Pnina Tornai, born in 1962, is a wedding dress designer from Israel. She has a made a name for herself by selling dresses in Kleinfeld Bridal salon on the television show Say Yes to the Dress. She started out with a dream to be an actress but that got put aside when her third husband convinced her to bring her dresses to Kleinfeld Bridal Salon. Pnina's designs were rejected at the start but she did not give up, instead she later returned. This time her new designs were accepted and she has been Kleinfeld's best seller since.[1] She never took a sewing lesson and her designs are wanted by brides across the world.[2]
| Pnina Tornai | |
|---|---|
| [[File:|frameless|alt=]] | |
| Born | Pnina Assis 1962 Israel |
| Occupation | Wedding Dress Designer |
| Known for | Appearing on TLC (TV channel)'s Say Yes to the Dress |
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Pnina Tornai was born to Shai Assis and Ruth Assis[3] in 1962, she is the oldest of his four daughters. Pnina was given the name Perla at birth, her grandmother's name. In Hebrew Perla translates to Pnina, thus she was called Pnina.[3] Her father, an Israel diplomat, is from Alexandria and her mother was from Tangiers. As a child she dreamed of being an actress but she put her dreams to the side and instead she went to high school. After she finished high school, she enlisted for military service. In Israel, when a male or female turns 18, he or she must enlist in the military.[4] Once her stint in the military ended, she decided to pursue her acting career by enrolling in acting school in Paris.[1] Pnina married David Charles Meshulam in 1984, the two had a son.[5] Her son, who resides in a suburb Tel Aviv called B'nai Brak, is 26. He is currently studying the Torah full time, which he has done since he became religious many years ago. Pnina had a love for acting, but her first husband convinced her to quit acting school. She then married husband number two and divorced him.[1] After him she got married to her third husband, David Levinshtein, in March 2000. David attended UCLA, where he received a master's degree in business. David was the man who persuaded Pnina into bringing some of her designs to Kleinfeld, when the two were in Los Angeles.[1] Pnina's mother passed away in December 2010.[3] She now resides in Ramat Hasharon.[1]
After Pnina's time in Paris she returned to Israel, with her son, and knew that she needed to make money. In her thirties, she opened a small store in Tel Aviv, with only one seamstress to help, she herself had never taken a sewing lesson.[2] The two began creating evening and everyday day gowns.[1] Pnina started making dresses for more then just her clientele in her shop, around 1992, when a women asked her to make her a wedding dress which mirrored an evening gown that the woman had seen in the shop window. Pnina accepted the challenge. When the woman married her fiancé, the photo of their wedding made the front page of an Israel newspaper. When other brides saw the picture, they asked her to replicate the dress, this situation was what launched her career. Pnina then turned her store into a wedding dress salon and began selling dresses from this store.[1] In 2005, Pnina first showed her dresses to Kleinfeld, they denied her designs because of her use of lace in the dresses. Pnina did not give up, instead she redesigned her dresses to match the style of a Kleinfeld's dress and returned a while later.[6] When she returned, one of her dresses caught the interest of Kleinfeld's eye. Thus, Pnina became one of Kleinfled's wedding dress designers. The bridal shop opened an in-store boutique for Pnina's dresses, after only two years of designing for the store. She received this gift because she was the store's top vendor. This was a privilege that no other designer at Kleinfeld's received.[1] Pnina now spends 2 weeks out of every month in New York City, during which helps clients with creating dresses and holding trunk shows. She includes her family in this aspect of her life, her sister, Kochav, is her make up artist. Although she has hired seamstresses since the start, she still has a say in every dresses that is sold. Along with visiting the New York City store, she spends one weekend every two months checking up on her five stores in Athens. She checks over the dresses to make sure that all aspects are correct and she designs everyone one of her dresses.[1] Her dresses can now be found in stores in Tel Aviv, Athens and Kleinfeld in New York City.[1]
Pnina's original dream was to be an actress and her dream came true when she starred in a sitom in Israel. She plays the role of wife of the main character in Polishuk, which is political sitcom. Along with that she will be hosting a show titled Ten Years Younger in Ten Days, which is filmed in Israel.[1]
Pnina creates dresses while she is dreaming, that is how she knows exactly which fabrics she wants to use and how the dresses should look.[1] These dreamed up dresses become reality when they are hand sewn using fabrics directly imported from Europe. Pnina Tornai's signature corsets are embellished with Swarovski crystals and precious stones.[7][8] According to the New York Times the dresses are considered "vixenish." [6] Although this was said about her dresses she tries to make a dresses that will work for every bride. Tornai has a line of dresses that are specialized for Jewish and Muslim brides who are religious. She tries to meet the needs of the customer, which can be seen when in one episode of Say Yes to the Dress, she made a customized red dress for an Indian bride, who was keeping tradition in mind.[1] Pnina's 2008 bridal collection was infused with floral designs on the corsets, silk pantsuits and spaghetti strapped dress that had scalloped hemlines. All of these dresses were inspired by the song La Vie en Rose, a love song, by Édith Piaf.[8] The dresses in her 2012 bridal collection are adorned with pearls. Pnina utilized pearls because she recalls her late mother and grandmother always wearing pearls when they left the house.[9] Pnina's 2012 collection consists of silk, satin, lace and is topped with pearls and jewels. This collection is dedicated to her mother because, along with her grandmother, she recalls her mother always wearing pearls. After the passing of her mother she was upset and a friend helped her through by comparing tears to pearls, thus the idea for this collection emerged. The collection is based on tears of joy, which translates to pearls of joy for a bride on her wedding day.[3]
Eva Bryan, NASCAR driver Kurt Busch's wife, sported a Pnina Tornai wedding gown at their wedding.[10] Ashanti has also been seen wearing Pnina Tornai in an appearance on MTV's TRL.[11]