The $300 billion bridal industry is welcoming new talent to its growing sector. International and emerging bridal designers are in robust demand as the market begins to cater to a wider and more eclectic consumer base.
This year’s Barcelona Bridal Fashion Week, a six-day affair held the last week of April, boasted the largest percentage of international brands in its 27th edition of the show. The event featured more than 300 brands, a 15 percent increase compared to 2016, with 65 percent of all showcased brands hailing from abroad. It is estimated that 18,900 people attended this year’s event, which included catwalk shows and a trade fair. The number of attendees was 5 percent higher than last year. The event was organized by Fira de Barcelona.
A total of 850 buyers attended the show, many of which traveled from Italy, France, the U.K., Germany, Portugal, Belgium and the Netherlands. Buyers from the U.S., Mexico and Japan were also present, which illustrated the show’s efforts to continue its international expansion.
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Brands presenting their spring 2018 collections included Rosa Clará, Cristina Tamborero, Yolan Cris, Isabel Sanchís, Inmaculada García, Ana Torres and Marylise & Rembo Styling, among others as well as Raimon Bundó, who celebrates the company’s 50th anniversary this year.
Estermaria Laruccia, the director of Barcelona Bridal Fashion Week, said, “The designers’ creativity aligned with the long-standing tradition and experience of the fashion firms resulted in some really first-class collections.” She added, “The positive results of this edition of Barcelona Bridal Fashion Week have inspired us with the drive to continue our ambition to improve year-over-year, underlining our commitment to internationalization and the highest caliber of brands and buyers. Our goal is to consolidate the event as the international platform for the elite of bridal fashion, turning Barcelona into the world’s bridal capital.”
Marta Raich, the president of Barcelona Bridal Fashion Week, said the “catwalk was a triumph of haute cuisine, design and quality, as well as featuring a really spectacular scenario. And the trade fair, the area dedicated to business, had a more plural, international and varied offering than ever this year, with more than 20,000 dresses and all kinds of accessories.”
Raich went on to say that the large number of key “buyers with excellent purchasing power with whom our exhibitors closed deals further underlined the show as a top-level driver of the sector’s economy.”
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