In handwritten vows, followed by an exchange of rings, Mr. Marchetto told Mr. Bowen that their love transcends the kind that runs the risk of short-circuiting. “After 15 years together, we have empathy for each other,” he said. “Our love accommodates mistakes.” Mr. Bowen told Mr. Marchetto that their love strives “to nourish, not devour.”
Mr. Marchetto, who teared up during his vows, had been reading the room during the ceremony. “For me, it was very real, very big, so of course I cried,” he said. He didn’t expect the audience to share his depth of feeling.
“Fashion editors are usually very tough people,” he said. “But they were crying, too.”
On This Day
When Jan. 18, 2025
Where Via Tortona 27, Milan
A Real Treat After the couple recessed down the runway, assistants wheeled in a seven-tier wedding cake. On top were custom-designed miniatures of the grooms. “We made them in the way we look every day,” Mr. Marchetto said. His figurine was outfitted in shorts and a backward baseball cap, with a hoodie tied around its waist; Mr. Bowen’s wore a white collared shirt and sneakers.
Support and Solidarity Mr. Bowen still attends 12-step groups. And Mr. Marchetto has been sober “by proxy” for more than a decade, Mr. Bowen said. “We create everything completely sober.”
The Altar The grooms designed the altar, featuring a mix of velvet and sequins, in front of which runway models and parents posed. “We based it on old references from movies,” Mr. Bowen said. After the wedding, attended by what Mr. Bowen called “lots of very serious fashionista types,” the couple received well wishes from other designers and industry people. “We were humbled and taken aback by the response,” he said.
