While many celebrity brides compete to reveal their wedding dress designer, Bettina Anderson chose to put it on ice for a few weeks and just announced that her brand of choice is Safiyah.
The socialite and influencer worked closely with the London-based luxury brand’s founder Daniela Carnutt to select two custom styles for her and Donald Trump Jr.’s wedding and reception on a private island in the Bahamas over Memorial Day weekend.
The couple officially married on May 21st at his twin sister’s house in Palm Beach. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump did not attend the festivities, but dozens of guests included Ivanka, Eric and Tiffany Trump, as well as the groom’s five children from his first marriage.
Anderson’s more modest revelations may be due to factors such as her marriage being second to her husband, ongoing political instability and cost-conscious consumers. Additionally, President Trump’s ex-wife Vanessa announced her breast cancer diagnosis just days before the Bahamas rally in the Bahamas.
The timing of this news may have come from the Safiyaa team. Readers of London Falling, Patrick Radden Keefe’s latest nonfiction book about the mysterious 2019 death of Zach Brettler, may remember Carnutt’s name. Brettler’s relationship with her husband Akbar Shamji is central to the book’s storyline. Media requests to Safiyah for comment on “The Fall of London” were not granted. Whatever the reason for holding back on the big announcement, the 39-year-old first-time bride showed off her sense of style.
Riding the two-dress wedding trend that millions of brides have embraced in recent years, Anderson chose a bespoke French silk slip dress with a soft V-neckline and low back. Reminiscent of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy’s Narciso Rodriguez-designed wedding dress, Anderson’s choice is true to 1990s minimalism, and somehow still relevant in the summer of 2026.
Safiyah’s slip dress was reminiscent of the Narciso Rodriguez-designed dress that Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy wore to her wedding to John F. Kennedy Jr. in 1996.
A handwritten message was also engraved on the inside label of the custom-made wedding dress. According to a photo provided by Safiyaa, the proverb begins with “I found…” and is a reference to the “Song of Solomon.” Just as Bessette-Kennedy was a fan of headbands (particularly Charles J. Waba’s tortoiseshell ones), Anderson also opted for a more bridal look. The 39-year-old wore a satin dress with a hand-knitted net veil, a modest take on traditional wedding bridal wear. Anderson helped envision the custom grid-inspired embroidery. This took 75 hours of work for London-based Safiya artisans.
Anderson, who worked as a model, changed her look for the second part of the Little Pipe Cay celebration by changing into a two-piece ivory double-silk organza ensemble. Architectural tops with straight necklines, soft V-backs with side slits, and fitted miniskirts are inspired by Slim Aarons photographs from the 1950s and 1960s. That’s when lensmen captured leisurely, and often impressively dressed, social scenes.
Bettina Anderson
Photo courtesy of Safiyah
A former World War II combat photographer, Aarons first visited Palm Beach in 1952 for the long-defunct magazine Holiday. After military experience in North Africa and Europe, he began photographing “fascinating people doing fascinating things in fascinating places.” CZ Guest, Peter Pulitzer, and Ladie Sanford are among the Palm Beachers he immortalized in his striking, colorful photographs. He was so fascinated by Palm Beach that he dedicated a chapter to it in his first book, A Wonderful Time: An Intimate Portrait of the Good Life.
Anderson is no stranger to Palm Beach’s social scene. Anderson grew up with her five siblings in Oasis Cottage, a seven-room lakeside mansion formerly owned by fashion designer Lilly Pulitzer and her first husband Peter. The latter was a close friend of Mr. Anderson’s father, Harry Roy, and became president of Worth Avenue National Bank in 1970 at the age of 26, making him the youngest bank president in the United States. Fishing in the Bahamas was reportedly a common pastime. Her mother, Inger, is a former Ford model who runs Palm Beach Groves, a gift fruit delivery company. In 2016, nearly three years after Anderson’s father passed away, the family home was reportedly sold for $11.88 million.
