In a studio in Vauxhall, South London, Amy Trinh and Evan Phillips are creating some of the most interesting and exciting bridalwear a modern bride could wish for. The duo are behind the label Wed Studio, which not only offers bridalwear delivered through a contemporary lens, but with a business model that prioritises sustainability, connection and creativity too.
The pair, who work evenly and equally across all facets of their business, met at Central Saint Martins on its revered BA womenswear programme. You’ll be familiar with it for its status as the world’s greatest fashion designer incubator — Stella McCartney, Alexander McQueen, and Riccardo Tisci are just a few of the school's alumni — but less so for the designers that have gone on to move into the lucrative, but scarcely cutting-edge bridalwear market.
'I made one white garment for my final collection. And I said I'm never working with white and satin again,' Trinh, 31, tells ELLE UK laughing. 'And here I am working with white and satin.'
'Bridal was a bit of a curse word [at college], ' Phillips, also 31, agrees. 'Back then we couldn’t understand how we knew all these people that want to get married, who are all creative, and there wasn't a single option out there for them. Mad.'
Wed Studio has become a go-to bridal atelier for those with a strong sense of identity throughout their lives, especially on how they might want to look on their wedding day. Typically, pieces centre around volume and construction, with ruching, tucking, gathering and bow-fastenings all recurring motifs in Wed Studio’s dynamic collections. The pair are currently working on expanding their ready-to-wear bridal offering, but it’s the bespoke bridal that has become its greatest asset.
'What we do is a super personal collaborative approach to bridalwear, which I think is a really nice thing,' says Trinh. 'We always say to our clients: "Do you feel like yourself? And do you feel like the best version of yourself wearing this?."' 'It's probably one of the most important things, even above design,' Phillips adds.
Nellie Eden, a London-based creative director, recently chose Wed Studio for her June nuptials. She arrived at Wed Studio unsatisfied by everything else on the market, knowing that she wanted 'to feel cool but timeless and I knew they could help me execute that.'
Talking to ELLE UK about the whole process, Eden describes it simply as 'heavenly'. What more could a soon-to-be bride ask for? 'They made me feel so empowered and it was completely collaborative. I felt like I was being myself. I wanted to keep it really stripped back while adding some feminine accents,' Eden explains of her Sabrina-inspired dress. 'Evan and Amy are just so clever and so relaxed. I loved that in every fit picture, I had a selection of my most stupid fashion heels on — because that is me. I wasn’t after perfect and I wasn’t after a transformation and Wed Studio understood that.'
Wed Studio’s appeal might be in its alternative, contemporary look to bridalwear, but much of what the duo creates still riffs on classic bridal motifs — as Eden’s dress attests. The majority of its dresses are white or ivory, with full skirts in satin and taffeta with matching tulle veils. But Trinh and Phillips didn’t always have this approach.
'In the beginning, because we came from the ready-to-wear world, we had this idea where we thought we had to be going against traditional bridalwear,' explains Phillips. 'We weren’t going to do corsets and instead focus on really textured fabrics.'
Five years on and they’ve reached something of a sweet spot where they’re able to offer dresses that feel entirely true to the original Wed Studio vision but bring in elements of traditional wedding wear that many of their brides are still looking for. 'I think that ultimately, the most important thing to have a good business is that you have to do what people demand. There's no point making things that people don't want. I think we've found this good balance,' he adds.
In many ways, Wed found themselves being a little too forward-thinking at the start. Especially when you consider how unchanged the wedding industry remains. Today, the pair are happy to see that it's caught up; brides have access to greater choice and there’s a growing number of contemporaries.
'When we first started, nobody really understood what we were doing or trying to say because nobody was ready for it,' Trinh says. 'As soon as Covid happened, there was this moment where people were like I just want to feel special and then it became a need for bridalwear that made sense for people. There was a shift in the way that retailers started stocking it. It’s nice to see that and also in a time when we’ve been doing it for a while.'
As the pair expand their ready-to-wear offering, they’re understanding the importance of fit and how their pieces can work for all bodies. 'We’re asking ourselves "how will this style work for a size 20?"', Phillips explains, with refreshing inclusivity. 'Creating ready-to-wear is about a balance to make sure that everybody who buys this looks great in it.'
A bride opting for ready-to-wear over bespoke calls for completely different considerations for all parties involved. For Trinh and Phillips, it places them completely in the design seat, rather than being experts able to facilitate a bride’s perhaps fully-fleshed-out dream. Yet, even in the bespoke scenario, the two are confident in advising and assuring Wed’s signature and expert eye is a part of the process.
'That's our skill set,' says Trinh. 'We're very technical. Often, people will come to us with ideas and we have to say that it isn’t going to be great, or we don’t agree with that length. And that's what you are kind of paying for really, because it is design. It's the involvement and it’s all of those things. It’s sometimes just a five-millimetre difference, but we can see how it works on that body, or not.'
Shop Wed Studio Accessories Now
Wed Studio Limited Run Flower Scrunchie
Wed Studio Mini Bow Bag - Red
Wed Studio Flower Bag
Since its inception, Wed Studio has prioritised and worked on managing its impact, primarily working with deadstock fabrics in an effort to 'add value back to those fabrics.' The pair understand that sustainability is a tricky term — in terms of 100 per cent execution and the idea of the aesthetic the term continues to spur. 'There's still this idea about sustainable fashion in that it doesn't feel luxury. That it doesn't feel contemporary or modern enough,' says Trinh. 'This is something that we want to try to rewrite.'
Alongside using responsible fabrication, Wed also offers its bespoke brides the opportunity to bring their wedding dresses back to be reworked into a more everyday style. At present, uptake on this has been understandably low. Who would want to cut up one of their brilliant bridal dresses? 'We've also evolved to appreciate the beauty in the one-wear dress and actually it's more about this process that emphasises the value of the whole thing for the dresses to be cherished,' says Phillips. 'It is like couture. You wouldn't find somebody chucking a couture dress away. For our clientele, this is their couture moment.'
Photo credit: Isabel Bonner photographed by Alli Oughtred, Holly-Ann Ladd photographed by Conrad Bauer and Cassandra Walker photographed by Antonia Katerina.
