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First comes love, then comes wedding dress shopping.
We all like something borrowed and something blue, but let’s be real. The “something new” is the best part—particularly the dress. For the latest episode of The Who What Wear Podcast, we dove into the beautiful world of bridal fashion with LOHO Bride founder Christy Baird and Jackson Wiederhoeft, designer of the eponymous label Wiederhoeft. Baird and Wiederhoeft share how they got their start in the wedding industry, their 2025 bridal trend predictions, and more.
For excerpts from their conversation, scroll below.
Can you tell us a little bit about how you fell in love with the industry and got your start in fashion and bridal?
Christy Baird: I don’t have this crazy background in fashion per se, but I would say I fell in love with fashion in high school. I took a sewing class and ended up becoming the TA, and I just fell in love with reconstructing stuff. I would go thrifting, and I would do the Urban Outfitters thing and add lace to a shirt or things like that. My parents really encouraged me to take sewing classes. I was, by far, the youngest person by probably 40 years, but I took those when I was in high school. I made my own prom dress.
It was just always in the back burner. I went through college and was working in tech, not really sure if it really felt like me. [I was] kind of lost.
One year when I was 24, I had nine weddings to attend. Of course, I started just getting curious because I was nowhere near getting married or really didn’t think about it much. I interviewed a lot of the brides and just wanted to know how their experience was. All of them—especially very cool, more fashionable brides—said that the dress shopping experience was actually not what they had hoped for. It was very pushy. It was very sales-y. It didn’t feel genuine. That really shook me a little bit because I was like, “Wait a minute.” You would think that part of the industry has been so dialed in, so that’s what kind of got my curiosity going.
Because I was broke, I started reconstructing vintage bridal gowns. I brought the high school class back into the mix, and I was slinging those on Etsy and selling them online and shipping them during my lunch break, and that turned into me taking fittings in my tiny studio in San Francisco. I started showing those vintage dresses and selling them. I probably had like 15 at a time. It was so small. That’s when I really fell in love with the experience.
I didn’t care to do the designing much. I did it just to have something to sell, but I really fell in love with the bride and how special it was and how unique I made them feel in this tiny, little studio.
[Jackson], you obviously do more than just bridal. What was it about initially starting your line and then kind of diving into that space, specifically? What was your interest there?
Jackson Wiederhoeft: I launched the brand October 2019. So was like right before COVID, which was tricky, because then come like a few months later, we’re in this global lockdown and I was locked in my apartment. I was always nervous about bridal, because it is such a specific industry and I didn’t want it to take away from the work I was doing. I think sometimes in fashion, people view bridal as less than, but then once I got into it, I realized it can be just as much if not more. It is for so many people one of the most important days of their lives when they feel the most beautiful and special.
I just over time realized there is so much creative space within bridal or so much space for storytelling and beautiful design. Beautiful moments that I kind of relate to my theatrical background in terms of always valuing the emotional impact of a garment and what that can do for the wearer, for the viewer. Then over time, bridal has kind of become our bread and butter and the core of the business.
Do either of you see any trends emerging in the bridal space in 2025
JW: Scarves, big dresses. Actually, when I’m in LA, LOHO people are really into huge gowns. I think it’s come to the East Coast, people really want like big, big dresses, which is interesting, because we don’t have a lot of that. We’ve been trying to figure out how to satiate. It feels like that was a quick kind of trend that came up in terms of people looking for a lot of volume.
HONOR
Layered Flocked Tulle Gown With Chantilly Lace and Cellophane Bows
CB: I love that Gracie Abrams just wore that Chanel gown to the GRAMMYs with the attachable veil. We have something like that from Vivienne [Westwood] and from Wed Studio right now. I love dresses that can transform, too, and create an editorial moment or just different variety for your photos. I support what [Jackson’s] saying in that the maximalism has really come in and it’s been booming.
Even if a bride is wearing something on a more minimal side, it’s the maximalist veil, the maximalist styling. The florals become such a bigger conversation. That’s been really fun for us, because more is more. We can just have fun with that.
Vivienne Westwood
Delicate Lace Opera Gloves
Let’s talk about accessories, too. Is there anything that adds a special touch that you are loving right now?
JW: We’re trying to get really fun with the veils. I think that’s always such a great opportunity. When else in your life are you going to wear a really majestic veil? Gowns can come and go, but veils are very specific. Just the extravagance and the joy and just like really reveling in the moment.
CB: I would echo that. We’re really trying to have more fun with the veils, so that, again, if someone does go for something a little more pared down, they can still have that really extra bridal moment down the aisle and then take it off and enjoy not having a massive gown to bustle or anything like that.
If there are gloves, I would just say—and I guess Wiederhoeft would be a great example of that—they need, I think, something a little more interesting that’s giving us something more. It’s matching and beaded and it’s just a new take on gloves I would love for us to kind of move forward on. Like I mentioned with the attachable veil or hood, I personally also love the gloves from Vivienne Westwood, where the hood is attached. I’m so glad they brought that back into this new season, because it just gives a nice little twist and again, creates more photo moments.
I think really using accessories to have different moments with your photos is what I’m after.
PARIS by Debra Moreland
Breathless Chantilly Cathedral Veil
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
