Planning a wedding takes, on average, about a year. And if they want the dress of their dreams, brides need to make shopping for their gown one of the first steps they take. If they want a designer gown, tailored just to their liking and with a perfect fit, the shop needs months to place the order; wait for their supplier to gather the high-end materials like fabric, lace, and beading; wait for the skilled sewing staff to stitch all the pieces together; receive the dress back; call the bride back for a fitting; and make any the necessary adjustments and alterations.
Or at least, that’s what used to happen. But the wedding industry, devastated by COVID-19–compelled cancellations and postponements, has upended, abbreviated, and altered the entire process. Many of the people who had postponed their ceremonies, in the hope that they could celebrate with all their friends and family after the pandemic, have given up on that idea and decided to go ahead with some version of a wedding, often with a short time horizon. Thus they need dressmakers to provide them them something lovely in which to get married, even if their plans are set for just about a week or two from now.
The effort required to do so is both tremendous and welcome. Many dress retailers and manufacturers suffered dire losses during the pandemic. Being able to put their tailors and sewers back to work feels like a reward for surviving the down times, such that the suppliers are unwilling to turn down many requests, even if they would have seemed impossible in the past. As one designer put it, “If I have the fabric, if I have the lace, we don’t say no.”
The question is whether they have the fabric and lace. Beads, largely sourced from India, which has suffered terribly from the COVID-19 pandemic, have not been widely available. In turn, wedding fashion has moved away from heavily beaded dresses out of necessity. Rather than ornate designs, which the suppliers likely could not achieve in time to meet demand in current supply chain contexts, brides are leaning toward simpler versions, especially if they can be tailored quickly.
The need for tailoring is not just because they want their dress fast. Another trend, prompted by COVID-19 restrictions on big weddings, has been for couples to go ahead and get married in simple, civil ceremonies with very few people, then host more festive occasions more recently, among a somewhat larger group of vaccinated family members and friends. But as is common among newly married people, by the time of the second ceremony, many of the brides are pregnant or have recently given birth, such that they need their dresses to be tailored quickly, just days before the wedding, to match the current shape of their bodies.
For dressmakers, the skills in high demand thus have shifted: Whereas once they might have needed to have scores of skilled bead workers on hand, today those artisans need to be able to let out seams and still keep the dress beautiful, under strict time constraints. The new requirements are tough to meet, but for the wedding industry, any business is great business these days. For now, quick and beautiful is the goal, and the assorted members of this supply chain are determined to achieve it.
Discussion Question:
- What other actors in the wedding industry supply chain have likely been affected by these shifts in consumer behavior?
- Are there any other ways that wedding dress providers could speed up delivery, while still maintaining consumers’ desired quality?
Source: Kaitlin Menza, “You Want that Wedding Dress When?” The New York Times, August 25, 2021