Brooklyn’s Couture Provocateur: Bella Pietro on Bridal, Balance, and Building Community
Photo by @NikkiFinaa
If you combine the visual notes of Demonia and Dilara Findikoglu, historical references from the Early Victorian era and 1920s Flappers, heaping spoonfuls of lace and beading, and a dash of smart-ass remarks, you’d come quite close to cooking up fashion designer, Bella Pietro.
Still, it’s doubtful anyone will come close to recreating what makes up this designer.
Based in Brooklyn, Pietro was blessed (or cursed) with the gift of sewing as the third generation from a family of bridal seamstresses. But, the desire to design has always been ingrained in Pietro’s bones, knowing that this was what she wanted to do since she was little.
“I grew up watching Fashion Police every Friday and at age seven, I told my mom I wanted to be a stylist one day to help people with bad taste, under the impression of helping society the way a doctor or teacher does,” Pietro posted to her Instagram story.
Sewing for 16+ years was ultimately both to her benefit and demise. The designer’s journey began to climb uphill after failing out of the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), the only long-term goal Pietro had growing up.
From there, two roads diverged on the dirty New York pavement, with an obvious answer for Pietro — Figuring out how to make a fashion career work, despite not being an academic.
“I can't work for someone else. Starting my own brand was the only option if I wanted to design,” Pietro said. “I create because I love it, but also out of necessity. It's the only thing I've ever been good at, I don't have other specialized skills. My mom says, “Thank God you're good at fashion or else you’d be fucked,” and it's kind of funny but it's also just extremely true.”
By luck of the algorithm, and later blood, sweat, time and tears, Pietro began her own brand of one-of-one reworked streetwear pieces. Izzy’s World, named after the meme page @PatiasFantasyWorld, molded the fashion scene ahead of the curve.
Garments consisted of soft slip dresses, mini skirts, and tank tops adorned with scraps of ribbon, lace, pearls, rosaries and more. The feminine pull is balanced out by jagged distressing, safety pins, and tongue-in-cheek phrases haphazardly embroidered, like “Normalize Lobotomies” and “Madonna Whore Complex Victim.”
In just three years, Pietro has created pieces on various levels, from streetwear and formal wear to lingerie. Everything is handmade and embodies what a sexy, manic, Black Swan-obsessed girl would wear.
Despite the many many references people make to Pietro’s designs (a personal favorite being “If Silent Hill Had a Super Sweet Sixteen”) she describes that she doesn’t have specific influences in her work, instead designing based on intuition, occasionally her grandmother’s work, and whatever vintage materials she can get her hands on.
“I am everything and I am nothing…Scarcity promotes creativity. I really try not to tie myself down to any particular aesthetics,” Pietro explained. “Doing that puts a time limit on your brand’s popularity because the more one thing is in season in fashion, the more it'll be out the next season.”
Izzy’s World, according to Pietro, was her “big break,” catching the attention of musician Maggie Lindemann early on and thousands of girls across the internet. Ultimately though, she knew it wasn’t where her future in fashion would stay.
In February 2023, Pietro had her first official runway show, marrying black lingerie and RTW with white ribbon, lace-up detailing, and headpieces like tiaras and veils, foreshadowing for the next year. In February 2024, the designer had her NYFW bridal runway debut at none other than the sacred Tribeca Synagogue.
This sold-out show with over 350 people was my personal indicator that Pietro was going to make it big, a sentiment also carried through Pietro’s social media presence, stating, “I am publicly debuting the first day of the rest of my life.”
The debut was an exquisite tapestry of craftsmanship and chaos. Pietro showcased dresses and androgynous sets that were not just worn on the runway but felt — each bead and stitch a declaration of rebellion against the cookie-cutter bridal norms, specifically for LGBTQ+ couples. Her work is an alternative fusion of history and modernity, melded together through the delicate intricacies of every garment.
“I wouldn't say bridal was always the goal, but embellishment and highly detailed pieces were,” Pietro said. “I knew somehow my brand would transition into doing high-end beaded pieces eventually and I'm proud of myself that it only took three years for me to transition into wedding gowns.”
Part of what makes the pieces Pietro creates that much more fascinating is the inside look into her world, the good, bad, confident, awful and messy. The designer gives her consumers a fishbowl lens on her life through none other than Instagram stories and post captions.
From quick-witted comments like, “I can shit post and make custom bridal. Talent privilege” to longer-form raw writing, Pietro is essentially a cultural commentator that doesn’t hold back, especially in critiquing her own industry.
