The Elite: Caroline Castigliano Interview

 The Elite: Car­o­line Cas­tigliano: an interview

Car­o­line, your gowns are so exquis­itely made and with so much thought for move­ment and grace in the designs – to what extent are your dresses inspired by their wear­ers? When you design a new col­lec­tion are you imag­in­ing the girls who’ll wear your gowns?

“Yes, I always con­sider the girl that will wear my gowns, I often pop into my Knights­bridge bou­tique so I am for­tu­nate to be able to meet and see brides and really visu­alise exactly how I want them to look when I am design­ing a new collection.

“A Cas­tigliano bride has a true sense of self – she knows who she is and wants her gown to express her per­son­al­ity and her style. Cas­tigliano brides love the under­stated sim­plic­ity that we cre­ate but the beauty of the cut and lux­ury fab­rics that we use cre­ate an incred­i­ble sense of power.”

Cas­tigliano wed­ding dresses have that time­less ele­gance to them. Has the royal wed­ding influ­enced your styles for the com­ing season?

“Kate Middleton’s dress was beau­ti­ful and very much had the feel of a Cas­tigliano gown – I haven’t designed any­thing dif­fer­ently in the sense of reflect­ing her dress, but a gown in the col­lec­tion, ‘Made­moi­selle’, has the slightly more con­tem­po­rary feel of the Kate Mid­dle­ton dress.”

Tell me about your typ­i­cal bride – does she have a strong idea of what she wants from her wed­ding dress?

“Our typ­i­cal bride knows she wants con­tem­po­rary yet clas­sic, under­stated style. She may already have a sil­hou­ette in mind but quite often that won’t be right for her and we will work with her on the over­all impact and vision she wants to cre­ate so we know it will be per­fec­tion when she looks in the mir­ror. The bal­ance and pro­por­tions of the gown with the struc­ture and move­ment of the fab­ric will cre­ate her per­fect dress.”

Who do you admire in the wed­ding indus­try? Do you work along­side other wed­ding sup­pli­ers: pho­tog­ra­phers, plan­ners perhaps?

“From time to time we work with other wed­ding sup­pli­ers and of course wed­ding plan­ners, and there are a lot of peo­ple in the indus­try I admire. Love & Lord have estab­lished a well-deserved rep­u­ta­tion for plan­ning divine wed­dings in Europe. We recently shot a new adver­tis­ing cam­paign at The Dorch­ester on Park Lane and I think that the opu­lence of the hotel makes it an amaz­ing venue for a Lon­don wed­ding. Jane Packer cre­ates extremely beau­ti­ful flo­ral dis­plays and it was very sad to hear of her pass­ing ear­lier this year.”

How do you see the Cas­tigliano brand devel­op­ing in the next 5 years?

“The next 5 years will be the most excit­ing and we will be 21 on the 10th Jan­u­ary 2012! We have been devel­op­ing the brand and sell­ing around the world to inde­pen­dent retail­ers – we will con­tinue this over the next few years and we also plan to branch off into a few other fields that are rel­e­vant to girls when they get mar­ried! I am afraid this is all a bit hush-hush so I can’t tell you exactly the plan but you’ll be see­ing a lot of the Cas­tigliano brand.”

Oooooh! I do love a cliffhanger! I’ll be watch­ing Car­o­line Cas­tigliano on face­book to uncover more of this intrigue!

You can meet Car­o­line Castigliano

Car­o­line will be trav­el­ling to her bou­tiques in Bath, Leeds and Edin­burgh in Jan­u­ary and Feb­ru­ary to meet brides and offer them her per­sonal advice. This is a unique chance to meet Car­o­line and dis­cuss your wed­ding gown and styling for your big day with the designer herself.

Car­o­line Cas­tigliano Designer Days 2012:

• Sat­ur­day 14th Jan­u­ary — CC Bath (01225 789 900)
• Sat­ur­day 28th Jan­u­ary — CC Edin­burgh (0131 558 3355)
• Sun­day 5th Feb­ru­ary — CC Leeds (0113 234 0990)

Please note that Car­o­line antic­i­pates high demand for appoint­ments on Designer Days, so do book early with the appro­pri­ate bou­tique to avoid dis­ap­point­ment. More infor­ma­tion

Car­o­line looks for­ward to meet­ing you in 2012!

(Watch this great inter­view with Car­o­line from Brides mag­a­zine — what a lovely lady she is! — and hear Caroline’s thoughts on 2012 wed­ding dress trends, Kate Middleton’s dress and more!)