Bernadette Antwerp History: 2018 to 2026, Year by Year

Posted by

Gemma Deeks

September 22, 2026

On September 22, 2026

Brands we love, Fashion

Bernadette Antwerp History: 2018 to 2026, Year by Year

Posted by

Gemma Deeks

September 22, 2026 On September 22, 2026

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Bernadette Antwerp is a young house, so its history fits on one page and every line of it can be checked. What follows is the timeline as the founders and the press have told it, from a graduate’s unhappy months in London to the first embroidered accessories, with the sources named at the foot of the page.

Before the label

Bernadette de Geyter grew up with a mother who knitted and crocheted, built a career as a buyer, including at Ralph Lauren, and kept an archive of clothes that the house says still feeds its designs. Her daughter Charlotte studied fashion at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp and, according to The Gloss, worked with Simone Rocha, whose family-run house she has described as an example of living the DNA of a brand.

2018: the founding

After graduating, Charlotte moved to London to look for a job at a fashion house, and told Liberty London that within a few months she knew it was the wrong path. She came back to Antwerp, began painting what she described to SheerLuxe as hundreds of botanic drawings, and launched Bernadette with her mother in 2018. The house counts its anniversary in November; SheerLuxe noted the fifth in 2023. The About page puts it in one line: the label was launched shortly after graduating, in creative partnership with her mother.

2018 to 2021: the taffeta years

The house press page lists a New York Times piece in 2018 and another in 2021, and the wearers that put the label on red carpets: Gwyneth Paltrow in the Audrey dress and Dakota Johnson in the Robe, both in 2021. The shapes that still anchor the line date from here: Dress George, the floor-length taffeta gown with the V neck, which Coveti carries as the Dress George in Dark Lime and in its short form as the Short Dress George in Black; the peignoir; the Louis pyjama.

2022: Vogue India and the print archive

Vogue India ran a piece in 2022 under the headline that garden-variety florals find new form each season at Bernadette, which is the neatest description of the method anyone has written: the same botanicals, redrawn. Gillian Anderson wore the black Taffi dress that year, and the Belgian weekend title Sabato profiled the house. Stockists by 2023, per SheerLuxe, included Net-a-Porter, Matches and SSENSE; Liberty London and Brown Thomas have carried it too.

2024: homeware and the hotel

Coveteur interviewed the pair in March 2024, when Charlotte said the house was expanding both its homeware and its ready-to-wear, and that the dream in five to ten years was the hotel Bernadette. The same interview records her mother’s style rule, a feminine dress with a man’s coat, and both women’s admiration for Miuccia Prada.

2025 to 2026: embroidery and accessories

Rose Byrne wore Dress Lenette in 2025. The Autumn Winter 2026 collection, in stock at Coveti now, pushes the embroidery further than before: the Dress Lena Embroidered in Soft Pink Bouquet Embroidery on Black and the Dress Julie in Black Velvet are worked by hand in India, and the season brings the house’s first silk brooches, the Wild Rose Brooch in Icy Pink among them, velvet bucket bags and 65 cm silk scarves. Coveti began carrying the label in 2024 and added the accessories in September 2026. The new arrivals page has the full drop.

Key facts

2018: founded in Antwerp by Charlotte de Geyter and her mother Bernadette de Geyter; anniversary counted in November.
2018 and 2021: New York Times coverage, per the house press page; 2021: Gwyneth Paltrow in the Audrey dress, Dakota Johnson in the Robe.
2022: Vogue India profile; Gillian Anderson in the black Taffi dress; Sabato (De Tijd) profile.
2023: stockists include Net-a-Porter, Matches and SSENSE (SheerLuxe); fifth anniversary.
2024: Coveteur interview, homeware expansion; 2025: Rose Byrne in Dress Lenette; 2026: first brooches, bags and scarves at Coveti.

“After graduating from Antwerp’s Royal Academy I moved to London with big plans to work for a fashion house. After a few months, and many phone calls later, I realised this was not the right path for me. My mum and I always had an amazing creative connection and it seemed like such a natural idea to combine our strengths and launch a brand together,” Charlotte de Geyter told Liberty London.

Frequently asked questions

When was Bernadette Antwerp founded?

In 2018, in Antwerp, by Charlotte de Geyter shortly after she graduated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, in partnership with her mother Bernadette. The house counts its anniversary in November.

Who founded Bernadette?

Charlotte de Geyter, the creative director, and her mother Bernadette de Geyter, a former Ralph Lauren buyer who is co-founder and creative consultant.

Why is the brand called Bernadette?

After the co-founder. The house is named for the mother, designed by the daughter, and the mother-daughter partnership is the story the house tells about itself.

Has Bernadette been in Vogue?

Vogue India profiled the house in 2022, according to the brand’s own press page, which also lists the New York Times in 2018 and 2021 and Sabato in 2022.

Is Bernadette an Antwerp Six brand?

No. The Antwerp Six graduated in the early 1980s; Charlotte de Geyter graduated from the same academy a generation later and founded Bernadette in 2018. The connection is the school, not the group.

More Bernadette guides

Every Bernadette Antwerp page by Coveti’s fashion editor Gemma Deeks: Brands like Bernadette, Who is Bernadette Antwerp?, Is it a luxury brand?, Charlotte de Geyter, Price guide, Where to buy, Sale, Review, Size guide, The prints, Who wears it, Materials and care, New arrivals 2026, How to wear it, Resale, vintage and rental, Dresses, Wedding guest dresses, Skirts, Knitwear, Shirts and tops, Pyjamas and robes, Embroidered pieces, The George dress, Accessories, Brooches, Silk scarves.

Sources and method

Checked on 22 September 2026 by Gemma Deeks, fashion editor at Coveti. Product facts, the compositions, fits, model measurements, heel heights and countries of manufacture, are the brand’s own product-page text; counts, prices and price ranges are Coveti’s live catalogue on that date and move with stock; the house history and the wearers come from the brand’s own pages and the interviews listed below, each read on the date above. Where a claim could not be checked against one of these it was left out, and where the fitting room is giving its own advice the page says so.