Zoe Rowyn Bridal | Melange de Blanc Bridal Market Week Series
Founded in 2019 by Corina Culeva- a long time fashion industry actor, Zoe Rowyn was, like all great businesses, triggered by a personal need. Having always been distinguished by a strong personal style, Corina decided to make her own wedding dress, tailored to her needs and desires of a stylish modern bride. In the process, she discovered that she had much more to offer to the modern bridal market. An entire collection of minimalist yet sophisticated bridal gowns followed. The collection expresses the designer’s admiration for sensual simplicity, contrasting with whimsical details. Corina created a brand for the chic, bold, and sophisticated brides like herself
“Our bride is definitely less traditional: she loves fashion, she wants a lot of choices, and she wants things fast.”
Imagine searching for the wedding dress of your dreams, only to realize that it doesn't exist. That's exactly what happened to our guest, Corina’s from Zoe Rowyn Bridal, inspiring her to take matters into her own hands and start her own bridal brand. She shares her amazing journey with us, from the moment she realized that her dream dress was waiting to be created, to the launch of her brand just days before her own wedding. Listen in as she shares the thrill of pulling off a campaign shoot for her line on the eve of her nuptials in scenic Portugal.
This episode is packed with gems, including Corina’s unique approach to design and the importance she places on creating a joyful experience for brides. We also touch upon her invaluable tips for navigating wedding planning without losing your sanity.
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Speaker 1: 0:10
Hello and welcome to this versus that making wedding decisions with Kelly McWilliams. This podcast is for you if you're making a wedding decision and want to know what to consider before saying I do to all the things that will make your wedding experience a great one. I'm your host, Kelly McWilliams, and I'm so glad to be a part of your wedding planning journey. In each episode, you can count on me and my expert wedding co-hosts to give you everything it takes to make the best decisions for the wedding that you're dreaming of. And here we are, back in the coded agency podcast studio at Melange de Blanc in New York City. New York brand market fashion week. Oh my goodness, what was that? Okay, sorry about that. I don't know if you heard it. I did. This is the last recording. I'm so sad. This was the most incredible experience and, just as a reminder, one last time we're in. Melange de Blanc, hundreds of people, models, wedding dresses, coffee cafe, the hustle and bustle, the buyers. Mac makeup is over in the corner. We have famous footwear here with all of their shoes. I'm so thankful and grateful that coded agency brought me in here to do this and to be able to bring all of these incredible designers to you guys, and I really do truly hope that you will listen to these episodes and take the time to go and look at these gowns and look at these collections that are brand new. These women have just brought the most amazing gowns to the table and I can't wait for them to end up in the showrooms, like as you're going to look for your dresses in the next few months. It's incredibly exciting. So this is Karina from Zoe Rowyn Bridal, and I did see some of their gowns just so stunning, but more so, I loved her story of like why this is all happening. I think that you will too, and again, I think that's going to mean something when you go shop and you see their names, that you just know more about them. I feel like that's that way with everything, like the more you know, the more interesting it is and the more you're inclined to like love your dresses because you also love the person who made it for you. I think it's so exciting. So, again, I'm just so excited and glad and honored and humbled that this versus that wedding podcast was brought in to do this, and I can't thank the ladies enough from Coded Agency and Melange de Blanc for even thinking of doing this and I hope that I get to come back and do it again in the future and again before I just like start crashing and crying over it because it was so exciting, here is Carina with Zoe Rowyn Bridal. Hi, Carina, it's a pleasure to meet you today. Thank you for meeting me here at Melange de Blanc. Hi, Kelly, thank you for having me.
Speaker 2: 3:35
I'm super excited.
Speaker 1: 3:37
This is great, and you haven't done a podcast before you were telling me.
Speaker 2: 3:40
No, I haven't. I'm super nervous today. Don't be nervous, it's so exciting.
Speaker 1: 3:45
So Melange de Blanc is, you know, for everyone that's just listening for the first time it's like a pop-up bridal market and there's all of these amazing designers here who are showing off all of their new seasons, their collections, and Karina was so nice to come sit and talk to me about her collection and about her brand and I just wanted you to get to know her. So tell us about your brand and how you came to be and how this all started. I think you have a great story. I wrote a little bit, but I want you to tell it.
