When Emilia Wickstead was arranging her elegant Tuscan wedding back in 2011, a cinematic moment inspired much more than the dress she designed herself. “I stumbled across Audrey Hepburn in 1954’s Sabrina, wearing a strapless black Givenchy gown with black beading and an overskirt,” she enthuses. “The party by the pool house! The champagne coupes! The whole film was a huge inspiration.”
Brides keen to immerse themselves in Wickstead’s matrimonial world – one riffing on old world glamour, the wardrobes of haute Hollywood starlets and the clean and impeccable lines of classicism – are very much in luck. Not only has the London-based womenswear designer relaunched her bridal offering (which in the past has seen India Hicks wearing a bespoke, Grace Kelly-inspired ivory French lace dress to marry her longtime love in Oxfordshire, and Theodora Warre tie the knot at home in West Sussex in a long sleeved gown with an enormous train), she’s expanded it, too.
Now, when brides-to-be come through the mahogany doors of Wickstead’s new bridal salon in London – an intimate, moire-swathed space inside the Sloane Street boutique which opened in the summer of 2022 – they can be fitted for a bespoke or ready-to-wear creation (be it an ultra-modern dress for a city registry service, or a fairytale gown for a far-flung destination), but can also coo over bridal shoes and veils, bridesmaid and flower girl dresses, pyjamas for the night before, and tableware for the wedding breakfast from Wickstead’s homeware line. “I want every type of bride to come and visit us,” Wickstead says with a smile. “When they enter our bridal salon everything is there to complete their vision, from a whole honeymoon wardrobe to table linen for the big day.”
Viva dress and Sophia scarf train
Wickstead affectionately describes the romantic yet architectural, ethereal yet utterly contemporary dresses in her 15-piece bridal collection as a meeting of “old friends and new friends”. It features the Luna, a “very sculptural and special” brand favourite, imagined in sleek textured cloque, and boasting an enormous bow which ripples like a train. Plus, the over-skirted Viva, based on Wickstead’s own wedding dress, which can be expanded to “a whole other level of volume”, through the brand’s 100 working day bespoke service. For the new collection, Wickstead looked to the splendour of the gilded and marble-clad Old War Office in Whitehall, soon to be Raffles London at the OWO. “It’s the dream stage and setting,” Wickstead says. “Grand, iconic, timeless.”
Eugenia dress with Lucrezia cape and Cosima long gloves
For Wickstead, the most important element of a wedding look is its sense of timelessness. “It’s about looking back at the dress in 10, 20, 30 years and still loving the look of it,” she says. “It’s so much more than just dress. It’s about the life you are going to lead in it.”
