Four months before Ashley Moore’s April wedding, she still
didn’t have a wedding dress. After hours of searching, and even buying and
returning a gown she had changed her mind about, she finally fell in love with
a dress she found at a department store. However, what she didn’t love was the
price. So, Moore scoured the internet and eventually found the same gown being
sold online for less at Mytheresa, a luxury fashion company.
اضافة اعلان
Moore, 26, who works as an event content creator in Dallas,
typifies the modern bride: resourceful and social media savvy, with a finely
tuned idea (honed through substantial research) of what she wants in a dress.
The coronavirus pandemic and its economic fallout shifted
the bridal industry as ceremonies went virtual or were canceled, delayed or
downsized. Now, there is a boom afoot: Overall, the number of weddings in the
United States has surged to figures not seen in four decades, with more than 2
million weddings predicted in 2023 for the second year in a row (there were 1.3
million weddings in 2020, 1.93 million in 2021 and 2.47 million in 2022),
according to The Wedding Report, an industry trade group.
Bridal fashion and the way brides search for and purchase
their wedding outfits has evolved, thanks to the demands of modern brides, many
of whom are looking for unique, Instagrammable styles for multiple events.
A smarter, more informed bride
Gone are the days of flipping through the pages of a bridal
magazine for inspiration. The 2023 bride has done her homework. “The thing about
Gen Z brides is they do their research,” said Beth Chapman, the owner of the
White Dress by the Shore, a boutique shop in Clinton, Connecticut, adding,
“They’ll exhaust all of their options, and they really know their stuff.”
Brides may spend countless hours scrolling through social
media, studying the gowns worn by influencers and celebrities, creating
Pinterest boards and surveying the websites of designers and retailers. Only
after doing all that — often months later — will she consider making a purchase.
When that finally happens, she is likely to prioritize the
gown’s appearance and functionality over the price tag. The average cost of a
wedding dress now is higher than it has ever been, at $1,900, according to a
study by The Knot.
For that amount of money, many brides expect some degree of
pampering and personalization in the shopping experience.
“Brides don’t want to just get a dress off the rack,” said
Randy Fenoli, a bridal designer and a host of “Say Yes to the Dress,” a popular
reality television show that follows brides-to-be as they search for the
perfect wedding dresses at the Kleinfeld Bridal boutique in New York.
Since the show’s debut in 2007, it has spawned spinoffs and
become a cultural touchstone that Fenoli believes has influenced the broader
bridal shopping tradition. “I think brides have watched it and seen that
purchasing a wedding dress isn’t like going in and purchasing any other
garment,” he said. “You bring your family and friends, Champagne is popped,
there is cheering and tears, and it is really something that is more of an
experience.”
A complete bridal wardrobe
Brides are no longer focused on selecting just one beautiful
dress. As more pre-wedding parties are being added to the calendar of
activities and weddings are increasingly spread across multiple days and
venues, the modern bridal wardrobe now consists of a collection of outfits.
“Brides are really wanting to have an Instagrammable fashion
moment for their bachelorette, their shower, their rehearsal and their
after-party,” Chapman said. “It is about a wedding wardrobe for them right
now.”
That was the case for Moore, the Dallas bride.
Although she found her wedding dress only a few months
before the main celebration, she had bought multiple bridal outfits since
getting engaged in September 2021.
First, there was the engagement party dress, then another
dress for the bridal shower, then two more for a separate elopement in Las
Vegas.
all of that was before the wedding weekend in Cabo San
Lucas, Mexico. In total, Moore had eight different outfits in her bridal
wardrobe, she said. One was secondhand, another had feathers, and everything
she wore was bought online.
Although her bridal wardrobe ended up costing more than what
the average American bride spends on one wedding dress, she pulled it off, she
said, because she budgeted for it. “I went into it knowing I wanted to set
aside a part of my budget that wasn’t for my wedding dress, but for other
looks,” she said.
Vintage and convertible dresses are in
Many brides are achieving unique looks by re-imagining
vintage gowns, or picking dresses that can be converted and worn for multiple
events.
Vintage and secondhand dresses, especially ones passed down
from family members, are popular right now, partly because a used dress can
cost either nothing or a fraction of the price of a new one. Sally Conant, the
executive director of the Association of Wedding Gown Specialists, a trade
group of experts who preserve wedding gowns, said that when economic times are
tough, as they are now for many people, she sees an upswing in brides looking
to restore dresses they inherited from family members. “When COVID hit, I saw a
huge bump up in vintage dresses, as people shore up family traditions to try to
feel secure,” she said. “I am seeing it again this year.”
There is a strong demand for convertible dresses, which
proved popular at this year’s New York Bridal Fashion Week. Convertible dresses
can be adapted to various style silhouettes through detachable sleeves or
straps, for example, or with an overskirt, jacket or bolero. It might involve
removing a train, which avoids the nightmare of bustling.
“We have tons of brides always emailing us and calling us,
asking, ‘Do you have dresses that can be two-in-one?’” said Susan Wilson, the
manager of Blue Bridal Boutique in Denver. She often gets requests for
variations like a detachable overskirt over a pantsuit.
“I think brides want to get the most bang for their buck,
and styles aren’t as traditional as they used to be,” she said. “I really think
times are changing.”
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