Norma Kamali Pre-Fall 2022 Collection

Norma Kamali is and always has been pro-woman. For pre-fall she’s also pro-princess (bride). The impetus was her own impending nuptials and the assignment to create a dreamy wedding dress for the daughter of a good friend, who happens to be a neuroscientist with fairytale good looks.

For about 15 years starting in the mid-’90s Kamali designed custom bridal looks, including for one Cynthia Germanotta, whose daughter, Lady Gaga, wears it in her video for “You and I.” This time around Kamali’s offerings are off-the-rack and aimed at a variety of brides (Disney princess, Jessica Rabbit, etc.) “They’re modern, they’re easy to take care of,” said Kamali on a call, adding that they are relatively affordable. “The amount of money you spend on a gown doesn’t necessarily mean that that gown is more beautiful or it isn’t more fantastical or magical, or makes you feel any better because you spent more,” she said.

Having taken care of the bride, the designer also addressed the bridal party, by offering the looks not only in white, but in red and black as well. For day-to-day, or day-to-evening, dressing, Kamali updated and rotated her catalog, starting with the draped Diana dress that made such a stir when it was worn by Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw recently, in colors like citrus yellow and seafoam green. She also recut her iconic sleeping bag coat as a vest in a toile fabric, so it can be worn over a wedding or evening dress with a sort of 1940s flair, a look that Kamali has always cultivated personally.