Franco Uomo & La Donna Debut Non-Binary Custom Formalwear & Wedding Attire
By uniting our couture clothing production houses we aim to bridge the gender gap in fashion design available for formalwear and wedding attire.
SAN JOSE, August 2nd, 2022 - Franco Uomo and La Donna Bridal Atelier proudly announce that we are bridging the design services available between our custom menswear boutique and our custom womenswear boutique on Santana Row. Individuals looking for formalwear or wedding attire outside of the traditional suit/gown binary will now be able to utilize both creative design services and their correlated couture production houses in creating personalized custom garments that creatively express the full gender spectrum.
“Our slogan has always been ‘All About You’,” says CEO Daud Shuja. “But now with the establishment of our custom bridal store, we can cater to every individual’s personal expression in a way that no suit store or bridal store could have before.”
La Donna Bridal Atelier was opened by Franco Uomo in 2020 to bring our custom clothing design services “to the brides our grooms are marrying.” With “Uomo” being Italian for “Man” and “Donna” being Italian for “Woman,” the two stores and brands compliment each other in representing the masculine and feminine “archetypes” in the traditional gender/sex binary.
“With our on-site Master Tailor Studio, we have always been able to fit any body that walks through our doors. It’s a point of pride for us. Bespoke Couture has always been non-binary in that sense. But with both brands offering custom creations, we can now deliver on a new arena of non-traditional custom looks that experiment with the space between the two,” says Shuja.
Clients can choose their preferred store location and work with a professional stylist to design custom looks that blend the traditional suit structure with lace or satin from our bridal store. Likewise, a gown or pantsuit design could incorporate structured compositions and tailoring from our suit store.
All custom creations will require a custom quote but realistically will start at $3,500 with a six month turnaround time.
“As much as our core values have lead us to the non-binary space, it’s important that people come to us open to our own design philosophy and aesthetic,” Mr. Shuja adds. “We are a classic formalwear company and we believe that style should be timeless, particularly when it comes to wedding attire. We aren’t interested in being trendsetters or creating PR stunts. What we want is to include people in a space that has traditionally excluded them.”
Silicon Valley same-sex couples have increasingly turned to Franco Uomo for their wedding looks over the last few years. It has been the first opportunity presented to us to figure out how to maintain our design principles when the gender/sex being styled is different. For example, we traditionally tell grooms that their suit should compliment the bride and not the brides maids. When designing two grooms together, we figured out how to make them compliment each other through a contrasting reversed bowtie.
Joe & Chris Garmon, Photographed by Jenna Bechtolt.