Last summer Ssense launched its first “anti-bridal” bridal capsule collection. On Thursday, the Montreal-based retailer will release its Bridal 2.0 line of 100 wedding-centric, white ready-to-wear, accessories and footwear products from 17 emerging and established designers.
“Our motivation, mainly in our team, is to find gaps in the market where there’s an opportunity to really create a new story that feels authentic to us. We’ve done pets, we’ve done ‘Everything Else.’ Our audience got their first bed; they furnish their homes with us, and the next big part of their life is getting married and having kids, or maybe not, or maybe even getting married again or wearing white because they love it,” Brigitte Chartrand, vice president of womenswear buying and Everything Else for Ssense, said during a preview.
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“Whenever we find gaps in the market that we want to develop, we think about the brands that we have that are doing well and that our audience relates to, but also we want to create this thought of, ‘Oh, I would have not thought of this from this brand.’ Commissioning them and saying, ‘We love their world, we think that if they were to do this, it would look so cool,'” she added of the company’s youth-tinged, discovery-minded approach to the traditional market.
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As the capsule offers buy-now options, it also is filling a narrowing gap in the market for brides-to-be looking for wedding wardrobes with shorter lead times than traditional, made-to-order gowns.
Similar to how the company asked designer Marine Serre to create dog products for their 2019 dogwear capsule, the second annual bridal capsule follows Ssense’s approach of selecting different types of nontraditional bridalwear for myriad types of customers to wear on their wedding days, and beyond.
Chartand added that the company’s first annual “anti-bridal” bridal capsule launched in June was about testing the waters. Although it received an “incredible amount of attention,” she said — noting the exclusive white dresses from Sandy Liang and Simone Rocha sold out right away — the Ssense team realized that their brands “needed a bit more time.”
Where the first collection leaned into informality, the Bridal 2.0 line expands the offering with broader depth across categories while upping the ante on formal dress with fashion-forward twists for the “cool girl that shops on Ssense,” said Chartrand.
The collection includes 56 exclusive rtw designs, 44 handbags and accessories and two shoe styles from Aaron Esh, Anna Sui, Ashley Williams, Bode, Cawley, Chopova Lowena, Collina Strada, Conner Ives, Molly Goddard, Nicklas Skovgaard, Sandy Liang, Shushu/Tong, Simone Rocha, Tetier Bijoux, Vaquera, Vivienne Westwood and Wed Studio. The assortment, priced $170 to $9,500, launches Thursday (excluding Vivienne Westwood, which launches later) on Ssense’s e-commerce and mobile app.
Chartrand noted highlights from rtw include Ives’ glamorous, upcycled one-shoulder, fringed gown; Rocha’s romantic, rose-inserted spring 2024 runway dress (designed in custom ivory for Ssense); Lowena’s edgy jeweled and carabiner dress, and Sui’s sweet baby-doll dresses (originally worn by the likes of Naomi Campbell and Linda Evangelista in the brand’s spring 1994 collection finale).
In addition, she anticipates styles from Collina Strada, Shushu/Tong and Goddard will continue to perform well because of their “wow effects,” while Wed Studios styles will be sought-after due to the capsule including its first, fully-realized wedding collection (Ssense Bridal is the brand’s first global online exclusive partner).
“Similar to our other types of offering, we always try to have like other things that you can add on to the basket. I do think that feels a little bit more emotional and grandiose. It is part of our assortment strategy anyways to begin with, so we try to implement that across all of these special projects that we do,” she said.
In that vein, the capsule includes a handful of bridesmaid and flower-girl looks alongside a strong assortment of handbags and accessories (think Nicklas Skovgaard’s lace umbrella; Ashley Williams’ heart-adorned headpiece, or Tetier Bijour’s 3D floral jewelry) and shoe styles.
The collection isn’t aimed at only brides and those looking for nontraditional, wedding-centric outfits, however, but also to meet general customer demand. Alongside the capsule, Ssense continues to see year-round traction for its ongoing assortment of white rtw (noting styles from Margiela and The Row have recently done well for the retailer).
“You can get married at any time of the year, so we always need to have options,” Chartrand said.
For the marketing campaign, Ssense’s head of digital content Steff Yotka told WWD that the company shot eight real couples wearing the collection, and putting their own flair on the styles.
“Some are married; some are dating; some have been together for as long as 17 years, and some have been together for as short, I believe, as eight weeks. We’ve interviewed all the couples and heard their stories about love. It was honestly such a beautiful day on set,” she said. “It’s just been such a fun project to work on because a wedding dress is a garment with a real purpose, more so than like jeans or a T-shirt, and when everyone puts one on they sort of assume their most romantic sweetest version of themselves.”