A Gown That Won’t Upstage the Bride : Less is more when it comes to selecting a dress for the Big Day, a Santa Ana-based designer says.

Bridal gowns swathed in lace and dripping with beads and pearls have become another symbol of ‘80s excess.

“Too often it’s, ‘Here comes the bride’s gown,’ not ‘Here comes the bride,’ ” says Janell Berte, a Santa Ana-based bridal designer. “People should be talking about the beautiful bride, not the beautiful gown.”

Berte is getting away from all of that glitz.

“There are so many gowns out there that have a lot of things on them,” she says. “The girls are looking for something simple and clean.”

Berte demonstrated her “less is more” philosophy at a fashion show of her 1991 bridal collection held recently at the South Coast Plaza Village in Santa Ana, where she has a salon.

“A common mistake made by brides is to pick a gown with too much stuff on it,” she says. “They think the more stuff on the gown, the better and more expensive the gown. The opposite is usually true.”

Actually, gowns can be piled high with imitation riches but be plagued by uninspired design, shoddy workmanship and cheap materials.

Berte emphasizes clean lines and fine fabrics instead of fluff. Many of her gowns have no beads or baubles at all. Often, a fabric bow or a cluster of rosettes serves as the sole decoration.

“I’m more interested in details rather than laces, pearls and jewels,” she says.

Details such as scalloped necklines, buttercup sleeves or asymmetrical waistlines keep her simple gowns from being merely plain. One off-the-shoulder gown of white silk taffeta features an asymmetrical waistline with a large bow on the side--the only decoration needed.

When Berte does use beads or sequins, she does so with care. One gown had fine bead work bordering a square neckline and a V-back.

Her gowns are made of silk, cotton or linen. This season she’s especially fond of silk Shantung with its slightly nubby surface.

“I like the softer tone of the white in the natural fabrics. Synthetic fabrics tend to be too harsh.”

Most of her gowns are traditional, with full skirts and fitted bodices.

“We don’t do many mermaid dresses or sheaths,” she says. She made only one concession to the mermaid look in her collection--a silk satin gown fitted to the knees with a skirt that flounces out at the bottom. She also included a single sheath wrapped in lace and sparkling beads, the most ornate gown of her collection.

“It’s not that I don’t approve (of the sheath), it’s just that the sheath is more of an evening gown look than a bridal look, so I try to stay away from it,” Berte says. “And dancing in these dresses poses a unique situation.”

Simpler, traditional gowns especially appeal to older brides. Berte says most of her clients are 24 and older.

“The older a bride is, the less fuss she wants on her gown. She’s more settled and refined in her tastes.”

Some brides attending the show have grown frustrated in their search for a gown with fewer frills.

“I can’t imagine people wearing most of the ones I see in the bridal magazines,” says Jamie Koblensky, a 29-year-old Los Alamitos resident looking for a gown for her July wedding.

“I’d like something sophisticated without the big puffy sleeves,” she says.

Shaun McGinty, 25, of Coronado has given up finding the perfect dress off the rack. She’ll probably have a gown custom made by Berte for her August wedding.

“I want to take a little bit from each gown,” McGinty says. “Here I can do that.”

Berte, 33, opened her salon two years ago and now does a million-dollar-a-year business in bridal, bridesmaid and debutante gowns. Her gowns start at $1,000 and are sold nationally at other salons and at Neiman Marcus and I. Magnin.

“We’re one of the smaller houses, but we’re coming on fast and furiously,” Berte says. “We never want to import from Taiwan, but we do want to become a household name.”

After graduating from college, Berte began working at a shop called Elegance on Rodeo Drive creating ball gowns and evening dresses for Jill Ireland, Zsa Zsa Gabor and other celebrities.

The Corona del Mar resident opened her own shop in Irvine seven years ago and designed debutante gowns for upscale department stores.

When she moved to the larger Santa Ana salon, she decided to change her focus to bridal gowns because “they’re true fantasy.”

Berte often looks to the past to provide inspiration for her gowns. On her travels around the country, she visits museums to see exhibits on fashion and textiles.

“Bridal gowns can draw much from history,” she says. “There were such fabulous ball gowns and court gowns in the past.”

Berte is a hands-on designer who gets her ideas by working with fabric.

“The fabrics usually talk to you,” she says. “I’m a draping designer more than a sketching one. I sculpt fabric around a dress form. It’s different from the way a lot of technical designers work.”

She also prefers working one on one with her clients.

“It helps me to see what they’re asking for,” she says. “I get a good feel for what’s going on all over the country.”

Berte will work with the bride from the idea to the altar.

“If we don’t have what they’re looking for, we get out the sketch book,” she says.

Completing the dress takes no less than three fittings, with Berte often personally applying beads or lace on the gowns so they fall just right on the bride. Even after the dress is done, she or an attendant will follow the bride to the church to make sure the dress looks perfect.

“That’s the icing on the cake. We get to see the girl go down the aisle. I could never work in a shop where you just see the girl go out the door with her gown in a plastic bag.

“Sometimes I’ve even traveled in the limo with the bride on the way to church,” Berte says. “I’ve shared a lot of last single moments.”