Introduction
Brigitte Stepputtis is a couture and bridal designer whose long career at Vivienne Westwood centres on the house’s atelier practice. By 2014 she was head of couture, placing her among the senior creative figures responsible for the specialist construction developed alongside the principal ready-to-wear streams.
Stepputtis became a central figure in the formal Bridal division. Vivienne Westwood launched distinct Made-to-Order and Couture Bridal collections in 2017, and by 2022 she was head of bridal and couture. The offer combined made-to-order work, couture commissions and an Andreas Kronthaler for Vivienne Westwood bridal capsule during that period.
By April 2025 Stepputtis held the title Design Director, Couture and Bridal. She led the specialist division into its first dedicated bridal catwalk at Barcelona Bridal Fashion Week on 24 April 2025, where Made-to-Order and Couture appeared together. Her role gives the house a named creative authority for its atelier disciplines and ceremonial dress.
Design ethos
Stepputtis works within the most technically exacting part of the Westwood house. Couture and bridal draw on corsetry, drape, historical bodice construction, sculpted volume and close fitting, with garments developed for individual clients and ceremonial use. The atelier translates established Westwood proportions into pieces that depend on precise internal structure and sustained handwork.
Bridal also carries the house archive into a specialised contemporary category. Familiar Westwood elements such as corseted waists, gathered skirts, asymmetric drape and historically inflected necklines recur through new fabrics, embroidery and made-to-order construction. Stepputtis’s leadership connects this vocabulary to the practical demands of fittings, bespoke adaptation and couture finishing.
Her work demonstrates the importance of specialist creative authority inside the wider house. Ready-to-wear and AKVW follow their own seasonal rhythms, while the couture and bridal atelier develops a dedicated discipline around individual construction and occasion dressing. Stepputtis remains the principal named leader of that discipline in the current house.
Disclaimer
Career history
2025
<p>By April 2025 Brigitte Stepputtis held the title Design Director, Couture and Bridal after years of senior atelier leadership. Her mandate covers the house’s specialist couture and bridal practice alongside Kronthaler’s broader creative direction.</p>
2025
<p>Vivienne Westwood staged its first runway devoted entirely to Bridal in Barcelona on 24 April 2025. The show brought Made-to-Order and Couture work onto a dedicated catwalk under the house’s current creative direction and Stepputtis’s Couture and Bridal leadership.</p>
2014
<p>By 2014 Brigitte Stepputtis was Head of Couture at Vivienne Westwood and part of the house’s senior creative structure. Her atelier leadership later expanded across Bridal, with the Design Director, Couture and Bridal title in use by April 2025.</p>
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