Legendary Bridal Designer Kate Halfpenny Takes Us Behind the Scenes of her Namesake Brand

Kate Halfpenny is nothing short of a British fashion icon. Having cut her teeth at Central Saint Martins and Vivienne Westwood, she went on to style some of the biggest celebrities in the world, before founding her eponymous luxury bridalwear brand in 2005.

Now in its twentieth year, Halfpenny London remains a go-to for stylish brides everywhere, who can't get enough of Kate's signature modern-romantic dresses and regularly sold-out separates—all of which are designed and made entirely in the UK.

To coincide with Halfpenny London's impressive 20-year anniversary—and the exquisite new Twenty collection designed in its honour—we sat down with the brains behind the business to discuss her nine-to-five, design inspirations, secrets for success, and highlights of an impressive, glittering career...

I can’t start my day without… Hot water and lemon. It’s a relatively new thing for me, since I started fasting. It wakes me up, and then I’ll have a cacao with coconut milk, and those keep me full for the whole morning.

I have a rotation of three looks that I wear for work. Issey Miyake Pleats Please trousers with a wide turtleneck cotton top and a little puff-shoulder Simone Rocha jacket, or it’s one of two different Comme des Garçons skirts, with a shirt. I get such joy out of wearing these brands, they make me feel great, and they can be dressed up or down easily. When I’m in the boutique in back-to-back bridal appointments, I tend to wear all black—it just makes me feel smarter, and I think it gives an element of “I know what I’m doing”. But I’ll often have a bold-coloured, interesting knit tied around my shoulders, too.

I tend to do all business on my iPhone, even though I have a laptop at home and a laptop at work. I always always always have a Smythson notebook on me; I have them in different sizes and styles, the full range basically, and I switch them up depending on the handbag I’ve got. The paper is by far the nicest to write on.

Getting home to put my son to bed is a ritual for me. It’s pretty much a non-negotiable of my day, I always try to get on a train out of London no later than six o’clock, because we live near the coast next to Whitstable in Faversham.

I travel a lot and always look out for amazing details, in architecture, gardens, interiors, textiles, anything really. My passion and my hobby is interiors, and I’ve been renovating my home for the last eight years—it’s a nearly-6,000 square foot vicarage, so it’s a big project. But all of this also really inspires me and informs my design process. Inspiration can come from anywhere: a song I hear, a book I read, something I’ve seen, or even an emotion.

We’ve just launched our Twenty collection to celebrate our twentieth anniversary—it's bonkers. We looked back through the archives for it. There’s a beautiful corset called Phoenix with a dipped-front hem from 2005, that we’ve brought back in bright ivory. Paired with a big peplum tulle skirt, it just looks delicious.

We looked at some of our icons for the collection, like the Okotan corset and Okotan skirt. It’s incredible, looking back, how many we’ve sold. Same with the Ariel: it’s a beautiful bow that people add to their dresses, and I know everyone has these now but I’ve been doing it for years, and it’s gone globally bananas.

Everybody seems to know somebody who’s worn the Cheryl. It’s our best-selling dress; a beautiful silk high-neck dress that first came out in the mid-2000s.

We like to empower the women that we dress. We celebrate all body shapes, and hold a collection of diverse sizes, which is super important to me, not being a size 10 myself. There’s nothing specific that defines the Halfpenny bride—she just becomes brave and fearless when she’s wearing one of our dresses, and feels utterly gorgeous.

Seeing pictures of the bride after her wedding is super rewarding. It's such a joy to see the love in the photos, and the dress having its hero moment. Being a part of such a special day is a real privilege. I love getting emails telling me how incredible they felt on the day thanks to one of our designs—you don't really get that with ready-to-wear .

I've seen the bridal landscape change a lot in the past 20 years. When I brought out my brand in the mid-2000s, no one really did bridal separates. They just didn't understand them—it was all about a single dress. It's taken a good decade to get people round to the idea, and now, it's completely normal.

The biggest lesson I've learned in business is... To surround yourself with people that are better than you, and trust your gut instinct because it's your guardian angel.

I think we know too much these days to be as brave as we used to be. Finding that incredible bow-fronted shop in Woburn Walk and opening it as a boutique in 2013 with my name above the door was a huge moment for me. But I was so naive. I remember thinking I'd only need to sell one dress a month to cover the rent. I had no idea how much work it would entail. Now, everything is so out there and available for you to see that you probably wouldn't take such big risks.

We're currently working on... Part two of our Twenty collection, that will be launching in October. We also have a cool little edit of mini dresses launching on Net-A-Porter soon that's literally in the hand-finishing part now, alongside some amazing bespoke gowns—one for a really cool influencer and one for a gorgeous artist.

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