According to PEOPLE Bachelor in Paradise Canada season 2 star Joey Kirchner is criticizing a bridal dress shop that he claims told his fiancée, Tessa Tookes, — whom he met on the 2023 show — she could get “nude” undergarments that match a Caucasian skin tone for free with the purchase of a dress, but would have to pay extra for undergarments to match her Black skin.
On their TikTok account, @joeyandtessa, Kirchner explained the situation — and also called out wedding dress designers — in a new video, saying, “Wedding dress designers of TikTok — we’ve got a problem.”
He went on to detail how his future bride, Tookes, made a brief cameo appearance in the video, visited a dress shop to search for a wedding gown.
“She went to the store — which is supposed to be one of the most magical days of her life, next to getting married to me, of course — and she went to purchase this beautiful wedding dress,” Kirchner said.
According to his video, staff at the store — which was not named in the video — told Tookes that the corresponding undergarments to wear beneath the dress were available in two options.
“The standardized choice is nude, which is free,” Kirchner said, adding, “But if you would like the undergarment to match your skin tone, there’s an up charge.”
“So you’re telling me that it’s free to be white, but if my bride has a different skin tone than white, she has to pay extra money to get the undergarment to match her skin tone?”
“First of all, why is the standard white?” he then asked, adding, “How f—– is that that in 2024, the standard, which is free, is a nude skin tone? Nude can be a lot of different colors, but they decided to make white nude the standard?”
After being told about the cost of the undergarments, Kirchner then explained that Tookes had to stand and feel “awkward,” with “the people who are selling her the dress.”
“They’re not the designers,” he acknowledged but explained again that the store had told his there was a charge to have an undergarment to match her skin tone.
Kirchner went on to explain that Tookes then had to “awkwardly beat around the bush and be like, ‘Well, I want the other one,’ but she’s not paying for it.”
Instead, Kirchner said his fiancée ordered the “nude” undergarments and plans to dye it herself to match her skin tone.
“Wedding dress designers, take g—— note: this is bulls— and you should be called out. Figure it out,” he said at the end of the video.
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