Do you know? Shopping for a wedding dress is strange. You have
to make an appointment. You're expected to bring family and friends. The
salespeople say things like, "You'll remember this forever."
When I bought my dress a
few months ago, I couldn't stop thinking about how emotional it all was — and
how expensive.
To figure out why wedding dresses cost so much, I went to ..., a big trade show for the
wedding-dress industry.
That's where I met Anne
Barge, who has been designing wedding dresses for over 20 years. She has her
own line, and she also designs for the Badgley Mischka label.
"It's not just a white
dress," she says. It's the fabric, and it's the workmanship, and it's the
lining, and it's the fit." Ho!
She points me to a dress on
one of her many racks. The dress was made with 25 yards of pure silk satin in
it; that material costs $100 a yard, she says. The embroidery on top comes from
India; it costs thousands more, Barge says.
That adds up to real money,
but it doesn't account for the total price tag: $8,000.(very expensive!)
A lot of that extra cost
comes down to the word "wedding."
Thanks!