Dennis Buji-Pucheu, founder and owner of the Persian bride, stated that tariffs on imports from China are damaging American businesses, including bride shops and wedding dress designers. Some brands made by him have added tariff surcharge.
Courtesy of Personic bride; Photograph by Stella Blue Photography
After the president Donald Trump Announced a tariff standing on imports from China, Dennis Buji-Puchu sat on the couch in his bride boutique and fired the shop iPhone.
Later in a video posted on Instagram, the founder of Persnessey Bride in Newtown, Con, directly talks to bride and future customers and described how 145% tariffs on sugar imports will prevent the bride’s business, especially the bride’s business.
Almost all bridal gowns are made in China or other parts of Asia – and so they use many fabrics, buttons, zippers and other materials. It is difficult to find skilled seamstresses and often come from manufacturing in older generations and other countries in the US, where labor usually is low, has kept the prices of high quality bridal gowns within access to many American families.
“This kind of work is not just anything you can pick up and bring to the United States,” he said in the video. “We do not have those technicians here to do so.”
Tariffs on Chinese imports have hit a wide range of consumer goods, including T-shirts, courtyards furniture, baby walking and toys. Nevertheless, bridal gowns and special opportunity apparel trading suggest that duties of damage may be caused by small businesses underlying in the global supply chain.
Most of its sales come from independent shops across the country that carry bridal gowns, tuxedos, prom clothes and more. They fulfill customers with firm deadline, tight budget and high expectations, often placed custom orders before making or sending an item.
At the top of those mobility, the industry is particularly unsafe for tariffs. According to the National Bridal Retailers Association, 90% of the estimated 90% of wedding dresses have been created in China – although the increasing number of brands has shifted manufacturing to other parts of Asia such as Myanmar and Vietnam. Industry Group represents about 6,000 wedding and special opportunity shops across the US
David’s bride has dropped her production from China due to tariff. By July, it aims to prepare all its clothes in other countries including Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.
David’s bride
Particularly the pain will feel that the industry has carried it forward – as other people are in contact with tariffs – to push to carving from duties. In the last two weeks, NBRA is Started a letter writing campaign To allow American senators and representatives to exempt from MPs and White House. The industry already pays a tariff that began with a different duty during the Trump administration.
A spokesperson of the White House did not immediately respond to the request of the comment as to whether Trump would consider exemption.
Some big names in bridal gowns Started an online petitionStephen Lang, Tanton founder and CEO, including NJ-based brand mon cherry.
Lang said that he had lost sleep on the tariff. They are concerned that they will put the 120-employees launched in 1991-and many shops that carry their clothes-out of business.
Many of them were already struggling to cover expenses such as rent and employee wages, he said. And the business model of the boutique has felt squeezed because some customers use them as “try-on shops”, only to buy a similar, cheap alternative online.
If shops and dress brands close their doors for good, they said that not only business – but also special occasions and rituals to find clothes for family milestones will be lost.
He said, “If it does not change then our industry is going to erase.”
If the tariffs continue at the same level, the mother-and-pap shops owned by Sandra Gonzalez will have to make a difficult option. NBRA Vice President Gonzalez said that she keeps clothes in her Sacramento, California. The shop costs 5% to 25% more due to tariffs.
She is closed to increase prices, but she said that she is not sure how long she can wait.
“This is based on a week-by-week,” Gonzalaz said.
Sticker shock for bride
For many brides, wedding dresses already cause stickers shock.
A bride in the US spent an average of $ 2,100 on a wedding dress, 2025 by Real Wedding Study The Not, a global company that sells wedding -related services and is a directory of wedding vendors.
And this is not the only expense on the list. Overall, a market research company for the industry, according to the wedding report, was an average cost per marriage to $ 31,428. Some estimates go even more: The knot average costs $ 33,000, while David’s bride estimates that this average is $ 37,500.
Financial crunch brides have already faced that for bride shops and designers, their shopkeepers have made it more important to find ways to manage high costs from tariffs without losing their shopkeepers in cheap online options.
Shopkeepers leave David’s bride shop near Harrisburg. David Bridal LLC announced on Monday, 17 April, 2023.
