Monique Lhuillier wedding dressesDiane Monique Llamas Lhuillier (born 1971, Cebu City, Cebu, Philippines) is a Filipina fashion designer based in Los Angeles. She is of mixed French and Spanish-Cebuano descent.
Lhuillier was born to Michel J. Lhuillier, a Filipino businessman of partial French descent and Amparito Llamas, a Filipina society figure and former model of Spanish-Cebuana descent. The Lhuilliers own a chain of pawnshops currently operating in more than a hundred cities in the nation.
At 15, she was an outstanding student in Lausanne, Switzerland and hoped to become successful in the fashion industry. Her parents sent her to the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM), where she met her future husband, Tom Bugbee. The couple founded their company in 1996 and launched their first bridal collection. The line was well-received by fashion-savvy brides, editors, and celebrities.
The breakthrough came after Monique designed the gowns for her wedding dress entourage. These captured the fancy of couture circles. Having had a difficult time finding her own gown, Lhuillier, a 23-year-old newlywed at the time, decided to begin sketching her own line of dresses. Her husband figured this was little more than a hobby, one that she would tire of soon enough. "He thought I had the wedding blues and eventually I'd get over it", she told USA WEEKEND Magazine.
Lhuillier designed gowns for Kristen Stewart, Christine Baumgartner, Britney Spears, Sarah Gore , Giuliana DePandi , Allison Munn and Heidi Montag Also, one of her gowns was worn by Hilary Duff in A Cinderella Story.
Subsequently Lhuillier added evening wear to her line, and several of her efforts showed up on red carpets before awards shows. For the Fall 2007 season she branched off into more typical runway collections.
