We chatted with Agnese Petraglia, the creative force behind the unconventional bridalwear label
If there is any bridalwear brand to commemorate for rewriting the bridal rulebook, it’s certainly Medusa London. Founded by visionary Agnese Petraglia, this brand is all about challenging traditional wedding dress norms, encouraging brides to express individuality and authenticity on their big day, a perfect fit for the brides who want to refrain from surrendering to outdated wedding dress expectations. Naturally, I jumped at the opportunity to speak with Petraglia and hear the story behind her bold, unique bridal designs.
Our interview took place over Zoom, and despite the digital barrier I was instantly greeted by Petraglia’s friendly, welcoming smile, and of course we connected straight away over our mutual love for modern, unconventional bridalwear.
Growing up in a small village in the South of Italy, Petraglia explains that the prospect of becoming a fashion designer wasn’t necessarily something on the cards for her during her childhood: “The mentality there is very much the one of, you know, fashion designers have no job,” she says. “Unfortunately, it’s not a place for that, for the arts to thrive.” But that didn’t stop her from admiring the beautiful dresses she would see on ‘Say Yes To The Dress’, which eventually led to her falling in love with the concept of making them herself. Although Petraglia remained passionate about pursuing a fashion career into adulthood, her academic talent led to her moving to the UK to study languages, though she couldn’t resist returning to the creative realm for long: “In my second year, my university, University of Westminster, was very close to one of the locations of London College of Fashion. And I kept seeing all these fashion students. And I was like, I wish I was them. I wish I was one of them.” Eventually, Petraglia dropped out of university and took the deep dive into fashion, studying a short course at Central St Martins, and hasn’t looked back since.
She shares that her passion for creating wearable, customisable bridalwear was first sparked by her sister’s wedding dress. “After the ceremony, my sister said I want to take this dress off, it’s heavy, it’s annoying. The wedding had just started, and we spent months and months and months on getting this done,” says Petraglia. “After that, I really wanted to create something that will make people happy and proud to wear the dress for the whole day. They’d love it so much they would want to wear it over and over again because it feels like a second skin.” After being furloughed from her day job in 2020, she used the downtime to her advantage and decided to begin designing bridalwear pieces, and this is where the journey of Medusa London began: “It just naturally was born during Covid, like many other businesses, it’s just because that was the only time that I had. All the time I needed to actually sit down, plan it and express my creativity. And I was like, You know what? Let’s do it. Let’s see what happens.”
For Petraglia, bridalwear isn’t just about wearing a white dress: it’s an opportunity to display individual style and to feel like the very best version of yourself. And that’s why she has created a brand that steers away from trends and tradition, for the bride who dares to be different: “The signature Medusa London bride is someone who has a very, very strong sense of self, someone who knows what they like, what they want, and they have a very strong need for self-expression,” Petraglia explains. “The Medusa London bride doesn’t really do many trends. Or if they do trends, they really adapt them to what they like and what their personal style is.”
Petraglia’s capsule collection, Metamorphosis, for instance, embodies the fearless spirit of the Medusa London bride. Integrating sky-high hemlines, bold organza ruffled detailing and contemporary two pieces, this assortment epitomises her bold reimagining of bridalwear, with drama and individuality taking centre stage. When I ask Petraglia to name a favourite piece from the collection, she pauses, like many designers, as choosing just one feels nearly impossible. But after a moment of reflection, she lands on the Aphrodite dress.“It’s got everything that I would wear, or I tend to wear, on a daily basis”, Petraglia says. “But in a way, I’m attached to every single piece, because even if not all of them are made for myself, personally, every dress has got a specific story, and it’s made for a purpose. So I’m in love with all of them. They are my babies!”
The opportunity to personalise your wedding dress alongside the designer is a major advantage, especially for brides who find themselves yearning to mix and match elements, like pairing the bodice of one gown with the skirt of another. Petraglia completely relates, admitting that she often feels the same way about her everyday wardrobe. She explains that it’s this instinct for customisation that inspired her deeply personal, bespoke approach to bridal design: “I can’t just stick to something the way that it is, like anything that I buy or I consume. I like to personalise it. I like to make it mine. I like to express my own personal sense of style,” Petraglia says. “So I wanted to make sure I could create something as well that people could easily customise and make theirs. I always see my dresses as blank canvases. You can either wear the blank canvas as it is, you can personalize it as much as you want.”
According to Petraglia, a custom dress will usually take inspiration from your personality, lifestyle and overall aesthetic, but outside of fashion and bridal: “I always ask my brides, for example, when we work on custom dresses, to start from a mood board of things they like. That does not include clothing or fashion or wedding dresses. So just try to understand that, what’s your vibe, what kind of things you’re attracted to, and that’s also really going to narrow down your search.” Petraglia says that from there, the dress details such as the silhouette and fabric are discussed, which usually take inspiration from the bride’s everyday wardrobe, so that in their wedding dress they are able to feel totally themselves.
After hearing about how Medusa London emerged and its signature style, I’m eager to learn about her process of creating a collection. According to Petraglia, the journey can begin in a variety of different ways, such as a sketch, the spontaneous jotting down of an idea, or when she is trying on previous collections whilst creating content in her studio: “One of the things that I do is try to wear my dresses in like, the total opposite of the way they’re meant to be worn. And something always comes from that,” she explains. “And then I take a picture, and then I go home and do a little sketch, and I start creating based on that. And then once I have a clear idea of what I want, I present it to my seamstress, and we start working on it together.”
