From the moment he got engaged, Cal DiJulius knew he wanted to incorporate his mother’s wedding dress into his own wedding look—and for his wedding in Sweden, he worked with Tanner Fletcher to do just that.From the moment he got engaged, Cal DiJulius knew he wanted to incorporate his mother’s wedding dress into his own wedding look—and for his wedding in Sweden, he worked with Tanner Fletcher to do just that.
From the moment he got engaged, Cal DiJulius knew he wanted to incorporate his mother’s wedding dress into his own wedding look. Cal’s “artistic ally” as a child, she passed when he was just 11 years old. “Growing up in Ohio, I was always playing dress up with her,” remembers Cal. “She was in the beauty industry, used to go to fashion week, and would bring me along with her.” His mom even bought him a sewing machine that he used to design dresses from a young age. “It was very full circle and fitting that in some way I would wear her dress because I wore them all the time anyway,” he says.
Ultimately, Cal wished to have her with him in spirit at his wedding to Kyle Baker in Sweden. “When someone passes 16 years prior, you’ve been through a lot of life without them,” reflects Cal. “Of course, you miss them every day, but there are major moments like weddings that you really realize they’re not there.”
Across five meetings and fittings over a year and a half, the suit came to be. The ivory tuxedo featured appliqué using the beading from his mother’s dress on the chest piece, scalloped lace along the shoulders, and covered buttons using fabric from the gown down his back and at the outer seams of the pants. As a surprise, lace also trimmed the lining of the jacket. Beneath, Cal wore a silk shirt with a bow tied at the neckline. While he says the shirt was the “perfect piece,” he never took the jacket off the entire night because he loved the look all together. “There’s a Swedish tradition where you don’t take off your jacket as a guest until the groom does,” he shares. “So no one took theirs off the whole time because I never did.”
While he admits creating this bespoke look with the designers did take time and require a higher budget, Cal says it was entirely worth it. “I feel like the privilege of being able to get to work with them when they’re still this involved is like if I had the opportunity to work with Marc Jacobs at the beginning of his career,” he says. Richie and Cassel also gave Cal back the extra buttons and beading that came from the dress “because there was just so much,” which gave him the opportunity to create something special for his husband-to-be. “I took it and I personally sewed it on to a pocket square for Kyle,” he shares.
“I felt her very presence… and I don’t often, as it’s just been so long,” says Cal of his wedding day. “But it was really nice to be able to have my parent involved in this, even though she’s not here. It was also really nice for my mom’s friends and my family.”
When asked if he would want to pass down his own suit one day, Cal reflects that it might be hard to give up on this sentimental masterpiece. “You know, my mom I think would have encouraged me to do this, but I don’t think in 30 years I’m gonna be willing to let my child like tear my tux apart,” he laughs. “Glad my mom would have been on board with it, but yeah… I think I didn’t inherit that gene.”
