Randy Fenoli is an esteemed wedding dress designer based out of New York. He put his name on the map when he became host of the hit TLC show “Say Yes to the Dress”, which features Kleinfeld Bridal in New York City. After years of designing and consulting in the bridal business, he wondered why select styles and sizes were only available at an extraordinary price. With this in mind, Randy set out on a new creative adventure to design couture styled dresses for brides on a budget.
Randy’s dream was always to become a designer. He attended the Fashion Institute of Technology, receiving numerous accolades for his creative designs and passionate enthusiasm. Immediately after graduation, Randy launched two lines of wedding dresses: Randy Fenoli for the Diamond Collection and Randy Fenoli for Dressy Creations. These lines did extremely well, but after a few years of success in the business he decided to shift gears and move on to be a dress consultant. Randy is referred to as the “bridal gown whisperer”, helping thousands of brides find their perfect dress on over 15 seasons of TLC’s hit show. As the years went on, Randy saw the negative side of the industry and wanted to use his ideas to bridge the gap between wearing gorgeous dresses and staying on budget.
Randy’s creative process is focused around making brides happy. He claims that, like each bride, every dress has their own personality. Pulling inspiration from everywhere, from trunk shows to couture fashion lines, Randy tries to create dresses that are unique and not seen anywhere else. He starts with a sketch, adds layering, then talks to brides to get their input on what is missing from the design. This process has inspired him to give each dress in every collection a woman’s name. He feels that this connects the bride to their dream dress. Randy is motivated to design one of a kind dresses while also keeping the cost down as much as possible. He believes that every bride deserves to look the way that they want to on their big day.
Randy Fenoli’s career can be linked to Laird McLean’s ideas of cultural influence on creativity. Randy’s creativity is based on the ideas of American culture, putting an emphasis on the big white wedding and saying “yes” to the dress. The bridal industry as a whole is based on the freedom to create unique dresses for each bride on their big day. Randy’s creative process takes full advantage of that freedom, as he pulls ideas directly from brides. Culturally, brides typically wear white; however, Randy believes that whatever makes a bride happy is what he should design, so many of his collections incorporate the use of colored dresses for bridal fashion.
Randy’s current collections, Beautiful Beginnings and Silver Springs, can be found in over 80 countries, as well as Kleinfeld Bridal. He continues to design dresses and now has several spin-offs on TLC, including Randy to the Rescue. He wants to continue to inspire brides and make them feel beautiful through his creations.
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I love Randy but I never would have thought to talk about him as a creative. I've seen many of his designs on say yes to the dress and have loved many of them. I think Randy really thought about his field and, using his experience as a consultant, filled a space that was lacking. That's impressive and a testament to his expertise and observational skills in such a saturated market.
ReplyDeleteI love that Randy demolishes the idea that if something is uniquely made, personalized, and well-designed then it has to be ridiculously expensive. I think Randy jumping to different roles within his field can be likened to many of the creatives we have studied. I also admire how extrinsically motivated Randy appears to be - he loves his work because he loves making brides happy.
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