Olivia Culpo holds the following belief about marriage: “It’s a covenant. It’s the beginning of the rest of your life – and it’s the union and bond of two people forever,” the model and former Miss Universe tells . So when it came to designing her wedding dress with , there was one note she stressed to the atelier above all.
“I wanted something that felt as serious as that commitment,” she says. For months, she and the Italian house worked together to translate that emotional ideal into a physical dress. And on Saturday 29 June, Culpo walked down the chapel aisle in Watch Hill, Rhode Island to marry San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey in a long-sleeve crepe crew-neck ballgown with a voluminous skirt and button-lined back.
“I didn’t want it to exude sex in any way, shape or form,” she says of the dress, which she wore with a 16-foot lace veil. “I wanted it to feel effortless and as if it’s complementing me, not overpowering me. There’s so much beauty and simplicity.
” (This ethos also extended to her beauty: Culpo tells she wore little make-up, forgoing mascara and eyebrow gel in favour of a pared-back look.) “When I think about Christian and what he loves and the moments that he thinks that I’m most beautiful, it’s absolutely in something like this: timeless, covered, and elegant,” she adds. Culpo says the design process was a relatively simple one, as she and Christian always wanted to get married in a church.
“That was.