The Fall Bride

Interview with Annelise Sealy, owner of The Fall Bride—London
Photography by Charlie McKay

The Fall Bride offers a warm monochromatic minimalism to its clients visiting the newly designed London boutique. Muted industrial architecture forms the complementary and calming backdrop for the unique collection.

thefallbride.com @thefallbride

Tell us about the journey of The Fall and what inspired you to start the boutique? After working in women’s fashion for a decade, across wholesale, e-commerce, and digital marketing, colleagues of mine started getting engaged and couldn’t find any contemporary, design-led bridal boutiques. That started the idea, and after a year of market research, I opened the first iteration of The Fall Bride in January 2020.

How would you describe the aesthetic and overall concept of your brand? Our brand is pared back and focuses on spatial experience, muted tones and satisfying textures. We want everything to feel calm, mature and tasteful. In store, we don’t want anything to distract from the customer in the dress. Our product range is very carefully curated to offer a range of unique designers that are minimal with a twist.

Your studio space combines industrial architecture and contemporary elegance. Can you share your inspiration? The interior is really thanks to my friends and collaborators, Jess and Josie, at Studio Jey. By combining industrial architectural features with elevated materials, they wanted to create a less expected bridal shopping experience. They were very much led by research into traditional building materials like lime and clay based plaster but also took inspiration from more specific things like JW Anderson’s exhibition design for the Hepworth Wakefield and Lee Ufan’s sculpture work, combining metal with softer, more natural materials and shapes.

How do you curate the dresses in your boutique and what is important to you when choosing designers to become a part of your brand? When I select a designer to carry, it’s important that they have a fresh and unique perspective on bridal. Each of our designers has a clear design signature that can be recognised whether you have seen the label inside the dress or not. Further to that, I look to their design history and the development of their aesthetic across collections. It’s very unusual that I’ll carry a designer from their very first collection and it has to really be special. One label that I am excited to be introducing at the inception of their wedding offering is Tanner Fletcher – a genderless label from New York.

What can a bride expect when stepping into your boutique? How do you create a pleasant experience for the bride to be? Our space has been designed to be a calming environment – from the colour palette to the interior furnishings, the scent and the music. Our appointment style is not stuffy or overbearing – for example, we let customers dress themselves and only step in when fitting the gowns. Our stylist approach is that of a helpful yet professional friend or sister.

Planning a wedding can be extremely overwhelming for a bride. What is your advice on choosing the perfect dress? There’s a lot of pressure to find something that is not only ‘perfect’ and reflective of personal style but also has longevity – is this going to date when I look back at photos? My best tip is to stay true to yourself – you need to feel like the best version of you, and be 100% comfortable in your dress on the day. Fashions and personal styles change, and what we would choose to wear when we’re 60 is very unlikely to be the same that we chose at 30. Also, try to only bring people to your appointment who will be completely supportive of you.

Can you tell us about the process after the bride finds ‘the dress’? After choosing a gown, brides often come back in to have an accessories styling appointment with us so they can complete their look. We love to help our customers with a vision and direction that complements their personal style, wedding plans, and venue. Brides typically come back 1-2 months after ordering their gown for an accessories appointment, and then collect their gown and any other items 1-2 months out from their wedding. We’re here to guide them every step of the way and often consult on things that we don’t offer or carry, such as shapewear, advice for hair styles, and so on.

Do you offer any other services at The Fall such as bridal accessories, shoes or tailoring? Absolutely! Our goal is to dress brides in a full The Fall Bride look, so we carry accessories and veils, demi-fine jewellery and shoes. We’re one of the only places in the UK that carries a range of Loeffler Randall’s bridal shoes, which are incredibly popular for both style and comfort. 

You have a recycled program on your website for pre-worn dresses which is refreshing to see. Can you expand on this?For me, part of re-envisioning the bridal offering included what happens to the gown after the wedding day. Our customers and our products are not traditional, so it’s unlikely they will want to box up their gown to keep for a potential future daughter. Even if they do, natural fibres like silks don’t age well, so it’s risky! I wanted to close the loop on bridal consumption and one-use dresses, so we offer our (Re)Cycle consignment service to all of our customers – many of whom bring their gowns back to us to sell on to a new bride. It’s been a huge hit and is popular with budget or environmentally conscious brides and those with limited time on their side. Many of our other customers keep their gowns and get them hemmed and dyed to keep as a forever piece in their wardrobe.

Lastly, what has been inspiring you lately? If you’ve visited our store it won’t surprise you that art and architecture are personal interests of mine. My favourite contemporary artist is Refik Anadol – a Turkish media artist who uses AI (often based on data sets from nature) to create mesmerising, abstract and colourful large-scale video and image installations. 

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