A few days later, Anderson posted a teaser video of her wedding weekend in the Bahamas, which included her frolicking in a bikini in the ocean with Don Jr., before revealing the designer of her wedding dress. Dua Lipa took a similar approach to her big reveal after her May 31 wedding to Callum Turner, waiting several weeks before identifying Chanel’s Mathieu Blazy as the designer of her extravagant 480,000-bead and 25,000-feather dress.
A few days after the reception in the Bahamas, the influencer posted a BTS video on Instagram.
Photo provided
The company says the more understated Anderson worked closely with Safiyaa founder Karnuts, client development director Navarre Rice, and the design team to “refined the proportions, mood, and details of each look, ensuring each piece feels unique, personal, and true to her.” Safiyah said she and Karnat have known each other for many years and the collaboration was “built on friendship, mutual trust and a shared appreciation for timeless style.”
Anderson also showed off Safiyah at an “enchanted garden-themed” bridal shower that Audrey Groos, Amy Phelan, and Yaz Hernandez held for her at Mar-a-Lago in late April. This custom cocktail dress is inspired by styles from Safiyah’s Fall/Winter 2022 collection, which draws inspiration from the nobility of American socialite and fashion designer Gloria Vanderbilt. (Some people know Vanderbilt as the late mother of CNN reporter Anderson Cooper.)
Anderson’s dress featured a hand-applied crystal and pearl embroidered overlay and required 10 hours of intricate work. Safiyah said the lithe Anderson went through multiple fittings to achieve the understated charm she was looking for. Other Trump brides have also chosen designer wedding dresses, including Ivanka’s Vera Wang one, Tiffany Trump’s Elie Saab selection, and Melania’s John Galliano-designed Dior couture style.
The Palm Beach socialite worked closely with Safiyaa’s founders on the selection.
Founded in 2011, this luxury brand is run by Karnuts, which specializes in thick crepes available in 200 colors. About 60% of Safiya’s business, which has by-appointment showrooms in New York and London, includes customization and made-to-order commissions, which the company says reflects growing customer demand for “unique items tailored to individual needs, occasions and lifestyles.” This luxury brand is named after Carnut’s daughter. Fashion insiders may know Shamji’s son, also known as Akbar, as a model for brands such as Louis Vuitton and Burberry.
Anderson, who worked as a model, had multiple fittings with the Safiyaa team.
Photo provided
As for one current eldest son, Anderson’s wedding to Donald Trump Jr. makes him the first son of a sitting president to marry since John Quincy Adams’ son John Quincy II married in 1828. The first White House wedding for a presidential child took place eight years earlier for James Monroe’s daughter Maria. There were also rumors that a celebration would be held at the White House for Anderson and Don Jr., but that was not successful. The newlyweds attended another type of explosive event, UFC Freedom 250 on the South Lawn, held at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue earlier this month.
The advent of mass media accelerated public interest in the First Family’s wedding, but the social media frenzy took that interest to new heights. Asked about the nation’s continued enthusiasm, Andrew McDonnell, a communications professor at Providence College, said that while politics has become “very individualized,” weddings have always been able to bring people together in a way that “no other aspect of American life is experiencing right now.”
A stamp was sewn into the inside of Anderson’s wedding dress.
Additionally, given the parasocial relationships that some fans have with their favorite celebrities, celebrities act as “an extension of the family” for millions of people, she said. “Of course, with celebrities, we don’t actually attend their weddings, but the feeling of being a vicarious participant in the ceremony creates a sense of unity and makes us feel more connected to them,” McDonnell said.
Pointing to how the wedding of another political heir, Edward Kennedy III, and Rose Esselstyn was covered in the media (including Vogue magazine), he said, “There’s a tradition that American celebrities are our own kind of royalty, especially when it’s connected to politics. That’s what keeps people interested. Even if you don’t generally sympathize with the Trumps, you might still be interested in the wedding.”
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