For those of you that aren't familiar with this event, Bridal Market is where designers bring their collections to Chicago's Merchandise Mart and bridal stores around the country send their buyers to pick out what dresses & collections their store will carry for the upcoming year. Part trade show, part sparkly wonderland - bridal market features the latest in US bridal, bridesmaid, and prom fashion.
Day 1
We started our day bright and early at Merchandise Mart in downtown Chicago. Fueled by lots of Starbucks, we immediately jumped in to bridal fashion by taking a look at new dresses by some of our favorite designers. We began by looking at the James Clifford collection, which specializes in bridal gowns for girls who aren't afraid of a little sparkle.
We also got the opportunity to sit down with our favorite designer, Robert Bullock, and view his new collection piece by piece. We can't say enough great things about Robert Bullock and his team. He not only poses for photos with us, but also takes our design ideas to heart when designing his gowns. A few suggestions by Jimmy last year at Bridal Market led him to create a beautiful lace gown - aptly named the "Jimmy" dress! We can't wait to have this personal favorite in our store for our brides!
After lunch we went across town to the Allerton Hotel on Michigan Avenue for the Wtoo and Willowby fashion shows. Seeing the dresses in person certainly did not disappoint. There were more than a few that got "oohs" and "ahhs" from our buying team. If we know our brides (and we like to think that we do!), there are going to be lots of favorites from these new collections.
Day 2
With bridal gowns selected for our store on Day 1, Day 2 at Chicago Bridal Market centered around Bridesmaids and Accessories. We viewed collections from the Dessy Group and Bari Jay, among others. We are very excited about the dresses from these designers. We can already picture some well-dressed bridal parties walking out our doors.
Believe it or not, picking our accessories was probably one of the most difficult aspects of our day. With so many jewelry pieces, hair pieces, and veils to choose from, its definitely hard to keep track of what we want to feature in our store. Luckily, we have great options to choose from - Meg Jewelry had excellent gold and silver pieces for our shelves, Richard Designs had beautiful headbands for boho brides, and Jennifer Leigh had veils and flower crowns that are right on trend.
After making lots of tough decisions, our buying team was ready to head back to Milwaukee! Now we just have to wait for all of these great pieces to arrive at our store (were expecting to them to trickle in starting Spring 2016).
In just two days, Bridal Market 2015 was a wrap! See you next year, Chicago!
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