Vera Wang Says Yes to Mass-Market Wedding Dresses
By Katie Kramer, CNBC.com
Vera Wang is fashion's first lady of bridal wear. Her coveted designs grace celebrities and the mere mortals able to spend upwards of $20,000 for a chic walk down the aisle.
But now she is coming to the mass market with a collection for David's Bridal.
"It's amazing how it has resonated," says the 61-year-old Wang, a household name thanks to two decades of dressing celebrity brides including Chelsea Clinton, Ivanka Trump and Sharon Stone.
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A privately-owned company, David's doesn't discuss sales figures, but Chief Marketing Officer Brian Beitler confirms success at the cash register was better than expected. "From the moment we announced the partnership, we had customer inquiry," says Beitler.
White by Vera Wang is currently available in 150 of the 307 David's Bridal locations nationwide.
Originally a Philadelphia bridal salon, David's Bridal pioneered the mass-market approach for brides looking to say yes, no, or "let me try on the first one again" to the dress. This year, more than half of all American women getting married will shop at David's Bridal and buy dresses off the rack.
Millie Martini Bratton, editor-in-chief of Conde Nast's Brides magazine, says Wang's collection offers a lot of fashion for the money.
"Brides today want fashion at all price points," says Bratton. The wedding dress "is not just a ceremonial costume, but has gotten closer and closer" to real clothes.
"They want a dress that looks like them, a style that looks like today," she adds. "Vera's done an incredible job taking that quintessentially classic 'Vera Wang' look to a broader market."
The retail industry has embraced bridal for that broader market in recent years. Designers Monique Lhuillier and Isaac Mizrahi have introduced bridal collections priced in the $1,000 to $2,000 range. Mall stores like J.Crew, Ann Taylor and Urban Outfitters have crated bridal and bridesmaid collections similar to the clientele's existing style choices.
"It's exciting that the industry overall is producing good quality dresses that offer more fashion" says Bratton.
How hard was it to maintain the "lighter-than-air" Vera Wang sensibility on a David's Bridal budget? "I'm looking at fabrics that are sometimes $1,000 per yard," says Wang about her high-end Weddings collection in silks, satins and crepe de chine.
