NEW YORK, NEW YORK- Wedding gown designer Danielle Frankel working on her FW21 collection.
“I wasn’t trying to do something with the intention of getting it out into the world,” says bridal gown designer Danielle Frankel on creating her label.
Colored wedding gowns? Danielle Frankel certainly thinks so. The American New York-based designer has a fresh and modern approach to wedding gowns, which are catching the attention of brides all over the world. Sitting down she talks her journey, what inspired her to come away from the traditional wedding gown look, cultures that inspire her collections, trends from the pandemic in bridal gowns, her newest collection, and more.
Bridal gown designer Danielle Frankel.
“I went to Parsons and worked at Marchesa for a little bit and then I went to Vera Wang, and I learned from the master essentially (meaning Vera),” says Frankel. “I think that in my education I learned a lot about the traditional ways of doing fashion, but something throughout my career that stuck, especially when I’ve seen a lot of young designers rise, is that the labels who are really successful and who emerge with a real voice in what they’re doing are the ones that have the most impact and the ones that are able to grow their businesses.”
For Frankel, she’s not trying to reinvent the wheel of garments, nor is she trying to create something brides have never seen before. What she’s trying to do is simple: to dissect the purpose of what a modern bride really wants. “There’s a recipe within that and within my collection and I’m trying to show what women really want and provide them with something specific.”
“There are so many women getting married that do want that traditional look and this product does exist for them but what I’m trying to do is answer something for a woman who has in the past not known where to look for her wedding gown. Women are asking for a gown with a bustier but they’re also wanting an open back, and wanting their arms covered in a specific way- or the proportion done in a specific way and Frankel is able to creatively deliver. “I think we’ve been successful,” she says,” because we’re answering these women on the sales floor. I’m hearing what they’re saying and incorporating this into collections.”
New York, New York- Danielle Frankel's FW21 bridal collection.
Designing for women all over the world
“We have quite a big business in Kuwait, Dubai and Saudi Arabia but most of that business is custom, so most of the women flew in from these places and we started from scratch to make the most magnificent garments for them.” The American, French and Australian markets are also big for Frankel and her newest fall-winter 2021 collection is for women all over the world and their respective taste. “Some of it is for the Saudi client, or the Australian girl, or the American woman and the success of the collection is that we have to be catering to all of these women. Having that range is important so that we can hit our marks with all these women from different countries, also different price points. Not everyone can afford a certain price points so we have to have a certain kind of range- some things are a little more technical.”
From Vera to launching her own
Working under renowned wedding dress designer Vera Wang set Frankel up to learn from the best, which has propelled her to launch her own label. “Being in the fitting process with her was the most valuable education that I’ve had, as she has an editor’s eyes. Vera is truly the master so to learn directly from her had a huge impact on me,” says Frankel.
“I didn’t really know I was launching my own label. It happened naturally. When I left Vera, I started making custom gowns for friends and friends of friends by word of mouth. It wasn’t like I had any business at all or any kind of path. In fact, I was interviewing for companies and making custom gowns on the side to see what would happen. And I thought, ‘‘I’ll just make a collection from everything I’ve heard from what people need.’”
“I felt like I had this thing that I needed to get out into the world, and that thing ended up gaining press and getting picked up by stores. All of sudden I had a sales person, and then all of a sudden, I had a publicist, and it rolled into this. But, the path getting here was not having a direction to do something new. I wasn’t trying to do something with the intention of getting it out into the world.”
New York, New York- Danielle Frankel's FW21 bridal collection.
Bridal trends coming out of the pandemic and why she has colored wedding gowns
“Right now, because we design so far in advance from when our clients walk down the aisle, I think a lot about weddings after the pandemic. There’s quite a bit of time before we’ll get back to the way things were but we’re in an in between phase where people have figured out how to manage around the pandemic so weddings are no longer being postponed, but they are happening, just in a different way,” she muses. If the wedding is small, it’s still happening says Frankel. “The trend is not: let us run to the courthouse. Now we’re seeing pandemic weddings that are elevated weddings, they just have a small attendance.”
Frankel and her team are seeing brides take more risks and not feeling the need to be traditional. She’s seeing brides wanting to feel beautiful and happy in their moment. “I think that this mindset translates to the gown and the gown is something you’re never going to comprise on. The trends are more psychological and that’s why I introduced color because this idea of ivory, I think, is not something that I think will stick. Whatever it is that feels bridal to the woman will stick.”
New York, New York- Danielle Frankel's FW21 bridal collection.
The new collection
Frankel’s new collection is a fresh approach for the designer. She commissioned floral artwork that incorporated different ways for the gowns to match the House’s collaborative efforts with Manolo Blahnik shoes. Using a hand-dyed technique that’s incorporated throughout the collection and that was developed locally to support New York’s garment district, Frankel has created a new twist and modern take on how it looks to walk down the aisle as a bride during the pandemic.
Inspired by flowers for the design theme, Frankel was drawn to how they grow and wilt. “We have a lot of wilting necklines, things that are kind of like falling off like how flowers die. This was more so for aesthetics and not design direction.”
New York, New York- Danielle Frankel's FW21 bridal collection.
The collection is the newest since her last one in October 2019. “When the collection came out the pandemic hit and we put it on hold. This by far is our strongest collection because I sat for so long without creating something new that it allowed me to put the best work forward. Also, going through the pandemic, it made me smarter to sit and think versus feeling the pressure of making a collection, and a collection, and a collection. I essentially skipped two seasons and I had all this time to sit and think about what I wanted to do next.”
“Comprised of twenty looks, the collection has colored pieces of some translated into ivory. I’m very happy about this collection because I feel like it came after a huger hurdle that we all faced, which was the pandemic, and all of the issues that came along with it.”
Doing a lookbook collection shoot, Frankel collaborated with two models: Grace Bol and Christina Kruse and Stas Komarovski shot the looks, “I’ve been a fan of his work for a really long time. Also, Andrew Mukamal because we did Zoë Kravitz’s rehearsal wedding dress together- he styled the collection. It was a real collaborative effort with all the people we worked with and I was really excited about it.”
New York, New York- The making of Danielle Frankel's FW21 bridal collection.
For the rest of this year Frankel is delving into what the wedding day is really like and creating items for the woman who’s not a bride. “We’re expanding into pajamas and not just the gown, but about what you’re thinking about within your wedding. I really want to get into the other things that surround a wedding as well. Right now, we work on with brides but we have the potential to work with people who want to have a little piece of the label, who aren’t brides,” she says.
Frankel loves the small and steady pace her business is growing in. “We’re not flashy and in your face, or in every single article. Right now, we’re small and growing with a culty following. It’s month by month, inch by inch for us. We don’t know exactly what the month will bring but also having these goals are great. We did grow by forty percent during the pandemic and I think that says a lot about our trajectory and where our potential is.”
