YH Studio Steps Into Bridal With First Collection

After relocating from London to New York and rebranding as YH Studio, Yoav Hadari is stepping into the world of bridal.

The Alexander McQueen Sarabande scholar debuted his first collection under the new moniker at New York Fashion Week in February. Since then, he’s been courting buyers from Bergdorf Goodman while completing two commissions for the Metropolitan Museum’s spring fashion exhibit “Costume Art.” Right on theme, Hadari has married art with commerce, making one “the hero” of his five bridal looks for spring, he said during an early preview.

Dubbed Nervina Corpus 0.0, the deceptively simple shift continues the bias-cutting technique Hadari explored for fall featuring rippling layers of organza strung with silk thread reminiscent of human hair. If that seems a bit macabre for bridal, that’s the point, said the designer, whose aesthetic is rooted in psychosis. “Ultimately, I think the woman who is interested in YH Studio, as a whole, is thinking outside the box when it comes to her wedding. She wants a piece that’s out of the ordinary.”

With limited resources, Hadari’s reason for pivoting them away from his mainline is twofold. First, he sees bridal as the entry point for most women into the atelier, saying “that’s where they’re starting their conversation with couture.” But deviating from that world where a single bride is typically offered as the finale, Hadari’s second reason is to provide her more options and himself more room to play. “Going into bridal, I think you just get to expand the language of your world,” he explained.

Growing up in Israel, hair became a symbol fraught with meaning for Hadari, surrounded by women covering theirs, “so to expose it, it’s this idea of a woman claiming her own identity,” he said. The strands appear elsewhere on a meshy top with a pointed collar paired with a frothy pannier skirt made of cuffs.

Contorted menswear is another signature he’s working to establish, like the sheer tunic resembling a kittel, the traditional garment worn by Jewish bridegrooms. Hadari said he sees a lot of things from his heritage in these pieces, but overall, he’s more locked in to what is resonating with customers.

“This is kind of starting to gauge what the YH Studio client would actually put herself in,” he said. “Now we’re trying a new thing with bridal to see how it lands.”