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 in check a multidisciplinary sector that directly employs more than 300,000 people.
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 which sometimes changed the week before the wedding," as the event organizer Laura Melilla, from Petite Mafalda points out, that the year In the past he only attended one ceremony, when he usually manages more than 20. The drop in the number of links —which can be carried out with guests since phase 2 of the de-escalation— has almost anthropological reasons in Spain. “Here and in Italy large celebrations are preferred, attended by all the members of your family; The same is not the case in Germany, where the number of weddings has only been reduced by 20% ”, sums up Amandine Ohayon, CEO of Pronovias.
Or party in style, or nothing.
And faced with the dilemma, the answer has been nothing.
Or almost.
"At the beginning it was very bad for us, sales were almost completely paralyzed and many clients returned purchases made during the first half of March 2020", recalls the designer and businessman Jorge Redondo, founder of the fashion firm specializing in brides and guests Redondo Brand.
Carolina Otaduy, founder of the firm that bears her surname and has workshops in Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia Caterina Barjau
Spain leads the European wedding 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 from 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.
A large part of the success of Spanish bridal fashion 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 (this year, virtually), 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 all continents of 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.
A headdress in the form of a diadem, designed for a bride Caterina Barjau
The pandemic kept the doors of its stores closed (they have 4,000 points of sale around the world), which forced 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.
“Nobody 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 San Sebastian creator has had to request state aid and part of her company has been in ERTE. She has launched into online sales, creating two different 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.
"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 business avenues.
There are more and more brides who want to have their dress sent home, who are looking for much simpler designs and are buying on short notice ”.
According to Otaduy predicts, this type of consumer will not decrease with mass vaccination.
The CEO of the firm Pronovias, Amandine Ohayon, photographed in the headquarters of Barcelona Caterina Barjau
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
ready-to-wear brand.
and the success achieved in 2019 has helped them face the crisis and develop a tailor-made 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, telling the bride how to do it. In the end, we reduce 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.
Jorge Redondo, founder of the firm Redondo Brand, offers clients the possibility of performing three of the four necessary tests by videoconference.Caterina Barjau
Creativity and flexibility have been key to the survival of these companies.
Otaduy has diversified the business by making masks and will soon be selling essential oils made in Mallorca.
Pronovias will launch its men's fashion line in July in collaboration with the legendary Turin tailor Carlo Pignatelli.
And in October, a collection developed —through telematic meetings— by American creator and industry legend Vera Wang, author, among others, of the dress that Jennifer Aniston wore at her wedding to 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 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 reactivated little by little.
Also internationally.
Last February, the UK 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.
As 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 a toll on some couples, a year and a half later most have not They have canceled, just postponed their wedding.
Love (and business) wait, but they are not canceled.