Speaker 2: 4:17
Well, let's see. Well, the brand is called Zoe Rowyn Bridal. It was founded in 2019. I was getting married myself, so I was on this journey of trying to find the most amazing dress, or the one that I had in my head, and so I was really, really looking for it, and I couldn't find it. It wasn't what I imagined. I tried a lot of dresses. It wasn't what I wanted, so I decided to make my own.
Speaker 1: 4:48
Oh, let me ask you something. Did you know how to sew already?
Speaker 2: 4:53
No, but I did have some experience in fashion industry, so I knew someone who could help me do this. So I just designed it and then contacted the team to help me sew it, and then I very quickly realized that it's. I have much, I have many ideas. You know, so I just wanted to make them all live and yeah, so I think I took this decision of building a brand in like 10 minutes. I got really excited about this idea of bringing the gowns that I had in my head to real brides. So that was the story. So my wedding was on 12th of June 2019. And on 15th of June, we launched Zoe Rowyn Bridal Get out Wait. The same month. Yes, it was a very eventful month, let me tell you. I mean really stressful, but so exciting. There was so much energy, so much adrenaline. Everything was working so perfectly.
Speaker 1: 5:56
So, now I have to ask you on your wedding day, were you also thinking about the launch of your company? Definitely.
Speaker 2: 6:02
Definitely, of course, also because my wedding took place in Portugal. It was a destination wedding. It was an amazing party we had there, and because we were traveling to Portugal, we did the campaign shooting there as well. So it was one day before the wedding we had the campaign shooting. It was a lot, I know. Looking back, I don't know how we made it happen, but I have so many questions, go ahead.
Speaker 1: 6:31
Okay, so just take it back. You went to go look for a bridal dress. Could not find one that you loved Exactly. It was out here in the States, or was that somewhere else? No, it was in Europe. It was in Europe. Okay. So you're like, okay, well, I'm just going to make my own. And then, as you do it, you're like I love this, I have more ideas and you start sketching them out, or whatever you do. And then you're like I'm going to start my own brand, I'm going to have my own design, my own collection. You reach out to the people, decide I'm going to launch this right after my wedding, cracking up over this but it's also how a lot of wedding planners come to be so I mean, I was much younger and much more adventurous. But now you're here. You're in New York. Is this the first time that you've shown in New York? Yes, it is.
Speaker 2: 7:16
We launched right before COVID. So we had these three years of almost nothing happening physically. So we're very excited, we're here. I got pregnant last year so I had this one year of a little bit of a break so I didn't know how we can make it possible, but we just said okay, we're going to do it. You saw, my husband is here, my sister is here to babysit, the baby is here as well, so everyone is here, but we're doing it.
Speaker 1: 7:47
So do you have your whole collection here today? Yes, in how many?
Speaker 2: 7:51
dresses. Well, we have six dresses from our new collection, which is launching today, oh my God. And then we have I don't know, I think about 30 dresses from our previous collections. This is our sixth collection in just that short amount of time?
Speaker 1: 8:09
Yeah, I think it's like five years or so. So where can people, where can brides find your dresses, Like if they wanted to see them person? Do you do trunk shows or?
Speaker 2: 8:19
Yes, we do trunk shows In the USA. We have a partner. Okay, so you can find us at Flourish LA in. Los Angeles. We'll see how the market goes. We'll probably have many more partners. We are all around Europe, but what's important is that you can find us online. The gowns can be bought online, oh that's amazing.
Speaker 1: 8:43
Yes, let me ask you this, so I know that you have been. I'm asking you truly because I don't know you as a designer. You put these collections together. The only thing I know about fashion really is from fact, what's called Project One Way, so that's what's in my head.
Speaker 2: 9:00
So you know.
Speaker 1: 9:01
But so can someone. If, like, they look at your collection and they love what they see, but they're like, oh, I'm torn between these two. Is that something that they can come to you for? Definitely yeah.
Speaker 2: 9:13
Yes, we do that Well, usually they would contact me us on the website ZoeRowyn.com, and then they would schedule a meeting with me usually, and then we discuss what exactly they want. We can't make a dress from like just out of nowhere.
Speaker 1: 9:30
Yeah.
Speaker 2: 9:31
But we can combine the dresses. We can choose a different cleavage or a different length of sleeve or a different length of the dress. So we just discuss it with a bride. She has personal meetings with me, and then we discuss wherever she likes, and then I come with recommendations judging by her body, her type of wedding, the event and everything, and then we make a perfect dress for her. Oh, that's amazing.
Speaker 1: 9:58
So if someone's in the US and they wanna see your dresses in person, they would be going to Fleurus LA.