Paul Weaver | Lightrocket | Getty images
David’s bride, which has around 200 stores across the country, has fulfilled efforts to take all her manufacturing out of China. Pennsylvania -based wedding company, which has gone through bankrupt twice and is Between the efforts to modernize your businessSells wedding dresses which range from $ 99 to about $ 6,000.
By the end of last year, about 48% of the company’s goods in China were built in China. By the end of this year, the company aims to produce almost all in other countries including Myanmar, Vietnam and Sri Lanka in China and other countries, CEO Kelly Cook said. The imports of those countries face much less tariffs than China – at least for now – after Trump Announced 90-day stagnation In early April at high tariffs for some countries.
Cook said that the company has also worked to get 300,000 clothes in the US before the tariff begins and searched for ways to cut the entire business, such as using new artificial intelligence devices, so it does not need to increase prices.
“Our last resort, absolutely last resort, a customer has to pass the growth due to a tariff,” he said.
Overload and slow production
As soon as they face an increase in cost, major bride brands have begun to add tariff surcharge, a percentage-based additional costs that are usually shared by bridal boutiques and customers.
For example, Som Cherry has dealt with 39% tariff surcharge for shops. Lang said other steps have also been taken to manage the costs, in which its production is to be cut in about half after the tariff starts. This is only a shipping order that he needs, such as custom fabric for specific wedding dates.
The company imports about 90% of all goods and about 80% of bridal items from China. It sells wedding dresses ranging from $ 500 to $ 20,000 which is done by special shops across the country.
For the bride, the new surcharge for the shops translates to an increase in about 15% retail price, Lang said. For example, the average price for the company’s bride’s fabric is $ 2,200, so it will add $ 300 to the price paid by a customer.
Another New Jersey-based bridal brand, Justin Alexander has also added tariff surcharge to his clothes, Justin Warshu said, its creative director and CEO. For brides, he said, those surcharge has translated about 6% retail price increase. For example, he said, a $ 2,000 dress will now cost a customer $ 120 more.
Nevertheless, he said that the company decided to absorb cost differences for clothes that the brides ordered before the tariff started, a decision that could erase its profits.
“We understand that a bride said yes to the dress at a cost,” he said.
Warshaw said that the company has about half of the production in China, followed by 45% in Vietnam and 5% in Myanmar. Its clothes are at a price ranging from $ 1,500 to $ 12,000.
But some designers, wedding dress shops and companies said their plans could change when the tariff level falls. For example, David’s bride said that if there is a decrease in duties, there may be 25% production in China. Gonzalaz of NBRA stated that some boutiques are telling the bride or contracts include that they will reduce the part of the tariff surcharge if the policy changes and the decline in import costs, Gonjalaj of NBRA said.
The company’s CFO Steven Jacobs said that Anne Barge, a bridal dress brand in Atlanta, is wrapping her business in China and exiting the country.
If the company had stopped at the high tariff level in China, it would have been shot at retail prices, he said. For example, Anne Barge’s Norfolk Dress – which would have currently increased by $ 3,730 to about $ 6,150.
Jacobs and his wife, Creative Director and CEO Shavene Jacobs bought a high-end bridal brand in 2014. Subsequently, all the clothes of the company were made in China, which were a special task force to make wedding dresses for a long time.
Nevertheless, the husband and wife’s team has seen the complexities for the first time-and one of the tariffs of the manufacturing-tramp administration in the US.
Inspired by the shock of the Kovid-related supply chain, Shaveen and Steven Jacobs opened a manufacturing facility for their luxury bridal line near the company’s Atlanta headquarters. The wedding dress line is between $ 4,000 and $ 14,000.
“It worked because of our value points,” said Shawan Jacobs. “But we are talking about luxury goods.”
Shaven Jacobs said that it has taken about two years to recruit other workers on the scale and other workers to make wide clothes to 35-individual facilities. There are many skilled sewer immigrants of the company, he said, a pool of talent is now threatened by Trump’s strict immigration policies.
And he said that Asia is still important for production: Anne Barge is built in all low -priced bridal line, Blue Willow, Vietnam. He said that it would not be possible to create those dresses and maintain them under marks of $ 3,000 in the US.
