Anna-Philippa Wolf and Archibald Pearson met at the Paris flea market back when he used to have an antiques store there. “Some friends in common suggested she introduce herself,” Archie, a furniture designer and antiques dealer, remembers of how he and the head of productions and special events at Rick Owens first connected. “At first, I hadn’t a clue who she was referring to. But she was very lively and outgoing and I, being rather the opposite type, was immediately drawn in.” They saw each other twice, briefly, before she left for a long trip. “At which point we initiated an intense epistolary relationship,” Archie jokes. “I would say that is when the sparks started flying.”
When Anna finally came back, Archie took her out for dinner and expressed his feelings towards her. The two got engaged in November of 2019 on Anna’s birthday. “We were in Los Angeles for work, and I had brought two rings with me,” Archie remembers. “I gave her the first one on the night before as a birthday gift, and although she liked it very much I could sense she wished it had been an engagement ring. She was actually pretty upset. But this was the perfect setup for the next morning. We woke at sunrise, and I said I still had another gift for her and pulled out the other ring. It was the last thing she expected, and she couldn’t believe what was happening. It worked quite nicely!”
The couple held their civil ceremony in Les Hermites, a small village in the Loire area of France where Archie’s grandfather Guy De Brantes is mayor. He performed the ceremony on March 14, 2020. “It was the day before France shut down, and as Austria had closed the day before, my family was not able to attend, which was hard,” Anna explains. “My sister was already in France on a business trip and thank god was able to be with me. Archie’s family made very sure, though, that this became an unforgettable day and his mom Pia organized it all perfectly.”
A church service and celebration was planned for July 23, 2020 in Austria, but this had to be completely postponed until July 24, 2021 due to the pandemic. “Events are my job, so I planned everything myself along with my sister Katharina and the support of my brother Konstantin,” Anna says. “It was of course hard due to the pandemic. In April 2021, we weren’t even sure if we could go ahead with the organization. We had to make the guest list smaller, which was not easy either, but in the end, we went on with the planning, hoping it would be ok, and it was.”
In 2020, Anna told her boss, Rick Owens, that she wanted to order a dress from him. “I was lucky in that I never even imagined wearing a dress by someone else,” she says. “Rick did not want me to order, instead he wanted to create something from scratch. He and [model and designer] Tyrone Dylan Susman asked me for inspiration, which was impossible for me, but I, at some point, managed.” Eventually, one day before the Fall 2021 women’s show, Rick and Tyrone told Anna they were ready to do a fitting. “It was so very special because Rick and his beautiful sewer and creation team pulled in the rack full of beautiful gowns, while Tyrone opened a bottle of Ayala Champagne, turned on ABBA, and I even had my girls support as my friend Eugenia was there with me too. All of this happened in the factory in Concordia.”
The first dress they showed Anna was called “AL” gown, named after Rick’s nickname for Anna, Anna Lupo. “I was in love! They made it in classic bridal fabrics, but also one in all sequins,” Anna says. “Rick said, ‘I made the others because I really want you to feel perfect. Putting on the sequin gown I felt so beautiful and special. I thought that was it! But no—they even had the party looks for me to try and several other gowns in case…the entire afternoon was extremely unique and bonding but also efficient as decisions were made then and never changed.”
Anna’s two dresses became part of the Fall 2021 runway collection and were both named after her. “Tyrone said, ‘Don’t worry AL, they will be delivered to the stores only after the summer!’”
Just when she thought it couldn’t get any better, a month or so before the wedding, Rick added an all-sequin cape to the look for the church. “It was incredible!” Anna says. He also created looks for Anna’s mother and sister. To top it all off, the bride’s friends, Aquazzura cofounders Edgardo Osorio and Ricardo Figueiredo, offered her a pair of silver Sundance platforms to wear on her wedding day.
“I obviously could not ask for anything more, but there was still Friday evening to dress for,” Anna notes. “We decided to make it a full sequins weekend, and I got the greatest look from Rick for that evening too.” She was gifted a second pair of shoes from another friend—Alpha Sidibe, the studio manager at Christian Louboutin.
The ceremony took place in Anna’s village in Austria. “We managed to pack everybody into the tiny church and even had a room for some musicians who played throughout the ceremony,” Archie says. “A little girl from the village played the accordion as the priest said a blessing before leading us in.” Anna entered to the sound of Purcell’s “Music for Queen Mary,” a solemn march performed by a brass quartet that would continue playing throughout the ceremony. Throughout the service, Archie was very focused. “I was trying to to understand what was being said in German, but also trying not to burst into tears,” he admits. “And for some reason I was hypnotized by a statue in the altarpiece as if it embodied the whole of religion at that moment and was a proxy for a very real idea of god—and this is coming from someone who is not religious at all.”
“I also felt very nervous and emotional, entering the church with my brother, suddenly missing our dad who we lost four years ago,” Anna says. “This was triggered through a piece of music out of the Freischutz by Carl Maria Von Weber, which reminded me of him so much! Once I sat next to Archie, I felt calm and just listened to the words of the priest and loved to look at my nephew and niece who [each] read something for us. Overall though, I was so excited to be with all of those beautiful friends in my hometown in Austria!”
After the ceremony, guests gathered in the lakefront garden where a brass band was playing. “We finally got to hug everyone, take pictures with friends, cheers with champagne and beer—of course!—and just have a good time,” Anna says.
At around 7:00 p.m., music guided guests to the tent, where a five-course dinner and wine pairing was served. Speeches followed and then dancing. “Just before the cheese course, we actually had to ask guests to sit back down—this is how much everyone wanted to be out there!”
On Sunday, the newlyweds hosted a traditional Austrian brunch. For this, Anna’s sister Katharina asked Rick and Elsa, the CEO of Rick Owens, for a roll of fabric to have a dirndl made. “I got up on Sunday morning and met dirndl maker Theresa Hirtzberger for a mini fitting in our kitchen,” Anna remembers. “And [shortly thereafter], I was dressed in a Rick Owens’ dirndl—it was crazy incredible! We feel blessed in more ways than one and the most beautiful side effect of the weekend is that it was a true celebration of love, during which friendships were created, and this makes us the most happy.”
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