Rosie Assoulin never intended to do bride wear.
But as the fashion designer recounts, after launching his eponymous ready-to-wear brand in 2013, customers were attracted to its white wedding gowns. Soon after, fans started asking about a bride collect; Assoulin estimates, her company has received hundreds of such requests over the years.
By 2020, she realized that those requests could no longer be ignored. Then, just as her sister was supposed to get married, the pandemic hit. “They had to cancel wedding and get married alone on the beach,” Assoulin (pronounced Ah-SOO-Leen) said. “We made her the dress: a burgundy and turquoise waist dress from our fall/winter 2018 collection, which we remade in cream and beige with a veil. beautiful hood.” The process, she added, shows that “our team can create a collection specifically authorized for bride. “
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Two years later, the first Rosie Assoulin bridal collection came out in April. When creating it, Assoulin, 37, said she only followed one rule: everything had to be white or cream. (Probably not surprising to bridebut designers are known to favor more vibrant colors.)
The material she chose, although also atypical for formal wear, more varied. “Because of this, I am attracted to more precious and tough fabrics like gazar, organza, moire, velvet and silk,” Assoulin says.
Less typical are certain parts where she says “you don’t see in bride,” Includes a bucket hat and long pants. There’s also a dress inspired by a puffy quilt, as well as garments made three-dimensional with embellishments that include satin and pearls.
Wedding dress by fashion designer Rosie Assoulin at Bergdorf Goodman in New York (Gabby Jones / The New York Times)
“In history bride wearing only one dress. Now they might want an outfit for every moment that might happen over a weekend, that’s how we see this collection,” Assoulin said. “Weddings are full of moments.”
Prices start at $795, for bucket caps, but for the most part collect Lauren Cooper, a spokeswoman for the company, retails for $1,795 to $12,995.
‘Sister love’
On a Friday in May, Assoulin hurried in bride salon at Bergdorf Goodman in New York, where her new collection is displayed on two stands. A trunk show is about to begin, her first since the pandemic hit, and she feels “out of practice.”
“I haven’t seen a client or buyer in two years,” she said. “It’s a muscle I haven’t used in a long time.”
Wear clothes in an unbuttoned white shirt and cream pants, Assoulin practically blends in with the outfits she’s showing off as she explains her design process and the inspiration behind it.
“I am inspired by the beautiful, expressive and creative elements: art, sculpture and architecture,” she says, as well as the hundreds of vases and bowls she has collected for the most part. his life. “Many jars look like Dresses ready.”
“Being able to take those elements,” she adds, and “find a way to fit that block into a piece of clothing and make it functional, beautiful, comfortable and relaxing – that’s it. design. “
Assoulin was midway through, her hand touching one of her gowns, when Elizabeth Limberakis, 33, walked into the salon with her mother.
“Oh, my God, I can’t believe you’re here,” said Limberakis, integrated marketing director of fashion brand Eloquii, moved to Assoulin. “I can’t believe I’m actually seeing you.”
After introduce Limberakis sought some styling advice from Assoulin for her wedding, scheduled for next May in Philadelphia, where Limberakis lives. She then walked into the dressing room with Bouquet, a tulip-shaped long tea dress with a pointed bodice and puffy shoulder straps encrusted with gazar silk, priced at $3,995. It suits her Perfection.
Limberakis said: “It feels so seductive. “I’ve tried a few dresses before, and nothing looks like good like this. Finally, she placed an order for the dress.
Describing herself as “bigger on the bottom and smaller on the top”, Limberakis said she was attracted to Assoulin’s clothes because “Rosie Designs for everyone, not just the perfect sample size. (According to Cooper, the bridal line is semi-custom and made-to-order, while the ready-to-wear line typically comes in sizes 0 to 16).
“I feel sisterhood and camaraderie because I see myself in her Designs“Limberakis added.
The fact that clients are able to develop such personal connections with Assoulin’s line may be because of her at the earliest. garments personal in nature. From Brooklyn, 12-year-old Assoulin began cutting her mother’s old clothes and reconfiguring those scraps into wearable pieces using her grandmother’s sewing machine. She then registered at Fashion Institute of Technology, but left after four months.
Assoulin said: “I was not a good student and did not thrive in that school environment. That didn’t stop her from getting a design internship at luxurious brand Oscar de la Renta, where she worked for a year before moving on to gigs at other labels including Adam Lippes and Lanvin.
In 2004, she married Max Assoulin, the son of accessory designer Roxanne Assoulin, with whom Assoulin interned as a teenager. Max Assoulin was once the CEO of the same name as his wife fashion company since its inception. The couple, with four children, live between their homes in Manhattan and New Jersey; Rosie Assoulin’s office in Manhattan.
Abnormal
“Today bride have a clear idea of what they want,” Assoulin said as the pace started to pick up at her trunk show. “They were looking for something unique and different. That’s us. “
Unusual is Osa Omokaro, 38 years old, senior user experience researcher at Google, hope to see when she shows up at Bergdorf Goodman with a friend. For her weddingslated to take place in Marrakech, Morocco in November, she has struggled to find a dress to match her style, which she describes as “non-traditional, a bit tomboyish but upscale and style.”
“Everything is so traditional, to me that means mermaids with a lot of bling,” said Omokaro, who lives in Manhattan and holds a PhD in computer science. science from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. “I’m glad Rosie is here so she can tell me what I should wear and how she’s going to style it.”
And that Assoulin did, piled into a Dressing room with Omokaro and her friends and give advice as Omokaro tries on three robes.
“They make a statement,” says Omokaro of Assoulin’s designs, calling them “sophisticated and classic” and “structural and couture.” But not too high fashion. “You can mix her pieces and wear them later on to something else,” she adds.
Soon Assoulin came back in a Dressing room with another bride-to-be: Diana Ming, 30, vice president of strategy at a major Wall Street bank.
This is Ming’s first time shopping for a dress before her wedding, scheduled for next June in Brooklyn. One describes himself as a “big fan of Rosie,” wear clothes She’s trying it on, Hodges Pods — a $5,995 A-line with a sweet neckline, spaghetti straps, and silk floral trim — checked all of her boxes.
“My wedding is the garden Themed so I wanted something with flowers,” says Ming, who lives in Brooklyn. “I like it flowing, it’s floral and feminine but still creative and fun.”
Assoulin, who so far shows no signs of losing focus on customer interactions, has already started to get involved.
“Here is this part,” she said while reminding some cloth on the back of the dress, “more transparent, which we do for the patterns. For you, we can add something opaque, or we’ll double something sheer to keep the fit.” That ethereal look.”
By mid-afternoon, the two shelves that were once filled with Assoulin’s bridal items were nearly empty. Most of the apparel products are located in the shop’s four stores Dressing rooms, all occupied. But not by Omokaro, who then felt much more optimistic about his outfit search.
“Rosie’s works are classic, beautiful, elegant and fashion forward,” she said. “It feels like this designer has me.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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