Ever wonder what it's like to be a bridal fashion designer in New York City? Want to know how your Kelly Faetanini wedding dress comes to life?
Let us explain!
From concept to design, Kelly is involved in all aspects of production. Like, everything -- she's amazing. Each season Kelly watches trends and pulls inspiration from the runways in Paris and Milan -- Have you seen the new collection? Think Something Blue! It was inspired by the sky and soothing elements of nature, like water. Her Spring 2018 collection, however, was inspired by Shakespeare, a "Dark Romance," and you can feel that with the seductive laces and black details.
Once Kelly has her inspiration, she creates anywhere from 50-100 rough conceptual designs in the form of thumbnails, then narrows it down to her favorites. Those favorites become full design illustrations -- beautiful sketches that Kelly creates by hand and uses to design each gown. Next begins production of the prototypes: Kelly has a super talented development team overseas that helps to create these prototypes.
They've become close friends. She stays very involved in the entire process. This includes Face-timing with the studio overseas for 7 hours each night leading up to Bridal Fashion Week. Kelly and her development team will collaborate, finesse and fine-tune for weeks when creating a new collection.
"We try the gowns on at least 5 different body types throughout the process to make sure each dress has a fit that's unparalleled," Kelly explains. "It's important to make sure the lacing is placed perfectly and beading is placed exactly where it should be."
After the first prototypes are complete (which takes up to 5 months!), Kelly shows them during bridal market, then 3 more prototypes are made with comments and tweaking before the gowns actually make it into the salons.
All-in-all, each design prototype takes up to 12 months to create from concept to final sample!! She works to perfect each pleated bodice and the draping of every skirt (check out her skills on Instagram!). Kelly is a perfectionist and it shows.
Each bride's Kelly Faetanini gown is created one piece at a time. So much time and emotion goes into each dress. Kelly literally touches and is a part of every gown construction. This is why we love our brides so much and why it's so special to be a Kelly bride!
xoxo, Team KF