Bridal fashion designer Janice Lee is deconstructing the idea of the traditional wedding gown and establishing the fact that you can re-wear your bridal trousseau even after your big day. No item of clothing carries more weight, expectation, or a heftier price tag than a wedding dress. But with fashion’s forward-thinking mandate to buy more thoughtfully and consume less, it no longer feels practical to spend a significant amount of money on something you only plan to wear once, for a handful of hours.
It feels timely, then, that a new guard of modern bridalwear is eschewing tradition and offering up intelligent, functional, and aisle-worthy pieces that will work well beyond the big day. As a 21st-century woman, Janice believes in allowing brides to choose from more options to customize their wedding look.
Janice is an experienced creative director & fashion designer with over a decade of couture design and manufacturing experience in the fashion industry. Janice creates original designs for all apparel and accessory categories and displays her emphasis on pristine craftsmanship and unique detailing. She is an expert in embroidery design, pattern making, fashion styling, illustration, product development, and textile design. Moreover, she holds a BFA with a focus in Art and Fashion Design from The Fashion Institute of Technology.
With her tremendous experience of having worked under esteemed fashion houses such as Oscar de la Renta and Monique Lhuillier, she is now using her wealth of knowledge towards creating elegant and versatile looks for women to uniquely empower them, help them celebrate, and to do so while being able to look stylish, distinctive, and modern.
According to the 2022 US Census Bureau report, the age of women getting married in cosmopolitan cities right now is also predominantly in their mid-30s, which would explain why their personal style would have evolved so much past the traditional large princess-style dresses (initially designed for brides in their early 20s) that most bridal shops are still eager to sell. Janice believes brides are now looking for more sustainable, modern, and chic options, but no one is fulfilling their needs. So her brand, Beyond the Ceremony, is about the choices and the looks that genuinely express the 21st-century woman.
She is designing sustainably luxurious, fashion-forward dresses that take their own twist on tradition” and reimagines the “wedding dress experience” for today’s women. She is also creating a curated, collaborative, and delightfully personalized experience in shopping for bridal. This business was born to upend legacy definitions of brides, their experience buying the dresses they wear, and the life we give them afterward. Janice is currently looking to expand her business and aims for her brand to become an internationally recognized re-wearable bridal name. Indeed, Ms. Janice and her labor of love are not to be missed.
