Galia Lahav's Kiss and Tell Collection Blends Old-World Romance With Daring Modernity

Sharon Sever conceived "Kiss & Tell" around a single charged idea: the moment a mask comes off. "The inspiration is all about unmasking the bride," the Head Designer and Creative Director of Galia Lahav said, "because we all wear a mask every now and then." The result, presented at New York Luxury Bridal Fashion Week, is the house's Spring 2026 Couture collection, and it arrives forty years into a brand trajectory that began in a modest Tel Aviv atelier and now spans five flagship boutiques across Los Angeles, New York, Miami, London, and Tel Aviv.

Certain signatures remain constant. Corseted bodices that carve an architectural waist, guipure lace that catches light from across a venue, and lavish embroidery that rewards close inspection have defined Galia Lahav across seasons — including the Rococo-inflected Fall 2025 "Suivez-Moi" couture line, where Sever's corset mastery was framed around the spirit of a queen. "Kiss & Tell" recalibrates that power toward something more intimate and subversive, and it does so with a technical advance the brand hasn't deployed before. One standout ballgown, its skirt built from dramatically draped ruffles with detachable sleeves, carries a fuchsia floral motif created through a resin-injection process applied after specialty printing. "It gives more depth to the print," Sever noted. The technique builds a luminous second layer over printed fabric, giving flat pigment the visual presence of hand-applied embellishment. On camera, the effect shifts with every angle; in person, the gown reads simultaneously bold and intricate.

That engineering intelligence extends across the collection. Sever built up to three distinct looks into single gowns through detachable sleeves and lace overlays, which means ceremony, reception, and late-night are served by one purchase. The color palette spans powder pink and soft blush, including a gown featuring opulently beaded floral embroidery set against layers of soft pink tulle, through to those fuchsia statement pieces. For brides weighing a couture investment that starts at $6,000, multi-look construction delivers the best return: a gown that changes its silhouette rather than its hanger.

Sever's training at Christian Lacroix, Pierre Balmain, Carven, and Balenciaga before joining Galia Lahav in 2013 is legible in how he manages volume: high in the skirt, supported by structured internal construction rather than raw bulk, so the gowns move cleanly and don't fight the body through a ten-hour day. That proportion control is part of why the house photographs reliably on celebrity clients, among them Beyoncé, who wore Galia Lahav for her 2019 vow renewal with Jay-Z, Paris Hilton at her 2021 wedding to Carter Reum, Priyanka Chopra, and Simone Biles.

The companion GALA ready-to-wear line, "Don't Tell," arrived simultaneously as a more accessible, louder parallel universe. Inspired by 1920s speakeasies and Sever's reading of Jay Gatsby's parties, it offers Art Deco silhouettes, feather boas that double as hooded capes, and the same detachable logic at a lower commitment level. "I wanted everything to be fun," Sever said. For brides drawn to the Lahav aesthetic who aren't ready for the couture price point, "Don't Tell" is the natural entry, and the modular construction also makes for more practical resale than single-silhouette gowns from the brand's earlier years.

The 40th-anniversary year brought one further expansion: "Citrine Veil," a fragrance created with niche perfumer A.N. Other, designed to be reworn long after the ceremony. Sever described it as only the first step into additional lifestyle categories. For a house that became the first Israeli label accepted by the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture in January 2017 and now reaches 70 stores across 40 countries, the move is logical. "This collection is for the bride who owns her story, her desires, and her presence," Sever said. At 40, the house itself is still doing the same.