Marchesa Bridal 2016

Feathered tulle, lace, elegant embroidery—all the trappings of bridal couture from Marchesa designers Georgina Chapman and Keren Craig appeared at the Fall ’16 Bridal presentation at Canoe Studios. But the collection also explored, in a big way, the bride’s sexier side, with curve-loving, slimmer silhouettes, modern and plunging necklines, backless corsets, and cut-outs. The designers launched footwear for their Spring ’16 collection, and select pairs were shown with the gowns. They didn’t stop there: Chapman and Craig also designed for the first time costume jewelry accessories that were used to fasten on the veils or were worn on fingers as a modern complement to the traditional wedding ring.

Marchesa, Backstage, Bridal Fall 2016, October 2015

Plus! A moment with designers Georgina Chapman and Keren Craig

Gorgeous bridal collection! Tell us about it, please!
Georgina Chapman: I think Keren and I looked to what we thought was quintessentially Marchesa and we wanted to inject a little modernity into what we’ve done before. You’ll see backless corsets…
Keren Craig: …A lot of sheer, very low backs. There’s a lot of more silvery embroideries and mother of pearl embroideries.
GC: Different necklines for different brides, and separates too! So on some of the pieces the skirts detach, with columned sexy dresses underneath.

How would you describe the modern bride? What is she looking for today versus 10 years ago?
KC: I always think it depends on where the bride is getting married, but I definitely think people are gravitating to more slimmer, skinnier silhouettes, and more sheer. People are going for more adventurous, backless dresses. It’s fun!

You just launched footwear, and we’re seeing some of the looks here today .
GC: We’re very excited by our footwear. It really reflects the ornate quality that we have in our dresses, and there’s a lot of attention to detail. We’re really thrilled with our orders. There’s some heavily jeweled shoes, which go really nicely back to our new jewelry line, which you’ll see a lot in the headpieces, the earrings—that’s all new to the Marchesa line.

So now there’s a complete look!
KC: Yes, we’re really excited about that! It’s really been the dream from the beginning, to have a full lifestyle brand, so for us it’s just so exciting that we’re here with our shoes, our jewelry, the dresses.

Any plans for more bridal endeavors, say, florals?
KC: Well we make a lot of the flowers out of fabrics! We haven’t done any of the actual real flowers yet!
GC: That’s the only thing—that and the underwear! Who knows if you need that on your wedding day! [laughs]

Is there a bride from the past that you would love to have designed for?
GC: There’s so many! That’s a hard question. There’s all of these glamorous women that we’ve taken inspiration from.
KC: I think we’ve been very lucky to have dressed a lot of the women that we have. It’s such a special moment, with everyone, isn’t it? And so many different kinds of brides. I think we’re pretty happy with the ones we’ve dressed.

Is there someone you wish would have a wedding so you could design for them?
GC: I think our daughters! I think that’d be very exciting! But they’d probably have their own opinions about that. [laughs]