While many celebrity brides race to reveal the designer of their wedding dress, Bettina Anderson opted to put that on ice for a few weeks and has just announced Safiyaa was her chosen label.
The socialite and influencer worked closely with the London-based luxury house’s founder Daniela Karnuts in choosing two custom styles for her and Donald Trump Jr.’s nuptials and reception on a private island in the Bahamas over Memorial Day weekend.
The couple had officially wed at her twin sister’s house on May 21 in Palm Beach. Although President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump skipped the festivities, Ivanka, Eric, and Tiffany Trump were among the few dozen guests, as well as the bridegroom’s five children from his first marriage.
Anderson’s more low-key reveal could be chalked up to such factors as the union was her husband’s second, as well as the ongoing political unrest and cost-conscious consumers. In addition, Trump’s ex-wife Vanessa had announced her breast cancer diagnosis a few days before the Bahamian bash.
The timing of the news may have come from the Safiyaa team. Readers of Patrick Radden Keefe’s latest nonfiction book “London Falling” about the mysterious death of Zac Brettler in 2019 may recognize Karnuts’ name. Her husband Akbar Shamji’s relationship with Brettler is central to the tome’s storyline. Media requests to Safiyaa seeking comment about “London Falling” were not acknowledged. Whatever the reason for holding off on the big reveal, the 39-year-old, first-time bride showed off her sense of style.
On board with the two-dress wedding day trend that millions of brides have been embracing in recent years, Anderson chose a bespoke French silk slipdress with a soft V-neckline and a low back. Reminiscent of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy’s Narciso Rodriguez-designed wedding gown, Anderson’s choice was true to the minimalism of the 1990s, which somehow remains very much of the moment in the summer of 2026.
The slip dress from Safiyaa was reminiscent of the Narciso Rodriguez-designed dress that Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy wore to wed John F. Kennedy Jr. in 1996.
There was also a handwritten message imprinted on a label in the interior of the bespoke wedding dress. A photograph provided by Safiyaa showed that the saying started with “I have found the one..” and a reference to the “Song of Solomon.” Just as Bessette-Kennedy was a fan of the headband (especially Charles J. Waba’s tortoise shell one), Anderson opted for a more bridal style. The 39-year-old sported a satin one with a hand-crocheted net veil that served up an understated take on traditional wedding day bridal attire. Anderson helped to envision the custom grid-inspired embroidery, which was a 75-hour undertaking for the artisans at the London-based Safiyaa.
Anderson, who worked as a model, switched up her style for the second part of the Little Pipe Cay celebration, by changing into a two-piece ivory double silk organza ensemble. The structured top with a straight neckline, a soft V-back with side slits and a fitted miniskirt were inspired by the 1950s and 1960s photography of Slim Aarons. That was when the lensman captured the social set at their leisurely and often strikingly dressed best.
Bettina Anderson
Photo Courtesy Safiyaa
Aarons, a former World War II combat photographer, first visited Palm Beach in 1952 for the long-shuttered magazine Holiday. After his military experience in North Africa and Europe, he set out to photograph “attractive people doing attractive things in attractive places.” C.Z. Guest, Peter Pulitzer and Laddie Sanford were among the Palm Beach-ers that he immortalized with his striking colorful photos. He was so taken with Palm Beach that he dedicated a chapter in his first book, “A Wonderful Time: An Intimate Portrait of the Good Life,” to it.
Palm Beach’s social scene is familiar terrain for Anderson, who, along with her five siblings, grew up in “Oasis Cottage,” a lakeside seven-room estate that was previously owned by the fashion designer Lilly Pulitzer and her first husband Peter. The latter was a close friend of Anderson’s father Harry Loy, who became the youngest bank president in the U.S. by assuming the presidency of the Worth Avenue National Bank in 1970 at the age of 26. Fishing in the Bahamas was reportedly a shared pastime. Her mother Inger, a former Ford model, runs the gift fruit shipping company Palm Beach Groves. In 2016, the family’s home reportedly was sold for $11.88 million nearly three years after Anderson’s father died.
