Celest Thoi is a top bridal designer in Malaysia who has dressed many well-heeled society ladies on their big day and is many a blushing bride’s designer of choice.

A graphic design graduate, Thoi was working for IBM when she was posted to Melbourne, Australia. She met her future husband James Tee as she was completing her Master’s degree. When she decided to design her own wedding dress after not being able to find a dress she liked, it was a turning point in her life which led her on the path to becoming a bridal designer.

Now emigrated to New Zealand and encouraged by her design experience, she started taking night classes on fashion design and eventually opened her bridal boutique The Wedding Suite. In 2009, Thoi relocated with her husband and their two children to Malaysia, where she worked for a while as a creative director at a local bridal-fashion label, which introduced her to the local fashion industry. Thoi later ventured out on her own and launched her eponymous label Celest Thoi in 2011.

Over the years, Thoi’s oeuvre expanded from couture bridal gowns to bridesmaids’ outfits and evening gowns to shoes. Recently in 2020, she launched her first line of ready-to-wear white shirts—The Coterie Collection. Besides being part of the group of fashion designers who volunteered to help make PPE for frontliners during the pandemic, Thoi also initiated a search for two frontliner brides who had to put their nuptials on hold in 2020 to help the fight against Covid-19, in order to sponsor their wedding gowns.