10 Questions with Creative Director Katherine Tash
Michele Iacovelli
Creative Director Katherine Tash
1) Tell us a bit about your design background.
My design background began with a lot of the typical soul-searching that a 23-year-old goes through. I was working multiple part-time dead-end jobs, had a degree in Theatre and Fine Arts, and I had zero idea of what I actually wanted to do, or was good at. I just knew that I loved what clothing could do to the body, and I knew that my theatre degree (which was supposed to be for acting) often led me to sneak off to the costuming department. I ended up going back to school for design at FIDM in Downtown LA, and the rest is history. I don’t have that super glamorous roster of Designer internships or jobs because I stayed in Los Angeles (for a man - I could kick myself!! Don’t do this when you’re young - go run and take that design internship in New York or Paris!) Los Angeles does have an amazing fashion industry with the coolest designers, but I didn’t want to do streetwear or ready-to-wear. I wanted to make Charles James ballgowns! I decided later that just because I didn’t receive couture training, didn’t mean I couldn’t teach myself about garment construction and continue learning and growing as a designer. I wasn’t going to let anything hold me back from what I wanted to be making, and falling down that rabbit hole of self-determination and drive eventually led me to Bridal, which I’m eternally grateful for.
2) What luxury companies did you work for before and what was the big takeaway from those experiences? I had a very intense working experience with one big name luxury evening wear brand in Los Angeles and my biggest takeaway from that experience was that I should trust my instincts, not only as a designer but as a person. It was a really pivotal moment in my work life when I looked around and had to decide if working for this name was worth all of the emotional strife. What did it matter to have this on my resume if I was completely miserable? It was a very cliche fashion industry “Devil Wears Prada” environment. I had driven myself to the point of burnout and enough was enough. My biggest takeaway was how I wanted to be a kind boss! I cannot do what I do without my team, the craftspeople who support my ideas, who work really hard every day to make my dreams a reality. It’s not lost on me. I remember so clearly the moment I walked out of that last terrible job and I said to myself, one day I’m going to run my own company and no one will ever feel like this working for me. I will create an environment of mutual respect and kindness. And I think we really have that in our office, it’s such a loving environment day to day with a happy team.
3) Why was designing bridal a natural progression?
I loved designing evening wear and gowns, but I also knew that there wasn’t a lot of need for ballgowns and that’s what I wanted to make! Bridal was an effortless transition into owning my
own business because it was a made-to-order business model where I could start small, I didn’t need investors, and huge inventories or connections. I just needed a good point of view - what would make me stand out from the crowd - good construction and textiles, and to get my work in front of the right people. Bridal allowed me to design with passion and the drama that you don’t need in your everyday life. Bridal felt fun!
4) When did you open your own business?
Our official launch was in 2018, I designed two collections and took them to Bridal Market in October and opened my very very small and sweet retail space on Melrose Ave in West Hollywood. It was a very sweet little store that I had to close during the pandemic, but I look back on my two years there very fondly! It was the start of something great.
5) What is the philosophy behind the brand?
At Katherine Tash Bridal we are dedicated to providing our brides with one of the most important gowns they will ever wear, to usher in the next chapter of their lives. We believe in bringing old-world craftsmanship to the modern atelier, slowly crafting our gowns with couture techniques, fine fabrics, and artisanal hand finishing. A true luxury experience for a once-in-a-lifetime moment.
6) How would describe the overall look of your collection?
Timelessly romantic, and a modern classic.
7) What inspires your designs aesthetic?
I’m always inspired by the female body, first. How can I accentuate, mold and form a person’s body with my creations? How can I wrap the fabric around them to achieve a specific look? I always want my gowns to feel so effortless, even though they are incredibly thought through, worked on, and heavily constructed on the inside. Really, the core of my brand begins with the insides of the gown - making sure the bride is supported - and the outer aesthetic adapts and grows from there, season to season. I don’t ever want to be pigeonholed by one specific look, and I feel that as long as I’m designing, the gowns will essentially ‘look’ like Katherine Tash Bridal’s energy. As far as what I comfortably always lean into, it’s very inspired by art. In the back of my mind, I think I just have a lot of Renaissance art and period drama costumes floating around and imagery of women in repose, leaning on their chaise and walking through tall grass draped in so many yards of silk and I think I want that feeling, but as a dress. I want my dresses to feel like love and luxury around your body. That energy of wrapping and shaping I think heavily informs my affinity for bias cut draping in silks.
8) What fabrications and techniques do you like to work in?
Draping of course! I think when I started leaning into my bias-cut silks, and draping techniques is when I really connected with our Brides. It’s a very specific look, and bias-cut silks are very difficult to do well. I have to laugh when people call the brand “simple’ because it’s anything but. I love that the gown looks easy while being carefully thought through as to how it will sit on the body, how it will emphasize my bride’s shape, and how it can feel strong while remaining feminine and romantic. It’s a modern twist on classic shapes, something our brides can look back on in 20, 30 years and still love the way they looked.
9) Tell us about the online looks vs custom vs wholesale.
Our online selection was my first step into offering ready-to-wear garments and secondary looks to my brides. It really has been a test run to see if there is interest before I go headlong into it. We’ve had wonderful responses but brides still tend to want to come in for a try-on and have the true bridal experience - no matter how much we all love shopping that will never die. Our wholesale collection is sold through our selected retailers. I design this collection once a year now for our retailers and brides. This allows me to feel creative and take time and space between projects to really step back and consider what I want to put out into the world. My custom process is much different. We offer a full custom experience at our atelier. This involves a full luxury experience from beginning to end, where I work with the bride designing a custom look or multiple event looks based on her specific ideas while infusing my own taste into it. More often than not our custom brides come to me because they love my work, my aesthetic, but want a dress that no one else has. This is always so much fun for me because it is new creative work and what designer doesn’t love that! But also it really allows me the opportunity to stretch my creative brain, work side by side with my brides over the course of months, and possibly develop something I wouldn’t have done or wouldn’t have thought to do. That’s a really wonderful moment when the client and I come together and have this aha moment of design magic, and it feels like all the stars are aligning.
10) What are the price points?
Our Main Collection Gown price points range from $4,000-$8,000