Bridal reconversion: this is how the wedding business adapts to the new reality
Kisses, hugs and guest lists as long as a parish census are common ingredients of any Spanish wedding. They are also three of the many things that were drastically affected by the arrival of covid-19 in the country in March of last year. Around 125,000 links were postponed, according to data from the Association of Wedding Professionals in Spain (APBE), and the entire bridal industry was plunged into an unprecedented crisis from which it has not yet recovered.
With 80% fewer weddings celebrated than the previous year, 2020 put a multidisciplinary sector that directly employs more than 300,000 people in check. Wedding planners, photographers, restaurants, florists, beauty centers... and, of course, the segment dedicated to fashion.
The problem was not only the confinement and the subsequent limitations and sanitary measures, which "were impossible to anticipate and that sometimes changed the week before the wedding", as event organizer Laura Melilla, from Petite Mafalda, points out, who last year In the past, he only attended a ceremony, when he usually manages more than 20. The drop in the number of links – which since phase 2 of the de-escalation can be carried out with guests – has almost anthropological reasons in Spain. “Here and in Italy, large celebrations attended by all members of your family are preferred; the same is not the case in Germany, where the number of weddings has only been reduced by 20%”, summarizes Amandine Ohayon, CEO of Pronovias.
Or party in style, or nothing. And before the dilemma, the answer has been nothing. Or almost. "At first things went very badly for us, sales were almost completely paralyzed and many clients returned purchases made during the first fortnight of March 2020," recalls designer and businessman Jorge Redondo, founder of the fashion firm specializing in brides and guests Redondo Brand.
Spain leads the European bridal fashion market —followed by Italy—. It makes almost half of the dresses that leave the continent and is the fourth largest producer in the world, only surpassed by China, Vietnam and the United States. In 2018, this sector generated a turnover of 860 million euros in Spain, according to the latest study of the Valmont Barcelona Bridal Fashion Week fair. If accessories, party dresses and footwear are also taken into account, the figure rises to 1,350 million euros.
Much of the success of bridal fashion in Spain is due to the fact that one of the most important fairs in this industry, the aforementioned Valmont Bridal Barcelona Fashion Week, is held here (virtually this year), and also to the weight of firms such as Pronovias , a leader in the sector, founded in Barcelona and the only company in the industry that has local offices on every continent in the world. “Three years ago we established what we call regional hubs in four key areas: New York, Amsterdam to serve Northern Europe, Shanghai and Barcelona,” explains Amandine Ohayon.
The pandemic kept the doors of their stores closed (they have 4,000 points of sale worldwide), forcing them to focus their efforts on telematic attention. The clients and the Pronovias team have communicated by phone, through social networks and the web. However, the firm does not consider selling online. “It is a luxury product. Brides are not willing to give up the experience of physically trying on and buying their dress. We are not Amazon”, says Amandine.
“No one prepares you for this. We closed the stores without knowing when we would reopen them and without being able to give answers to clients and workers who depended on the company, ”recalls Carolina Otaduy, businesswoman and designer of the firm that bears her surname by name. The creator from San Sebastian has had to request state aid and part of her company has been in ERTE. She has indeed launched online sales, creating two differentiated lines: one with face-to-face service in its stores in Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia, where they have been making custom designs for 10 years, and another, more recent, totally digital line.
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"This whole situation has made us really understand that a change is taking place when it comes to consuming," says Otaduy. “I don't think face-to-face sales will die, but digital commerce has opened up new avenues of business. There are more and more brides who want their dresses delivered to their homes, who are looking for much simpler designs and buy with little time in advance”. As Otaduy predicts, this type of consumer will not decrease with mass vaccination.
Jorge Redondo's is an experience halfway between the previous two. His brand was one year old in March 2020. It was born as a prêt-à-porter firm and the success achieved in 2019 has helped them face the crisis and develop a custom sewing line for brides. "From the first moment we wanted to break down some barriers that were deeply rooted in the workshops," says the designer. “The appointment is requested through the web, we make video calls where we show the sketches to the clients and we have even taken measurements remotely, indicating to the bride how to do it. In the end, we reduced the four physical visits that are normally made to one where the client tries on the prototype and finishes choosing the fabrics.” Now, with his Madrid studio open to the public again, there are still buyers who continue to opt for online attention. “Something that the pandemic has taught us is that it is not necessary to travel from Valencia to Madrid four times when you can have a close and professional treatment through video calls,” says Redondo.
Creativity and flexibility have been key to the survival of these companies. Otaduy has diversified the business by making masks and will soon put essential oils made in Mallorca on sale.
Pronovias will launch its menswear line in July in collaboration with the legendary Turin tailor Carlo Pignatelli. And in October, a collection developed —through telematic meetings— by the American creator and legend of the sector Vera Wang, author, among others, of the dress that Jennifer Aniston wore at her wedding with Brad Pitt.
Not only fashion has adapted to a new market defined by restrictions and sanitary measures. In May 2020, the Association of Wedding Professionals in Spain was created to claim a CNAE (National Classification of Economic Activities) that integrates all the activities involved in the bridal sector and allows quantifying its total contribution to the Spanish GDP, in addition to requiring its own regulations . "We have shown that weddings can be safe," says its president, Isaac Amselem.
Thanks to the covid protocols and the acceleration of vaccination, the sector is gradually reactivating. Also internationally. Last February, the United Kingdom announced that weddings would be held again from June 21. “Since then we have seen a huge increase in the number of appointments in London stores. Just like in countries like the United States, where immunization is advancing rapidly”, explains Ohayon from Pronovias.
More good news: according to a study by Pronovias, the budget that future wives allocate to their wardrobe —1,750 euros on average— has not been reduced, and although confinement has taken its toll on some couples, a year and a half later most of them have not. They've called it off, just postponed their wedding. Love (and business) wait, but they are not cancelled.