Speaker 2: 10:03
Yes, okay.
Speaker 1: 10:05
And then there's potential, like if they reach out to bridal salons in their area, is that something that they can bring in or is it okay?
Speaker 2: 10:13
But I think the best thing to do is to reach out to us. And then we'll recommend a shop around. Yeah, and if there is no shop, then they can definitely have a call with me and then we can discuss what we can do for this bride.
Speaker 1: 10:30
Perfect, okay, so I have a few questions I would love to ask you about. Okay, so you told us your story already, so we definitely already answered that. But I was wondering, like, what's the heartbeat behind your collection? You said there's six from the new line. What brought you to these ones? Did something specific happen? Did you see something? Were you inspired by something?
Speaker 2: 10:57
Definitely, Well, the main thing is we do minimalistic designs.
Speaker 1: 11:02
So really clean lines.
Speaker 2: 11:03
We use almost always natural silk, Italian silk and silk variations and the philosophy is, you know, that the bride wears the dress and not the other way around. I love that. So we find that it's best when the bride has a rather simple gown. But simple doesn't mean too simplistic, right.
Speaker 1: 11:31
Right yeah.
Speaker 2: 11:33
And then she can accessorize, she can style it, she can give it the personality that she wants to give it to the gown.
Speaker 1: 11:40
I have to tell you I love that perspective that first of all, she's wearing the dress and the dress is not wearing her. But what you just said about, let her create her personality around it, like the jewelry that she wants to wear. Let her makeup and hair and shoes accentuate everything about it Exactly. That is awesome, that is awesome. I do want to ask you one other kind of like. If you had to question, if you had to choose between lace, embroidery, sequin, beading or high structure, where would you go? Now, I know you said minimalistic. Yes but is there any room for that?
Speaker 2: 12:23
There's a lot of room for everything. Yes, we like to play with everything around, so this year we went full-lace. You did okay. So we have this beautiful 100% silk lace, which is gorgeous. But you know, we like this contrast of really elegant, really classic fabric with really minimalistic, a little edgy lines. Okay, so it's contrasting and I love it. But also high structure is also something I personally love really do. We do have structure in pretty much every collection.
Speaker 1: 13:03
So when you say structure, does that mean things like boning and no? Is that like form fitting.
Speaker 2: 13:10
Yes, I mean for me boning. We don't really do boning because my philosophy is that it has to be comfortable.
Speaker 1: 13:17
Oh so it has to be so many people are like yes, I hear you it has to be light.
Speaker 2: 13:23
You don't have to feel this weight of the dress on you right. So no boning. But when I say structure, I mean maybe a little more structure to the fabric that it holds, you know, a little more draping or architectural accessories. So this is what I mean, this is so beautiful we have to check it out.
Speaker 1: 13:46
I'm so excited to go see. Now. That's the worst part about being in this little studio is that everyone's telling me all these exciting things and I'm like I just want to see it so well. I want to thank you for for me, for coming in the podcast and I know my audience is gonna be so excited, do you know, to get to know you and now that they know you want to see your dresses and I'm just so excited. Thank you very much. And, guys, I gotta tell you I know you're used to this podcast being every episode being so quiet. It's so noisy in here because there are all of these designers and what they call market buyers buyers here to look at all of the new collections and there's a coffee shop right outside and so there's lots of noise and fun and excitement happening in here. But I just really appreciate you coming to Melange the Blanc and for kind of PR to come and do this for us. So I appreciate you.
Speaker 2: 14:43
Thank you for having me, Kelly. I hope this episode is useful.
Speaker 1: 14:47
Oh, it will be. I'm sure it will be high, high ratings. Thank you, okay, bye, bye. I'm so glad to be able to share my wedding experiences and expertise with you and that my co-hosts are so giving it theirs. We truly do want you to have the best time at your wedding, and our hope is that this podcast is helping you to make your engagement time while planning your wedding that much easier. May I ask a favor of you? If this is the case, would you just take a moment to leave a review of this podcast on your listening platform? It helps people just like you to find the podcast and to also find out their answers so they can make decisions. I would also absolutely love for you to give this versus that podcast a shout out on your social media. You can find us at this versus that wedding podcast on Instagram, and if you would like me to help you with a specific question a wedding decision please by all means ask. Send me a DM. I would love to hear from you and maybe, just maybe, even have you as a wedding guest on a future episode. How fun. Here's to another great wedding.ext goes here