Although Anderson posted a teaser video of her Bahamian wedding weekend including frolicking in a bikini in the ocean with Don Jr. a few days later, she did identify her wedding dress designer. Dua Lipa also took a similar approach to the big reveal after tying the knot with Callum Turner on May 31, waiting a few weeks before identifying Chanel’s Matthieu Blazy as the designer of her extravagant gown with a reported 480,000 beads and 25,000 feathers.
The influencer posted a BTS video on Instagram a few days after the Bahamas reception.
Photo Courtesy
The more understated Anderson worked closely with Safiyaa’s founder Karnuts, director of client development Navarre Rice and the design team “to refine the proportions, mood, and details of each look so that every piece felt distinct, personal, and true to her,” according to the company. She and Karnuts have known each other for many years, so the collaboration was “built on friendship, mutual trust, and a shared appreciation for timeless style,” according to Safiyaa.
Anderson also sported Safiyaa for the “Enchanted Garden-themed” bridal shower that Audrey Gruss, Amy Phelan and Yaz Hernández threw for her at Mar-a-Lago in late April. The custom cocktail dress was inspired by a style from Safiyaa’s fall-winter 2022 collection, which drew from the elan of the American socialite and fashion designer Gloria Vanderbilt. (Some know Vanderbilt as CNN newsman Anderson Cooper’s late mother.)
Anderson’s dress featured an overlay with hand-applied crystals and pearl embroidery that required 10 hours of finessing. The lithesome Anderson stood through multiple fittings to get the degree of understated glamour that she was after, according to Safiyaa. Other Trump family brides have also opted for designer wedding gowns including Ivanka’s Vera Wang one, Tiffany Trump’s Elie Saab choice and Melania’s John Galliano-designed Dior couture style.
The Palm Beach socialite worked closely with Safiyaa’s founder on her selections.
Founded in 2011, the luxury house is helmed by Karnuts whose company specializes in heavy crepe that is offered in 200 colors. With by-appointment showrooms in New York and London, approximately 60 percent of Safiyaa’s business involves customizations or bespoke commissions, which reflects clients’ increasing demand for “unique pieces tailored to their individual needs, occasions, and lifestyles,” according to the company. The luxury label is named for Karnuts’ daughter. Fashion types may know Shamji’s son, who is also called Akbar, as a model for Louis Vuitton and Burberry among other brands.
Having worked as a model, Anderson did multiple fittings with the Safiyaa team.
Photo Courtesy
As for one of the current First Sons, Donald Trump Jr.’s wedding to Anderson made him the first son of a seated president to marry, since John Quincy Adams’ son John Quincy II did so in 1828. The first White House wedding for the child of a president was held eight years prior for James Monroe’s daughter Maria. Although there were rumblings of a White House celebration for Anderson and Don Jr., that did not pan out. The newlyweds did attend another type of blowout at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue earlier this month – UFC Freedom 250 on the South Lawn.
While the advent of mass media accelerated the public’s interest in First Family weddings, the fervor of social media has spiked that to new heights. Asked about the public’s ongoing zeal, Providence College professor of communications Andrew McDonnell noted that although politics have become “so personalized,” weddings can always bring people together in a way that they are “failing to experience in other aspects of American life right now.”
An imprinted inscription was sewn into the interior of Anderson’s wedding dress.
In addition, given the parasocial relationships that some fans have with their favorite luminaries, celebrities function “as an extension of a family” for millions, she said. “Of course, with celebrities we’re not actually going to a wedding. But by feeling that you’re vicariously participating in that ceremony, there’s a unifying force. It also makes us feel more connected to the celebrities,” McDonnell said.
Flagging how another political scion’s wedding – Edward Kennedy III’s to Rose Esselstyn, was covered by the media (including by Vogue), she said, “There’s this tradition of American celebrities being our own type of royalty, especially when that intersects with politics. That can keep people fascinated. Even if they generally don’t identify with the Trumps, they might still be interested in the wedding.”