wedding

Mireia Vidal, Catalan dressmaker to Spanish Queen, tells of her meteoric rise

The wedding fashion industry has reached a benchmark at a global scale. In terms of exports, Spain is only behind China, making 755,000 wedding dresses and earning 507 million euros per year. The bridal business has a total turnover of nearly 13% of the whole Spanish textile sector and the most important part of this comes from Catalonia, which concentrates more than 40% of production. One of the reasons for this is that Catalonia is the home of huge firms such as Pronovias or Rosa Clará, as well as the already established Jesús Peiró or YolanCris brands.

Barcelona Bridal Week is both the most important convention of the bridal industry in Europe and an international benchmark. This year, the Catalan capital’s event opened its doors on Tuesday with its bridal dress catwalk, the Paserela Gaudí Novia Fashion Show (5-8 May). On Friday, the international and professional trade fair NoviaEspaña (8-10 May) is opening, with 231 exhibitors participating. The event is held at Fira de Barcelona's Gran Via venue and is attended by the most famous and trend-setting national and foreign designers in the field. According to the organisers, this 25^th edition of Barcelona Bridal Week will be the most international in its history, with the USA as guest country, bringing together US trends, buyers and retailers.

Four days on the Gaudí catwalk and over 230 national and international exhibitors in the Gran Via fairground reaffirmed the convention as the quintessential meeting of the bridal industry worldwide. The Catalan designer Rosa Clarà was chosen another year to open the four days of catwalks at the ‘Pasarela Gaudí Novias’. Exports from Catalan wedding products made the industry generate a turnover of 10% more than in 2010. Currently, the industry is opening to Mexico and China.