The mother and daughter design team behind the Bernadette fashion label

Charlotte and Bernadette de Geyter. Photo Eva Donckers

“We’ve always been close friends,” says Charlotte de Geyter, co-founder of Bernadette, of her relationship with her mother, Bernadette.

Bernadette and Charlotte’s label has a fashion brand with a cross-generation appeal. They have a penchant for ebullient day and evening dress in a chromatically exultant palette and a mix of extravagant and modest silhouettes.

Having left Belgium to work in London, six months passed and Charlotte realised she was missing something — her mother. They decided over the phone to go into business together, realising that together they had the potential to portray a vision of glamour and beauty in fashion to women, regardless of their age. Soon after that, Charlotte returned to Belgium.

When they opened their doors, Charlotte, 28, explained that they “wanted something my generation could be excited by,” — “and mine too,” said Bernadette, 55, finishing off her daughter’s sentence — an insight into how symbiotic the working relationship between them is.

With 27 years between them, one might think that generational style differences wedge between them but Bernadette notes: "It came very naturally, it was not a problem for us.”

She adds that with each collection, they each garner a stronger insight into how the other one thinks and wants to dress.

The two come to fashion with an impressive pedigree. Bernadette was a former fashion buyer and, prior to this venture, worked on a small business with handmade knitwear. Charlotte graduated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp and worked with Simone Rocha in London.

“We have a great story together and a similar voice,” said Charlotte.

(Mother and daughter pairs in fashion are common: Dior’s Maria Grazia Chiuri relies on her daughter Rachele’s millennial sensibilities when designing her latest collections; Simone Rocha works closely with her mother Odette; Kate and Lila Moss recently appeared alongside one another in a Fendi haute couture show.) She began sketching dresses, developing prints based on flowers found in the garden, and mining her mother’s extensive archive of vintage lingerie with hand-embroidered detailing. With that initial process came the first collection.

The spring/summer 2021 collection, which is available now, was designed during the first lockdown in March 2020. The two found it difficult to reconcile with making clothes at a time when the case numbers and death tolls were steadily rising, in addition to the host of other problems the pandemic produced. The moment of the pause spurred on a period of reflection on how the brand should proceed. In the end, they wanted to convey “an optimistic view and bring some light into people’s lives.” 

The collection is lavished with sanguine shades, beautiful print work, and familiar, generous silhouettes and exuberant volume, earnestly spelling the return of a post-pandemic joy in fashion. It summarises what had featured in the collections before it while introducing some new shapes, print and colour stories.

It recalls party dressing in an emerald green asymmetric dress in silk taffeta with a bow-detail and an abbreviated hemline; it communicates ideas of a soigné eveningwear through an ivory crepe dress, falling just above the ankle, with a high neck, dolman sleeves and a plunging V-cut back; and it abandons any description of loungewear with a floor-length gown with balloon sleeves in a hue that resembles an indulgent scoop of raspberry ice cream on a warm day.

“We’re still designing very festive dresses in hopes that everything will reopen again and that we will throw a huge party,” said Charlotte.

Late last year, they introduced a homeware range featuring ceramic cups, saucers, mugs, plates, and bowls, in a pastel palette with hand-painted florals inspired by the blooms in Bernadette’s verdant home garden and her exquisite, vibrant taste in interiors.

“It was a very new, exciting addition to our collection,” said Charlotte, who found inspiration in the reaction to pictures of Bernadette’s home to decorate ceramics with unused prints, which she likens to artwork.

This month sees the duo launch their debut bridal collection, in collaboration with online luxury retailer MATCHESFASHION.com

Bernadette notes how inspiring it has been to see women wear the brand on their special day making bridal a natural step. The capsule sees six silhouettes with varying volumes and hemlines, rendered in the brand’s signature taffeta and accented with bows. “The idea was already there. Now, we’re making it official,” said Bernadette.

While circumstances have changed the way weddings and events look, Bernadette and Charlotte have been committed to dressing up even throughout lockdowns where bow-accented dresses might not seem like an obvious choice.

“We wanted to dress ourselves to feel better,” said Charlotte.

“… and to dress the table,” laughs Bernadette, “that’s why the homeware collection came so naturally".

“Otherwise we would go crazy if we were in our pyjamas all day,” said Charlotte.

“But we did that too,” Bernadette concedes.

While dressing up became a part of their lives — and many of their customers too, notes Bernadette, who was overjoyed to see so many women sharing pictures of them in the brand’s glamorous styles over the holiday season — they are working to incorporate more silk pyjamas, robes, and slip dresses into their work.

“I love Bernadette for so many reasons — their exquisite use of colour, graphic floral prints, fluid fabrics and modern silhouettes are so exuberant. The mother-daughter relationship brings an ageless design aesthetic to the collections which is very refreshing,” said Shelly Corkery, fashion director at Brown Thomas.

Charlotte and Bernadette convincingly balance on that tightrope, drawing on their personal experiences and learning from each other to ensure that the finished result can appeal to those in their 20s but also women in their 50s and beyond.

Charlotte said: "We’re very proud that we can be two women designing for girls of my age and also my mom’s. We’re very close to the women we design for.”