“It’s not the 80s. Fashion shows aren’t for buyers to see the collection first. The girls on Instagram are who pay my rent and support my career but if you want to lick the taint of industry people who don’t give a fuck about you, have never and will never do anything to uplift you and are going to three more shows in the same day, be my guest,”
A recent thread of story posts by Pietro stated, “Fashion is obsessed with receiving approval from people higher up in the industry but they don’t care about you I promise. Invest time into your craft and creative peers.”
Not only is it ballsy for a designer to speak about their industry, but further showcases her care for the community and craft itself, not for power, greed or to stomp her way to the top.
She knows these posts are out of the ordinary, poking fun in online discourse that she gets, “No PR, no brand deals, no write-ups, no features. It’s equivalent to being on a no-fly list because you are too silly.”
It’s the constant contrast of creating high-end art and low-blow, dry or even at times cringe-worthy humor that makes her brand resonate with fans. She not only challenges the status quo but invites us to laugh at it.
“I've always been really self-assured, even though I was bullied when I was young and stuck out like a nail,” Pietro said. “Being able to be myself and trust the path I was on even when no one else did gave me a level of self-security. I find people really connect to it [longform Instagram posts] and I have always enjoyed writing, and it gives me a medium to be able to share it.”
The rawness only continues as Pietro talks about her process and the toll being an emerging couture designer can have, including agoraphobia, insomnia and staying up sewing for hours or days to make ends meet. Luckily, the designer is striking a better balance these days. She secured funding for her brand but explains that working multiple days in a row without breaks is still how she best sustains a creative flow.
“There is no perfect day. I think it's more the perfect month. There are not enough hours in the day to be able to do everything,” she said. “I enjoy being able to work on my long-term design plans, doing custom wedding gowns but I also enjoy doing random one-of-one for celebrities' pulls, spending time with friends and doing collaborative work with other designers.”
But, as of Oct. 11, the people’s goth princess of Bushwick announced via Instagram that she was closing commissions for bridal until further noticeto sustain her brand, and likely, her sanity.
“It makes me agoraphobic as fuck. The reason I'm good at bridal is my eye for detail and that's also the reason I'm bad at it,” Pietro writes in her Instagram post. “I’m driving myself nuts moving little pieces of lace around by the millimeter for days on end…I have about a decade to figure out how to pump out gowns for you guys. The longer I do this, the more I learn.”
Pietro’s ornate designs are growing in popularity, with garments being worn by Rebecca Black, Poppy, Katie Dee and Kitty Lever, shown in campaigns for Jeffrey Campbell, Primadonna Zine, Blush Mag and more.
Photo by @ZacIvans
As a creative in the public eye, she is making a name for herself as maybe off-putting and brutally honest to some, but authentic and supportive of her community to many, through collaborative designs and activations like the Chicest Event Series, centered around femme artists.
“The scene is too online. I know so many amazing talented artists and I love introducing like minded people,” Pietro said. “The actual industry is hell.. It's exploitative for a lot of reasons, that's a whole other thing. However, people in my demographic are also designers and are some of the most amazing people I've ever met and creating with them is such a blessing.”
Her intuitive detailing, juxtaposing elements and genuine, intense, care for the craft are just the start. Closing her bridal commissions feels almost cathartic, like both a chapter closing and an entirely new book beginning. It is a lull in the TV program and a secondary plot about to unfold. Striking a balance between being an obsessed artist who inevitably crashes out versus executing steps toward a practical, long term business plan, is harder than one might think.
But, her tunnel vision goals of manufacturing RTW and wedding gowns will inevitably come to light, one step at a time.
In a world where fashion often seems a bit high-brow, she allows us an open invitation to revel in the chaos, to laugh and spit in the face of the absurd commerciality, wear self-expression with pride, and above all appreciate art and artists for the sake of creation.
While Bella Pietro marinates in her bridal hiatus, we’re watching the perfect recipe unfold — a damn good designer taking a step aside to learn and navigate, an imperfect but honest human being, which is just what we need these days.
NYFW Credits:
Designer/Creative director : @bellapietro
Producer: @nikkifinaa
Headpiece Designer: @shopsideara
Jewelry & Embellishments: @groovy.bimbo
Lead MUA: @nathangrossmakeup
MUA assists: @amburrglamour @motto.makeup@thatpinkpoison @rosepuffs @robinstrightnyc
Hair Stylist: @snickzart
Styling: @angzel @thegabebass
Lead PA: @deepweb_egirl
Set Design: @cosmic.worm @sei.zinna @sophiaxsophia
