The Founder

Born and raised on Knights Link, Zara Craddock dreamed of making waves in the fashion industry from a young age. From studying design and manufacturing at 16, to completing an integrated masters degree at London College of Fashion, she centred her life around the art of creating beautiful garments. Entering into the world of weddings as a Bridal Stylist in her final year of university kick started a focused passion on bridal wear. What followed was years of experience within the wedding industry where she discovered a need for beautiful pieces perfect for all of the wonderful wedding moments her brides were experiencing outside of just the big day.

What she realised through working with these brides was a need for items made for real bodies like her own, rather than the traditional bridal business modelled around a slim figure. In the traditional bridal industry, brides need to pick gowns based off of dresses stocked in only one size to then be ordered in based on measurements, generating so many feelings of inadequacy and embarrassment for the majority of women.

In many ways the bridal industry felt cold and unrealistic to those who weren’t the perfect dress sample size, and if you had an alternative, less romantic style - there really wasn’t a lot to choose from! As a woman with an artistic style, Zara felt her tattoos and occasionally coloured hair didn’t fit into the industry she had grown to love, and knew that for many customers, it must have felt the same.

Years later, after Zara became engaged herself, this gap in the market became evident to her once more as she searched for outfits she would feel good in for all of her bridal occasions. This sparked a fire in her to follow the dream of creating Knights Link and catering to the cool girl bride who wanted more than just a pretty princess dress to feel special in.

Zara’s career post university as first a showroom and marketing manager for the couture accessories brand Hermione Harbutt, and then Marketing Manager for an eco friendly bag startup, lead her to have the confidence and ability to start Knights Link in a way that created accessibility to the customer for such quality ready to wear bridal pieces.