Meet international bridal designer Andrea Pitter.
I immediately identified with her. We are both extroverts who thrive on empowering women. We both use our chocolate canvas as a backdrop on which we paint our lips with bright luminous colors. She’s a wife and a mother of a son. I’m a wife and a mother of 2 sons. And we’re both from Brooklyn baby! However, I am clear that Andrea Pitter, Jamaican American fashion designer and founder of Pantora Bridal, is an authentic phenomenon in her own right.
Her creative genius combined with her unique ability to recognize and understand a woman’s individual curves, and manipulate her designs to accommodate a wide range of shapes and sizes within one collection, deems her the premiere designer for women of all ages and stages of life. She is fierce and inclusive, designing for women sized extra small to 4x while making them all look equally polished and beautiful. “I want women to feel recognized,” says Andrea. Fashion designer and activist, Prabul Gurung praised Andrea during Season 2 of Making the Cut, a show in which Andrea auditioned, and that has designers compete for a million-dollar investment with this statement:
“As design is created people are storytellers, and storytellers are healers. And today with your looks, you healed a lot of people.”
Gurung was applauding the fact that Andrea featured a curvy model in her collection who presented with confidence, grace and beauty as she walked the runway wearing a design that complimented her body perfectly. Andrea won Season 2 and expanded her business to include ready-to-wear with uniquely designed pieces in fabrics that yield confidence and power. Even before appearing on Making the Cut Andrea was proudly designing for Black women. She created FST, the acronym for “forgotten skin tones” wherein she designs brown linings and brown mesh to match the skin tones of women of color. FST’s didn’t exist before Andrea’s custom made creations.
Andrea’s business motto is dream in reality. And that’s exactly what she has been doing since she was 12. “I remember at 12 years old I was behind the scenes at a fashion show and I was getting ready to walk the runway. And I was so obsessed with the clothing. That’s when I decided that I wanted to be a fashion designer.” Andrea further explained that she wanted to enroll in The High School of Fashion Industries in New York but recognized the need to create a portfolio and to start a label. “So I made up a name,” said Andrea. “P for Pitter, An for Andrea, and Tora is my middle name. I slapped them all together, and Pantora was born!”
At 16, while in high school Andrea started her business designing prom dresses and sweet 16 dresses for upperclassmen. She started bridal when she was about 20 and opened her Pantora Bridal’s flagship location in Brooklyn, New York in 2013. Her most recent launch was the opening of her 600-square-foot boutique at ROW DTLA, the creative retail hub in Los Angeles that sits across the street from Making the Cut Season 1 winner Jonny Cota. Andrea’s LA boutique offers her full line of ready-to-wear with reasonable prices ranging between $50 and $400. She opened a bridal store in Los Angeles as well.
Andrea named her 2022 Bridal collection HONOR. “I needed to take a moment to honor this journey because the last few years had me wrapped up in how far I thought I should be and who I thought I’d become,” Andrea confesses. “Two things can be true… you can find peace in where you are and be excited about where you are going. These collections are always a reflection of what’s in my heart. Honoring the fact that I’ve always been enough…in every phase and in every room.”
Andrea Pitter is the first Black international bridal designer.
Follow her on Instagram at @andrea_pittercampbell or https://www.andreapitter.com
Shop her collection on Amazon at Amazon.com: Pantora: SHOP ALL
Image Credits
Photo Credit Image 1 & 4: Andre L. Perry
Photo Credit Image 2: Creator Ali Goldstein - Credit Ali Goldstein Prime Video
Photo Credit Image 3, 6, & 7: Kesha Lambert Photography