Cover Evan Phillips and Amy Trinh

We chat to Amy Trinh and Evan Phillips, the emerging London-based fashion designers behind bridal label, Wed

London-based designers Amy Trinh and her Central Saint Martins classmate Evan Phillips started Wed in 2019. A line of subversive bridal designs and ready-to-wear, the pieces use upcycled fabric from a 300-year-old family mill in England that provided silk for Princess Diana and Princess Anne’s wedding gowns. The modern talents also offer a bespoke service to clients who want to repurpose heirloom gowns for their big day.

How did you first realise you wanted to do fashion?

Amy: My friend persuaded me to go art school and one of my projects was to deconstruct a shirt—this was the first time I saw clothes in a creative sense.

Evan: I have always drawn and been generally creative. I used to imagine and draw stage costumes and sets for my favourite singers when I was a kid, but I think I only properly became interested in fashion when I went to Central Saint Martins.

Who was the first designer you worked for?

Amy: Before starting Wed, we both spent several years working for other designers in the industry. My first job after university was a traineeship at Stella McCartney. Then I went to COS and later worked with Susan Fang.

Evan: After finishing my MA I worked with Richard Quinn, as we had previously collaborated on his MA collection. After a short time there, I went to work for Simone Rocha. I think each brand brings you a different perspective and enables you to build a new range of skills to develop your own practice.

See also: How Jonathan Anderson Became One Of Fashion’s Most In-Demand Designers

Tatler Asia
Above Looks from Wed’s debut bridal collection
Tatler Asia
Above Looks from Wed’s debut bridal collection

When was the first time you realised your brand was getting attention?

Amy: When we first saw the collection featured on Vogue Runway, we were in Paris for our second season and that felt like a good milestone. We are always very happy when people are interested in the brand and understand what we are trying to do. In October 2019, we were made artists in residence at the Sarabande Foundation, which was established by Alexander McQueen. That felt like a great achievement so early on in the brand.

Tell us about showing your first collection—what was it like? Any surprises?

Evan: I think we were unsure of what to expect at first but the overall response we received was great, considering we appeared in Paris and no one had ever heard of us before. The biggest surprise, I think, was Rei Kawakubo visiting the showroom in the first season, as we are both great admirers of her work.

Tatler Asia
Above Looks from Wed’s debut bridal collection

Where is the first place you look for inspiration?

Amy: Surrealism is a big source of inspiration for us, so we often look at the work of artists like Dora Maar, Man Ray, Dorothea Tanning and Claude Cahun. The “exquisite corpse”, whereby each artist separately inputs their skills or ideas in succession to create a piece of art, is how we create our collections, with every piece going back and forth between the two of us at each stage of the process, dependent on each of our skills.

First celebrity you dressed?

Evan: Our first fully custom dress was for the singer Celeste, which she wore while performing Strange at the 2020 Brit Awards. We were very happy that the look we worked on with her managed to embody completely the dark emotion of the music.

See also: Digital Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week: Highlights From Chanel, Christian Dior and More


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