As well as her seamstress, Petraglia also speaks to her partner to hear an outsider’s perspective on her collections: “He doesn’t understand anything about fashion, which I think is great, because sometimes it helps me kind of go back to Earth, because I love fashion in a very conceptual type of way,” she says. “I don’t have the opportunity yet to do big couture collections, hopefully one day, but at the moment, I’m still having to create something that people will wear. So it’s great to get kind of feedback from someone who knows nothing about it.”
Petraglia’s unwavering commitment to her brand naturally makes me come to the conclusion that she is the ultimate perfectionist. But she explains that whilst she holds herself to high design standards, it’s progress, not perfection that drives her forward: “I think one of the things that I am very proud of that I did from the very start is not letting perfectionism stop me from putting my stuff out there. I think it’s a great opportunity to learn new things and to grow,” she says.
Petraglia’s liberating, fashion-forward collections make it clear that she’s on a mission to reimagine the wedding dress. But as I discover, her vision goes beyond aesthetics, as she’s equally intent on challenging the way society perceives brides altogether: “Sometimes people think that going against tradition is simply like doing the opposite. But I do think that the only way to redefine being a bride is spreading the word that everyone should do just whatever they want, that’s my philosophy,” Petraglia says. “Because we always think that the bridal tradition is a white dress and that it’s all about the aesthetics of it. But I think it’s pretty much to do with the wording we use, the language we use when we talk about brides, people getting married, or dresses in general. I’m trying to redefine traditional bridal in the sense of my approach.”
We discuss how this mindset shapes the way she works with brides. I learn that Petraglia’s approach empowers them to choose freely, unbound by tradition, cultural pressures or societal expectations around body image: “I will never, ever say to someone, let’s find a dress to suit your body type. Because I think that’s one of the worst things about tradition, the fact that people get put in a box and you can only wear or do certain things if you fit in that box,” she explains. “So I think it’s more about redefining the whole concept of it, rather than, you know, the actual fashion. To me, redefining tradition is about the kind of attitude that we have towards weddings and bridal.”
Alongside empowering brides stylistically, a huge part of Petraglia’s mission as a designer is to create sustainable bridalwear for the eco conscious bride. With wedding dresses potentially being the least environmentally friendly garment a person could wear, out of curiosity I ask her how exactly she has implemented sustainability within her design process. Petraglia responds in a way that flips the narrative entirely: “To me, it’s actually the other way around. I’ve incorporated fashion into caring for the environment, as that has always been at the forefront for me. It’s just my philosophy of life,” she says.
As we delve deeper into her sustainability practices, it becomes clear that fabric research plays a pivotal role, as it allows Petraglia to craft each collection with intention, while keeping environmental responsibility at the forefront.“That’s very, very heavily important for me. I spend, I want to say, 70% of my time in developing my collection, looking for fabric, more than anything else,” she explains. “I only work with 100% organic silk and certified organic bamboo, those are the main two fabrics I work with.”
I express to Petraglia that I assume running a sustainable bridalwear business comes with its challenges, but she explains that because her brand revolves around this, she is unwilling to compromise on her commitments, regardless of the economical benefits of alternative options: “I’m never afraid to say that, you know, I don’t kind of get the same profits I would get if I was using different types of fabrics. But again, for me, it’s always been about that. It’s not performative.”
And what resonates with me most is Petraglia’s overall mindset about sustainability. While it can sometimes feel disheartening when efforts to be sustainable don’t immediately result in visible change, she emphasises that every small action contributes to a larger collective impact. It’s about embracing this mindset and demonstrating to those in power that sustainability is a priority for consumers. “It’s not on the individual to save the world, because there’s nothing the individual can do. But I think collectively, if we all change our way of living, we’re not going to make a difference directly, but we will show the people that can make a difference, that people actually care, and that’s what people want,” says Petraglia. “Because at the end of the day, you know, supply comes from demand. So if the demand is for more conscious products and more sustainable living, that’s hopefully what we should get.”
And I simply couldn’t finish my chat with Petraglia without speaking to her about her ‘Wedding Dress and Yap’ events, which from the name are pretty much self explanatory. Held at her studio in North-West London, these sessions aim to provide the ultimate space to vent about everything wedding related: “The idea is to create a safe space where people can just go and just literally chat with no rules, which I think is very much needed, I feel people need that space for weddings because there are similar spaces for all other topics and things in life, but there isn’t one for weddings.” Petraglia explains. “Because I feel like it’s when it comes to a wedding, it’s like the centre of your life for a good year or longer, it’s something some people also start planning very much ahead, and sometimes you just need to let it all out.”
So what’s next for Agnese Petraglia and Medusa London? Alongside planning future ‘Wedding dress and yap’ events and working on striking, unique custom bridal designs, Petraglia is also in the process of creating a new collection, which she predicts will be launching in October: “I don’t really care much about the bridal times of the year, in terms of when people launch their new collections, but there is definitely a new collection in the making, which I’m very, very excited about,” she shares. “It’s going to have loads of new pieces to kind of mix and match things, which is what I love to do.”
Creating bespoke, handcrafted ethical couture, Agnese Petraglia is certainly the bridal designer to watch. Despite her promising future, her grounded and aspirational nature remains constant, as she continues to turn the dreams of unconventional brides into reality: “I always dream big, but I don’t necessarily see success in the case of, like, how many stores I have, or stuff like that, I just really want to make a change in the wedding industry and create that safe space where people know that they can go when they don’t identify with anything else.”
To view the full Medusa London collection and book your appointment with Petraglia, click here
