Barcelona Bridal Fashion Week is concentrating its campaign this year on promoting and attracting buyers from Europe and the United States and strengthening its presence in the Latin American and Asian markets. Their commercial power and role as a strategic hub for the sector are two of the main drivers behind the show’s efforts to attract key buyers, promoters and influences from Europe, the Americas and the Asian market. BBFW is also working on the involvement of an internationally-renowned ‘guest designer’ to share the catwalk with another twenty leading bridal fashion firms.
Barcelona Bridal Fashion Week is already getting ready for its next event, which takes place on 25-30 April 2017 at Fira de Barcelona’s Gran Via exhibition centre, showcasing all the latest trends in bridal fashions for men and women in 2018 along with ceremonial, communion and party wear and accessories. Now in its twenty-seventh edition, the show is broadening its international reach. In this respect, the show’s director, Estermaria Laruccia, confirms that ‘we will be focusing on the main European countries such as Germany, UK, France and Italy as well as continuing to target the United States as the leading bridal fashion market in the West and a driver of global trends along with Europe. However, this year we want to strengthen our presence in Asia and Latin America, two areas that offer tremendous expansion opportunities, and we will be doing so using Mexico and Japan as the gateways to these two continents.’
In this respect, Mexico is a key market because ‘it is the main driver behind new fashions in Latin America, and for this reason it’s our first point of access,’ says Laruccia. ‘From our point of view, this gives Mexico a key strategic role, as the Latin American bridal market is one of the ones with the biggest potential in the world.’
Asia, meanwhile, is a key continent for the sector and for this reason BBFW will be focusing this edition on attracting buyers from Japan as an initial step to expanding into the region. ‘Japan has a number of essential characteristics for promoting bridal fashion at the highest level,’ says Laruccia. ‘It is a country with a lot of economic power and the Japanese have great taste and an interest in the most prestigious fashion firms, style, top quality fabrics and high-end craftsmanship, all of which are the key values encapsulated by Barcelona Bridal Fashion Week and the brands that take part in it. Japan is the biggest bridal fashion market in Asia in terms of quality and design, and it is still the benchmark of trends for the entire continent,’ she concludes.
Furthermore, according to the results of the survey ‘Millennial Brides: born in the 80s, getting married today’, conducted by professor Nueno in April this year, demographic changes and new consumer habits point to the fact that in 2020 the countries with the biggest purchasing power of bridal products, apart from the US, will be Latin American ones such as Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Peru and Colombia. In this context, Mexico is the country with the biggest growth potential, with a rate of 3.6%, as a result of the number of weddings and the average expenditure per event. The study also points to Asia as a key market for the future of the sector, accounting for 50% (383 million) of the global population of Millennials of marrying age and 65% of the world’s weddings.
Barcelona Bridal Fashion Week, organised by Fira de Barcelona, is the leading event on the European calendar in its specialist area and hence the number one showcase for presenting the collections of the firms appearing on the catwalk and the more than 260 exhibitors – half of them international – who take part in the trade show. It is also the only European event to embrace both the communication and marketing side through the catwalk shows and a dedicated area for doing business at the trade show within a single platform. In the last three years, the show has grown by 13% in terms of brands and buyers, reaching 18,000 visitors in 2016 and 650 key buyers from 40 countries including the USA, Germany, UK, France and Italy, as well as 600 accredited journalists.
Barcelona, 19 December 2016
Photos of the last edition here
Photos of Estermaria Laruccia here
Video here
Mª Gloria Dilluvio
(+34) 609 73 47 70 – (+34) 93 233 21 72
gdilluvio@firabarcelona.com
Eva Martín – XXL
(+34) 93 452 65 00
eva@xxlcomunicacion.com
