Monique Lhuillier has scratched her seven-year itch.
After just as much time away from the catwalk, the Los Angeles-based designer returned to the East Coast Tuesday to present her fall 2026 bridal line inside the Harry F. Sinclair House (now the Ukrainian Institute of America) on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
“It feels great to be back,” Lhuillier beamed in the foyer as models were dressing, “I used to do the shows regularly here in New York, from Bryant Park to Lincoln Center, I mean this is where it all began.” After Lhuillier’s last fashion show during Paris couture week in 2017, she bid adieu, swapping to a traveling look book format that’s taken her to Lake Como and several chateaus in the French countryside.
What spurred her return home was the beginning of a partnership with Lancôme cosmetics, which, she teased, “we will elaborate more on later.” Nonetheless, Lhuillier thought NYLBFW was the perfect moment to announce it, her thinking being: “the whole bridal look isn’t done without the beauty component.”
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So up the carved wooden stairway inside the Gilded Age mansion walked a trousseau for an entire weekend’s-worth of wedding festivities. Lhuillier said: “I put my ready-to-wear expertise into the bridal world, and I’m giving women all the tools to put their own looks together.”
For the bachelorette, a girl might paint the town red in one of the spunkier minis, feathered or strung with fabric flowers. And for her big day, ballgowns fit for a princess like the lace, Kate Middleton-inspired closer would bring a tear to even the most disapproving of mother-in-laws. Meanwhile, a satin diva-cup bodysuit and garters would certainly please the bride’s partner on their honeymoon escapades once she whipped off the rosette-studded cape.
Lhuillier described this season’s overall mood as “effervescent and luminous,” which she worked with Lancôme to translate into her makeup palette, featuring highlights around the eyes and cheekbones and “a cherry-kissed lip.”
“It’s minimal, but there’s something there,” she said, adding “You’re in a dream-like state when you see the entire look together.”
