Ever wonder why a wedding gown costs so much more than regular clothing?
Here we break it down and detail all the factors that end up breaking the bank for many.
There is no denying that the cost of a wedding gown is significantly higher than your average dress. There are a lot of variables that contribute to this:
much finer materials - we’re talking high quality silks, rich luxurious crepes, French laces…ooh lala…the list goes on. Generally, unless you’re shopping high-end designer, you’re not usually purchasing clothing with these fine materials that can cost up to $300 per yard.
more material required - wedding gowns typically are longer and fuller (thus requiring much more material) than your typical dress at a store. A cocktail dress can use about 1-2 yards of fabric on average, whereas a wedding gown usually starts around 8 yards for a slimmer cut, and can sometimes exceed 50 yards when you’re going full on ball gown.
manufacturing - the costs to produce a wedding gown are higher because they are usually produced one at a time/or in very small batches by highly skilled specialists and sewers with the ability work with difficult materials. There is usually more structure built in and additional linings, all of which consume extra labor and material.
Time: Due to all of the above factors, it takes a great deal more time to produce a wedding gown than a casual everyday dress. This is why most places generally tell you to order your gown up to 9 months ahead of your wedding.
Retail Mark-up - The brand or designer will calculate the above material and manufacturing costs to come up with a wholesale cost. And then a boutique buys the dress at this wholesale cost from the brand/designer and will double or triple this price to make their profit. That means YOU, the consumer (just a sweet, blushing bride), end up paying about 6-8 times what the actual cost of the dress was. OUCH, is right! This is the case in most items you are buying at stores, of course, and is not exclusive to wedding gowns.
Read more about the Retail Mark-up HERE..
In summary: Wedding gowns are luxury products and have high production costs attributed them. You are choosing a special item for a special day in your life and there is a lot of sentimentality attached to this purchase.
We know that many brides can afford to spend $5K + on the dress of their dreams. But there are a lot of other brides that want a special item, but cannot justify spending two months rent on a dress they will wear only once. And this is why FYTHE was born.