The designer Christopher John Rogers never set out to make a name for himself in bridal fashion. And yet that’s precisely what he has done.
“The idea of bridal was never really something I was naturally drawn to,” said Mr. Rogers, 32. “To be honest, evening wear wasn’t either.”
After graduating from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2016, Mr. Rogers, who is from Baton Rouge, La., established his brand in 2018 in New York City, garnering acclaim for his kaleidoscopic designs, ultrasharp tailoring and voluminous silhouettes. A couple of years and several fashion awards later, he was designing looks for Kamala Harris and Michelle Obama.
Then the style-savvy brides came calling.
One of his first bridal clients, a gallerist, reached out after spotting the actor Zendaya wearing a gown from the Christopher John Rogers 2019 fall/winter collection. The giant, ruffled, yellow taffeta dress had transfixed the client, who was newly engaged. Mr. Rogers and his team recreated that dress for her wedding in the same sunny shade.
“We had another client who wanted our strawberry dress from that same fall ’19 collection in pink and red,” he said. “Our first few bridal clients wanted something special, declarative, unique to them — something that didn’t exist.”
Carrie Goldberg, a bridal stylist based in New York City, described his techniques as “quite avant-garde.”
“He plays with scales so beautifully, which I think, at least for my brides, has been really great because three of the four looks I did with him were quite large,” said Ms. Goldberg of their ongoing collaboration, which began in 2022. “He makes structure feel soft in a way that brides who are looking for that regality, but have a metropolitan flair, gravitate toward.”
In March, Mr. Rogers debuted his latest ready-to-wear collection during Paris Fashion Week, “No Strings,” an assortment of dressy and casual looks. CJR loyalists are now wondering whether an official foray into bridal wear could be on the horizon.
The interview was edited and condensed for clarity.
How would you characterize your creative evolution from when you started your fashion label a decade ago?
I kind of always knew I wanted to have my own brand. I wanted to be able to self-articulate and be in control of what I was putting out there. I moved to New York from Savannah, Ga., and started releasing collections — but without a plan. It was more because I needed to create bodies of work and express how I was feeling at the time. In the past few years, coming into my 30s, intentionality and increased attention to quality have become more important. It’s become more of a mix of myself as an artist and wanting to self-express and also really giving people the tools to express themselves.
Did your Southern background influence your designs?
Growing up, I always felt like an outsider in many ways because of all the different identities and multiplicities I hold. And so I’ve always wanted there to be a little something ajar about the reference, or tweaked. The way that the Southernness shows up in my work is there’s an adjacency to polish, but there’s never, hopefully, a veneer. I think there’s always a realness that comes through.
How does that intersect with your New York City influences?
Moving to New York, having to live with the chaos of the city and — for the first time — really dealing with four distinct seasons, all of that really informed the way I thought about cutting clothes and how glamour intersects with pragmatism.
What separates you from other bridal options on the market?
I love a boned corset as much as I love stretch mesh. There is no hierarchy to me. I’m interested in everything. We can do things that feel more avant-garde, while still feeling special and specific and a little weird. But also steeped in tradition, maybe a little bit modest, and at the same time, a little sexy if that’s what you want. I think with us, lots of different people can fit into this world.
Who is the CJR bride?
The CJR bride holds space for a lot of different types of people. But some things they have in common are their curiosity, their self-assurance, their intellect, their sense of humor. They’re like a black sheep in some ways. They’re also all quite warm, kind people. We’ve had people who get married in our ready-to-wear pieces from Bergdorf, Net-a-Porter or McMullen, a store we work with in California. They’ll buy something off-the-rack and say, “I’m getting married in this,” and I think that’s cool. There isn’t necessarily a pretension.
Are there fabrics, textures or design elements that distinguish you from others?
Obviously, we’re known for our affinity for color and proportion. For bridal, recently, because there have been requests for more ivory or white looks, I think a mix of textures and that sense of proportion play is always really fun.
Exposing construction, I like. One thing is that usually when you cut things, whether it’s on the bias or straight grain, cross-grain, whatever, you’re taught to avoid a center front seam. And I love a center front seam. Some people are like, “Oh, why is there a seam there?” And it’s like, because there’s not supposed to be one. It’s all so fun and a marker of: A human made that. That feels cool to me — something that isn’t so precious, but is at the same time.
Will you ever release a bridal collection?
That is definitely something we have been asked a lot and something that we think would be really fun to do. So yeah, keep your eyes peeled.
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