this collection, I found so much to draw from. Ornament, opulence, an exuberant ode to craft, technique, and beautiful things made by human hands. My instinct is to take that abundance and interpret it with a lighter touch. To layer lace and embroidery while allowing a sense of delicacy to come through. To give a sleeve drama and movement, or let a soft color appear beneath ivory lace. That balance is where I find the beauty. There is richness, and there is room to breathe. Most importantly, there is meaning behind it all. It's my way of helping our clients not only feel their most beautiful, but somehow express and embody all the love, history, magic, and joy of what it means to be themselves as a bride.
Amourette: An Empire Waist Wedding Dress
In Amourette, tiered French embroidery meets an empire silhouette, with beaded, draped sleeves and dangling details. Her name, a French diminutive of amour, lends a playful note of flirtation to all that romance. The embellishments, though intricate, still feel light and feminine.
Narcisse: A Floral Lace Chiffon Wedding Dress
Narcisse pairs a softly structured bustier with lace insets over a subtly sheer chiffon-lined skirt of French embroidery appliqued with organza flowers. The play of textures and the dramatic flow of this soft A-line skirt offer a striking vision of romantic beauty.
Sonnet: A Vintage Juliet Cap Lace Veil
Sonnet, our flower-adorned lace veil, is the perfect pairing for the bride longing for old-world romance. Shown in the Juliet cap style with side clips and flowers, this veil can also be ordered on a simple comb without the cap. Stunning either way, and made of the lightest French tulle, its fingertip length makes it easy to wear, and so beautiful, you might keep it on well past the ceremony.
Serenade: An Ivory Lace Wedding Dress with Blue Silk and Flowing Sleeves
Serenade holds a touch of something blue, with blue silk beneath ivory lace, a drop waist, floral appliqués, and dramatic, flowing long sleeves. Named for a musical expression of love, she carries that romance in the sweep of her sleeves and the soft color beneath her lace.
Primrose: A Champagne and Gold Wedding Dress with the Filigree Bolero
Primrose explores the warmth of champagne and antique gold through French embroidery and a peplum silhouette, paired with Filigree, our sheer embroidered tulle bolero with dramatic scalloped-edge sleeves. Named for one of spring’s earliest flowers, she brings a sense of new beginnings to the collection’s old-world romance.
A Day Worthy of Adornment
A wedding is not an ordinary day. Each couple gives it their own meaning, drawing on family traditions, creating new ones, and choosing how they want to celebrate. At its heart are two people honoring their love and promising to hold each other dearly through life. That feels worthy of adornment to me. And the bride herself is worthy of the care, the artistry, and the thought that go into creating something especially for this moment. For the woman who wants to revel in lace, flowers, color, and her own expression of femininity, there is room to embrace all of it.
Designing a wedding dress is something I don’t take lightly. I feel the significance of what I’m making, and what it might help a bride express. Who she was as a young girl, the journey life took her along the way, and who she is as a woman now. The things she finds beautiful usually have a story, a meaning tied to someone or something that made a lasting impression. Sometimes she can't quite put it into words, but one of my gowns will resonate on a deep level, and that's a very special connection that I share with my brides.
It's That Day
Sometimes people say, “It’s just one day,” or “You’re only going to wear it once.” But it’s not one day, it's that day. A day that will live in your memory and your partner’s. In the memories of the people who gather to witness it. Years later, you may look at the photographs together. Perhaps another generation will look at them, too, and glimpse the woman you were at this moment in your life.
There is something extraordinary about creating a dress that becomes part of those memories. After more than twenty years of dressing brides, I’ve come to understand how deeply that connection can run. I see it in their photos, and feel it in the notes they write, sharing the affection they hold for their gowns long after the wedding. I didn’t fully understand when I set out to become a designer that my work would bring me this kind of connection. I just knew I wanted to make beautiful things. Over time, my brides have shown me what those things can mean and I'm so grateful. Through them, my work has grown beyond my own imagination and expression into something deeper. A real connection with the women who wear it.
Rococo at Beringer Vineyards
We photographed this collection with Corbin Gurkin at Beringer Vineyards’ historic Rhine House in Napa Valley. Its stained glass, carved woodwork, and intricate architectural details offered a beautiful setting for these gowns. The shoot also brought together another project close to my heart: the Claire Pettibone Bridal Suite at Beringer. I’ll share more of the room and the inspiration behind its transformation in a separate story. For now, I’m so happy to introduce the Rococo gowns, and to imagine the women who will make them their own.
Explore the Rococo Collection.
Photographed by Corbin Gurkin at the historic Rhine House, Beringer Vineyards. Bridal Suite and floral installation by Claire Pettibone
Bridal Gowns + Accessories: Claire Pettibone
Venue: Beringer Vineyards
Photography: Corbin Gurkin
Beauty: Page Beauty
Florals: EV Floral Design
Stationery: The Vintage Inkwell
Ring: The North Way Studio
Jewelry: For the Love of Love
