Designer Highlight: Ines Di Santo
Photograph by: Collin Pierson
Chicago based photographer.
For this blog we wanted to highlight a current designer we carry in our boutique and her story as a designer in the wedding industry. Ines Di Santo, she is an internationally renowned bridal designer for over three decades. She is based in Toronto, Canada next to her flagship boutique but her designs are carried in stores all throughout the world.
Before moving to Canada, Ines was born in Italy and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She was educated all across Europe and South American. When Ines was 22 in the year of 1974, she left her home and family and arrived in Toronto with just a suitcase and bearing a child. She began her career nearly penniless, but with the skills to design gowns as she had studied in Paris and Italy. Her dream at the time was to tech fashion to others, own a boutique and teach her daughter how to sew through education. Soon after arriving in Toronto Ines began to work for a company where she would sow wedding dresses by hand. One day her friend called her and said to her “there’s a sewing machine in the garbage.” Ines told her to grab the sewing machine and she would fix it.
The machine allowed her advance in ways she is still thankful for today. Ines only had $10 and didn’t have enough to pay rent. So she took her $10 and went out to buy 10 rolls of fabric, she began to make patterns. Her entrepreneur spirit back didn’t stop their, she went out to show companies these designs and they purchased them. She was able to receive help from a fabric supplier who gave her the fabrics and she promise to pay him once she was able to sell the patterns. She didn’t just stop their she was able to receive a loan from the bank and was able to do a fashion where she begain making her collection. She tells New York times, “I had to make a future for myself. I still have the machine.”
Ms. Di Santo didn’t stop their in 1988 she traveled to New York all the way from Toronto for her first bridal market trade show. She traveled in a van with wedding gowns and her little girl alongside her. Ines was only able to get one of the last spots near the bathrooms. Fortunately for her the bathroom provide foot traffic to her booth which allowed for buyers to take a look at the collection and ask for her business card. The orders began to pour in and the crowd of buyers became larger.
Ines was different from designers and the industry at the time. Her designs were more of a modern interpretation of classic couture techniques which she was able to learn in Europe. Those techniques included strapless gowns, corsetry, handcrafted embroideries and delicate details. An unapologetic romantic theme is built into her designs stemming from her time in Europe and South America. Ines has built her brand by incorporating her passion for beauty, love, and desire into all of her designs. Her collections exist to make brides feel exquisite, as she believes when a bride walks down the aisle to the love of her life, brides all deserve a gown that is as extraordinary as the occasion.
Flash forward to today Ines has 13,000 square-foot headquarters in Toronto, a flagship store and is carried by boutiques around the world. Her daughter, Veronica Di Santo works alongside her mother as her Managing Partner. Veronica was able to joined the business in 1998, has been a part of the team that expanded the Ines Di Santo brand to become one of the fastest-growing luxury bridal companies in all of North America.