Beautifully handmade lace, combined with flowy skirts of the softest silk. When you look at the dress, you immediately imagine yourself on a typical French estate, with beautiful climbing roses against the old, crumbling walls. The delicious, sweet scent of the Bougainvillea meets you and the first rays of sunlight gently touches your arms.

The dresses claim a typical French know-how and are made by hand from the most beautiful materials, which are selected with love and respect for our planet.

Recently we had a chat with bridal designer Caroline, the founder of Caroline Takvorian. Caroline's collection is inspired by Parisian haute couture and has a strong visual identity. Caroline's collection mixes romantic, modern and ultra French. As Caroline herself explains: 'The studio is located in the tranquility of the heart of the city of Lyon. Beautiful plants frame a door with old world charm and the serenity of the place contrasts with the lively atmosphere of an extraordinary place. In the noise of the machines, between the cutting tables, the rolls of materials and the falsely disordered bobbins of thread, your wedding dress goes from drawing to reality.’

Would you like to know more about Caroline, her collections and her vision on bridal fashion? Check out this interview!

If you got married today what season would you get married in and what dress would you wear?
I would get married in Spring as the season is not too hot or too cold and above all, the green colour from the vegetation is very inspiring with its beautiful colours. I would go for a small low-key wedding on the beach with my closest friends and family, very laid back. I would wear our Moss dress with a low cleavage and plunging back. This is a dress with such strong character which blends both comfort and fluidity with the shoulders strength and accented waist. I would also wear champagne colour shoes with a mid-size heel that I will mix with my white Sonnie sneakers from Chloe in the evening, with loose natural hair. In general, I would avoid having too many accessories with the dress, it can give an old fashion look to the dress.

How would you describe your ultimate wedding?
My ideal wedding is ‘headache-less’, happy and intimate, without stress or any over-the-top manners, just a lovely day spent with my beloved ones in a location that I love.

What should a wedding dress radiate for you?
A beautiful wedding dress is a dress featuring both character and a state of mind that fits the bride at this specific moment, not forgetting being very flattering and erasing the brides’ complexes. Comfort is also very important to feel at ease on your D-day!

What does a wedding dress mean to you?
I would break the rules from this universe than can look a little outdated on a lot of aspects, in its own bubble. The bride is free to wear whatever please her, there’s no set rules and old traditions can nowadays be loosen up. Be yourself on your Wedding Day, even more than on usual days. Feel good in your body & mind and be yourself.

How did you get to bridal designing?
If someone would have told me at ESMOD that I would be ending up in the Bridal Industry, I would have never believed it! According to me, the bridal world was opposed to Fashion – unflattering with very big dresses with corset being too fitted, etc.

I’ve always wanted to work in Fashion, so I’ve specialised myself in Haute Couture at ESMOD, which led me to gain real experience working for ISABEL MARANT and LOLITA LEMPICKA in both studio and production, this is from this moment that I knew I would create my own brand.

Caroline Takvorian was first launched in 2011 in Paris with a premium RTW based on made in France dresses, my first ever collection was made primarily from leather fabric, far from my universe today. After a few years living in the Fashion Capital, I came back to my hometown Lyon, and I got engaged. This is when I’ve started looking for Wedding Dress, but I didn’t feel anything in Lyon that would blow my mind, all my friends were asking me to design their Wedding Dresses as they were forced to travel to Paris to find more modern pieces, even though there wasn’t a lot of choice neither.

This is the time where I’ve decided to launch a small capsule of 5 Wedding Dresses, and opened a Pop-up store- this created a big buzz and the collection was already very well received from the public, moving away from the RTW to focus on bridal exclusively. 
I’ve remained loyal to my standing of high quality with pure craftmanship thanks to my tender love for Haute Couture with its Calais lace, natural fabric.

I’ve truly enjoyed the freedom of designing and creating without all the constraints from RTW. I’ve been very lucky to arrive at the best time and building a very strong and assumed identity.

What sets your brand from other brands?
I’m designing Dresses for Women with character, with assumed femininity but without being over-the-top. My DNA: fluidity and lightness of my dresses reinforced by strong couture details well placed that gives a modern and contemporary allure.

In my leimotivs, you will find plunging back that will give a sexy detail, assertive shoulders that will refine the arms and mark the waist, the cleavage and transparency is a huge work of lace pattern placement on the perfect spot! The dresses movement in action while walking is also very important for me: I don’t like static silhouettes, that’s the reason why I give a particular importance to a floating effect to all my dresses. I try to break the rules in my work with cuts, giving a strong attention to details by working with rare fabric like ‘plisse soleil’, ‘Lyon lace’ and ‘velvet’ that I’m currently using for my future collection.

The other empowering aspect of the brand is the fact that I’m not letting myself influenced by current trends that won’t necessarily fit with the brands ethos. I am not minimalist, bohemia, glamour and this is what makes us strong: we all have a different vision of the modern woman so all women can picture themselves wearing CT!

What is your favorite dress from your collection?
That’s a very hard question since I love them all! They all have a side of me somehow but from this collection I would choose Jagger. This is a condensed version of my DNA with plunging back with lace, featuring a fitted waist, I absolutely love the embroidered tulle with pearls being matte with daylight and shiny under the nightlights.

Do you have any future wishes regarding bridal fashion?
I would love for this renewal of the Bridal Industry to keep running over the next few years to continue modernising this universe which tend to embrace facility. Take risks and embrace newness and difference!

How would you describe a typical 'Caroline Takvorian' bride?
Instinctive and living with her time, she loves Fashion and the detail that will make a difference. Natural, she also wants to feel good the way she is.

Name a woman you’d love to see in one of your gowns (celeb or non-celeb)
All Women across the world!

Where do you find your biggest inspiration?
My approach is quite similar from the one from Haute Couture as I always remain loyal to my DNA and don’t let myself influenced by trends that won’t suit my vision. I often start with an embroidery or lace that inspire me for my collections, or I design them myself (this is a surprise for the next collection…). I keep instinctively reimagining my vision of the modern Wedding Dress with my taste at the time.

Any wisdom for future Wild at Heart Brides?
Keep being yourself while remaining opened to new things that you wouldn’t have had thought in the past, keep trust in yourself, your instinct will do the rest.

Quick fire:
- Fave cocktail? I don’t drink!
- Sneakers or heels? Sneakers
- Black or white? White
- Fave fashion brand? CELINE
- Song you can listen to on repeat? « Sur la planche » from LA FEMME
- Fave book? In tenebris from Maxime Chattam
- Morning or evening? Evening
- Winter or summer? Summer
- Pasta or pizza? Pizza
- Cats or dogs? Cats and dogs!
- Hair loose or thight? Loose
- Mascara or blush? Blush