IMAGE: Alexandra Cohen Photography

There is something disarming about walking into a bridal presentation and finding a garden. Not a garden as a backdrop or a mood board reference. An actual, sensory, living garden built inside a TriBeCa gallery. Lavender. Fresh greenery. Floral arrangements that smelled as good as they looked. And at the centre of it all, an artist with a brush in hand, painting directly onto a white bridal gown.

Welcome to El Jardin del Eden.

WONA Concept and Eva Lendel, the Ukrainian sister brands founded by Ilona Shramko, staged their NYBFW presentation at Mriya Gallery on Wednesday afternoon. What they delivered was not a standard press preview. It was an experience. A three-hour immersion into two distinct design philosophies, tied together by a single idea: that bridal fashion can be art, and art can be worn.

IMAGE: Alexandra Cohen Photography

The Live Art Moment

The centrepiece of El Jardin del Eden was a live painting performance. An artist worked directly onto a bridal gown mounted on a mannequin, applying vivid strokes of green, blue, purple, and pink, transforming a pristine white gown into something unrepeatable. Each brushstroke was deliberate. Each colour choice felt instinctive. The finished piece was not a gown you could buy. It was a gown you could only witness.

It was the single most talked-about moment of the afternoon, and it will likely be the most talked-about visual of NYBFW’s second day. For a brand that operates on the belief that bridal should feel editorial in spirit, this was the perfect articulation of that philosophy. Fashion as performance. Craft as conversation.

Two Brands, Two Languages.WONA Concept and Eva Lendel share an atelier and a founder, but they speak to different brides. The El Jardin del Eden presentation made the distinction clearer than ever.

IMAGE: Alexandra Cohen Photography

WONA Concept: Maison Blanche

WONA’s new collection is Maison Blanche. Thirty bridal gowns inspired by the timeless elegance of French aristocracy and the quiet grandeur of chateau life. The campaign was photographed at Chateau de Baronville, and the collection carries that atmosphere into every piece. Sculpted corsetry. Voluminous skirts. Sleek satin lines. Translucent layers and refined draping. Hand-finished details that reward close inspection.

On the gallery floor, the WONA gowns read as architectural and editorial. Sheer illusion sleeves with organic floral lacework. Structured strapless bodices with precision boning. The brand describes Maison Blanche as exploring “a wide range of bridal silhouettes” reinterpreted through a couture lens, and the result felt both timeless and distinctly modern. This is bridal for the bride who thinks of her gown as a design object, not just a dress.

Each WONA Concept gown takes between 70 and 160 hours of hand sewing. That number is not decorative. You can see it in the construction, in the way the lace sits against the skin, in the engineering of volume that appears effortless but is anything but.

IMAGE: Alexandra Cohen Photography

IMAGE: Alexandra Cohen Photography

Eva Lendel: Less is More VI

Eva Lendel’s sixth chapter of the Less is More line took a different path. Thirty gowns that celebrate the modern bride through clean construction, refined proportions, and quiet confidence. Where WONA builds up, Eva Lendel strips back. Minimalism here is not about absence. It is about precision. Every cut, fold, and texture carries intention.

The campaign was shot in a modern villa surrounded by the sunlit landscapes of Puglia. Lemon gardens, architectural clarity, the relaxed elegance of the Italian countryside. That Mediterranean warmth was present in the collection itself. Flowing fabrics. Sculpted corsetry. Delicate draping. Sleek lines. From statuesque satin gowns to fluid silhouettes that move with the body, the collection offers sophistication without excess.

Eva Lendel’s design thesis remains consistent: true impact often lies in restraint. Less decoration, more presence. Less noise, more identity. For the bride who already knows who she is and wants a gown that reflects it rather than announces it, Less is More VI delivers.

The Bigger Picture

WONA Concept and Eva Lendel are a Ukrainian house producing from their own atelier with a reach that now spans more than 40 countries and 150 retail partners worldwide. They are expanding aggressively into the US market with flagship boutiques in NYC and LA. They showed in New York this week and will show again at Barcelona Bridal Fashion Week on 23 April at the Jardines de Pedralbes, making them one of the only brands with back-to-back international runway presence this month.

The presentation at Mriya Gallery was intimate by design. The press window ran from 2pm to 5pm, and the gallery space allowed guests to move between gowns, examine construction up close, and watch the live art unfold in real time. It was the opposite of a runway. Slow, considered, immersive. And for two brands whose strength lies in the detail, it was the perfect format.

IMAGE: Alexandra Cohen Photography