How our noni collections come to life
Take a look behind the scenes and find out how a noni bridal fashion collection is created. From the very first sketch to choosing the right fabric to the finished dress for the noni showroom and online shop.
Our bridal fashion production is an exciting creative process that we will take you on here.
Inspiration & first sketches
Every collection planning begins with two essential things: design drafts and beautiful fabrics.
We develop a large wedding dress collection every year. In order to offer our customers the largest possible selection and to be able to respond promptly to current bridal fashion trends and brides' wishes, we are constantly adding variants of existing pieces.
We have recently started offering selected pieces exclusively in the noni showroom: these items are made to order only after consultation on site in our workshop and are characterized by elaborate cuts and special fabrics.
Sometimes we have a design in mind straight away, but very often we fall in love with a material or pattern first and then design a new wedding dress, top or skirt.
A great source of inspiration for us is the close contact with our customers: through intensive exchange with one another, you quickly sense what is missing and could be a nice addition to the existing range. Many of our cuts are also inspired by everyday life - for special occasions, items of clothing and silhouettes that we particularly love find their way into our collections in a newly interpreted form.
Our wedding dresses' fabrics
We find the great fabrics for our bridal fashion at trade fairs, for example in Munich or Paris.
When selecting our textiles, design and feel are of course extremely important, but it is often not that easy to find the right fabrics straight away in terms of feel, strength, elasticity and, above all, colour. For example, there are many shades of white that appear completely different depending on the light.
It usually takes a lot of attempts to ultimately offer you a high-quality wedding dress that is extremely comfortable to wear and has a fantastic look. To reduce waste during this process, many discarded fabrics are later used in other pieces where they fit perfectly.
We deliberately keep the selection of materials clear in order to avoid meters of fabric lying unused in stock. We always try to plan so that everything is used up to the last meter before a garment is sorted out and is no longer available. If you are interested, read our article on materials here.
Even if the procurement of organic quality materials in the bridal fashion sector is unfortunately still not easy, it is still possible to tailor wedding dresses in an ecologically acceptable way that you can buy with a clear conscience. Some models in our current wedding dress collections are made primarily from sustainable or partially recycled textiles.
We source the materials and fabrics we use from Europe wherever possible - for transparent and short delivery routes. At noni Braut you will find tops with high-quality lace made from certified cotton as well as skirts and trousers, almost exclusively with viscose lining made from LENZING™ ECOVERO™. But you don't have to do without ultra-modern design. Another important criterion for working with suppliers within Europe is compliance with socially acceptable and environmentally friendly production conditions in accordance with EU standards.
Designed in Cologne, made in Europe
In the next step, hand-drawn sketches become technical drawings from which patterns are created. A prototype is manufactured in our in-house noni workshop in Cologne-Ehrenfeld, which we look at together during an initial fitting. No two bodies are the same, every top and every skirt always fits a little differently on different body types. We always test a cut on members of our team first so that we can later make as many brides as possible happy with the right dress.
But it's not just the first samples of the wedding dresses that are made in our beautiful studio in Cologne-Ehrenfeld. Many of our two-piece suits are also produced in Germany. We also work with a small manufacturer in Romania that also produces our wedding dresses in a highly professional manner and under fair conditions.
To avoid overproduction, we initially have new tops and skirts manufactured in small series. As a rule, it takes a few weekly fittings and coordination rounds until the final model is ready.
A noni collection usually includes between 9 and 15 outfits, including many combination pieces such as bridal tops, skirts, trousers and jumpsuits, which you can style individually according to your ideas. The advantage: all parts of our collections can usually be worn easily after the big day with your favorite pieces from your wardrobe on many occasions, thereby demonstrating absolute sustainability.
We sell parts with minor defects from production or returns in our outlet both online and locally at cheaper prices, so they also find a use.
Great teamwork is the key
Many nonis are involved in the creation process of a wedding dress collection: Nina and Christine completed their tailor-made training with us and left us for a short time to study. But what luck, the two of them are now an integral part of our team again and can support us in developing the collection with their knowledge, skills and creativity. Thanks to the two of them, our collections have not only become more extensive, but also more versatile and bolder. Christine designs and creates the technical drawings, Nina and Judith take care of coordinating suppliers, materials and production. Both are also involved in the complex pattern creation.
Our workshop in Cologne is then responsible for creating prototypes of the new wedding dresses, skirts, tops and trousers - from first-year trainees to master tailors, everyone helps to optimize and finalize cuts and fits.
Collection photo shoot
In recent years we have started photographing our noni collection in our own studio and also in front of an atmospheric outdoor backdrop. This means you have nice mood images that convey the mood of the collection and cleaner photos that show the product in detail.
We try to book different models here to show different types in our clothes, which are as diverse as our noni brides in real life. In addition, selected parts of the collection are also photographed in large sizes for our noni Curvy series.
After a complex sorting process, the selected images are used for the online shop, website, social media as well as press material, new flyers and postcards.
Would you like to discover our dresses on site, slip into your favorites and get professional advice from our charming team? We look forward to your visit to the noni showroom in Cologne!