They don’t call Pnina Tornai the ‘Fairy Godmother’ of wedding gowns for nothing! With a sprinkle of the Israeli designer’s magical stardust, any woman will become the bride of her dreams, especially in her latest collection. In her “craziest year in bridal since 1984,” Pnina told HollywoodLife that following two years of uncertainty and event cancellations, “brides are getting married.” “They’re wearing my dresses, they’re having big weddings. I’m fully booked for 2022, and it’s really wonderful,” she gushed, while chatting at her Kleinfeld trunk show. “The brides are wearing ball gowns. I just launched by Stardust Couture collection for 2022, named for my stars, my brides, and I was taking a chance with the designs, because they’re really bigger than life, and they are flying off the shelves.”
Pnina revealed that she got inspiration for the Stardust gowns from her ultimate inspiration: her brides! “Every time I’m interviewed, I’m asked about my favorite celebrities that have I dressed in my career. I always answered that my celebrities, my stars, are my brides,” she explained. “I want every woman to feel like a star when she wears one of my dresses. So that’s why it’s named Stardust, because I spread Stardust on my beautiful brides!”
With intricate beadwork, exclusive lace designs and appliqué flowers, each Couture gown is custom made by Pnina and her team. “There’s a lot of work put into it, and it’s all very unique,” she said.
Pnina also reflected on the evolution of bridal styles through the years, especially when she first came to America to sell her designs from Israel. “When I first came to America, my dresses were very sexy, because the Israeli bride has always been very daring and sexy. When I first showed my dresses to Kleinfeld, well, they looked at the dresses, they looked at me and they said, ‘We will never be able to sell these dresses in the United States,'” she recalled. “Here I was, the leading designer in my country, being refused! So, I created a new collection for them, and it was a little less daring and sexy, but still had my signature elements. But, throughout the years, I feel like I really changed the landscape in the United States and in the world.”
Pnina continued, “Women now are more aware of their figure, how they want to look. Women want to show how gorgeous they are, because they are!”
Now, one of the most daunting thing for some brides is choosing the dress for the big day, but Pnina’s advice is one to remember! “It should be like love at first sight. Just like when you saw your the love of your life for the first time, that feeling when your heart is racing and that feeling that makes you understand this is the right thing for you. The right partner for you in life, and the right dress that you want to walk down the aisle,” she said with a smile.
Visit Kleinfeld’s website to see Pnina’s upcoming US trunk shows so you can see her beautiful new collection for yourself! If you’re not getting married just yet, don’t worry! The designer just expanded her talents to bridesmaid gowns in partnership with Azazie! “Bridesmaids dresses have always been kind of a dress that you would only wear once because you have to and that’s it. I really wanted to make sure that my bridesmaids would want to wear their dresses over and over and over again,” Pnina told HL. “I took all of my knowledge and all of my techniques from the couture world that I live in and brought it into the bridesmaids world, and the dresses are stunning!”