Justin Alexander Taps Italian Graffito Sexsdreams
Catering to brides with an edge, Justin Alexander Signature enlisted help from an Italian graffito, Gioele Corradengo ( aka Sexsdreams), who added his own signature to its spring 2025 collection.
Part of the brand's “Verses in Contrast” campaign, the limited- edition spray- painted gowns were teased Monday at a cocktail event in New York where guests were invited to tag a dress themselves and bid on Sexsdreams' canvas artwork. Onehundred percent of the proceeds will go to Vow for Girls, a bridal industry coalition to end childhood marriage.
“I was captivated by Gioele's work and loved the idea of a collaboration to introduce something different, out of the box and unexpected,” said Justin Warshaw, chief executive officer and creative director for Justin Alexander. Since taking over his family business in 2008, Warshaw said he always looks for ways to express his personal interests through design. “We're not afraid to infuse tradition with a rebellious spirit,” he continued.
“Verses in Contrast” stars model Hailey Clauson with Manhattan as the backdrop. One image shows her posing beneath the Empire State Building wearing a diva fit- and- flare with Sexsdreams' cartoon hearts, while another features her running through Chelsea streets in a princess silhouette, it's brocade skirt scrawled with a love poem he and Warshaw generated using AI. Fittingly, Sexsdreams described their partnership as a marriage: “It feels like a total union between me and Justin,” he said. “We have an energy that allows us to be one.” The artist, whose previous fashion tie- ups have been relegated to streetwear, was thrilled to bring his punk style into the refined bridal universe, adding it “offered an opportunity to showcase that graffiti goes beyond mere vandalism.” The capsule will be fully unveiled April 7 in his home city during Justin Alexander's runway presentation at Milan Bridal Fashion Week.
Aware the market for graffitied wedding gowns will likely be niche, Warshaw and
Sexsdreams remain hopeful they can spark a trend. “We have a series of events and trunk shows in April, May and June, and we will be sending them around for brides to see and try on,” Warshaw said. core characteristics of the artistic and intellectual Romanticism movement.
“The focus on individuality, emphasis on nature, emotion over reason, freedom of form and the exploration into the unknown — it's these five characteristics of the movement that we designed the dresses around and created an environment for each core,” di Santo said, adding Ines di Santo was further inspired by the ongoing cultural conversation regarding the use of technology and AI.
In order to amplify the ideas of modern technology versus essential human creativity, she said they chose Lavan Midtown due to its walls with projection and digital mapping technology, which the brand is utilizing to create five digital vignettes — led by Ines di Santo's creative vision of the five core themes, and designed by a digital artist — as the backdrops of the collection.
“It's this integration of technology in this collection that we've pushed the limit,” Veronica di Santo added of the gowns. “For instance, fabric developments this season, we adapted and pushed modern embroidery and laser cutting to create these layered fabrications, pairing them with hand-painted and hand-beaded details to create new depths. There's a focus on the level of craft and craftsmanship that can never really be substituted by the machine. There's a statement there that the human elements will always prevail over the machine.”