The Atelier
Four decades,
one pair of hands.
Trained and practiced abroad alongside some of the leading designers in her field, Rita Kleiner brings an old-world craft to a quiet Ottawa atelier — one client, one garment, at a time.
A Brief Biography
A life measured in stitches.
Rita Kleiner began in Tel Aviv, Israel, and has spent more than forty years designing, drafting, and finishing garments by hand. Much of that work happened alongside prestigious design houses, where she refined the disciplines of bridal, evening, and couture construction.
Over those decades her work has ranged widely — from street style and everyday elegance to dramatic evening gowns, and a white collection of bridal pieces and wedding dresses. The thread through all of it is the same: garments made one-on-one, drawn to a single person and built around the way she moves.
She now works privately from Ottawa, Canada, by appointment, where her clients are brides and mothers of brides, gala attendees and quiet celebrators — women who want a garment that carries the weight of its occasion and fits as if it were drawn on the body itself.
“A dress is never only fabric. It is the record of a conversation — the one we had, and the one it will have with everyone who sees you in it.”
A Career in Brief
From abroad, to here.
Early Years
Training and practice abroad, apprenticing alongside leading designers of the old school.
International Career
Decades refining bespoke, bridal and evening craft across ateliers overseas.
Ottawa Atelier
Brings her practice to Canada. Clientele grows entirely by word of mouth.
Heirloom Era
First-generation brides return as mothers of brides. Heirloom commissions begin.
Today
Dresses weddings, galas, and quiet milestones — one woman at a time.