The Dubai Bridal Show has been running now for 11 years and is the largest Bridal Show in the Middle East. This year, it took place between 8 and 11 April, at the Dubai International Exhibition Centre. But what type of dresses were featured at the event?
With a number of designers exhibiting from all over the world, including some renowned Italian designers, the quality of dresses was always going to be extremely high. But I think the award for the most spectacular has to go to designer Ahmed Al Reyaysa, who is from the UAE and is known as the “King of Wedding Dresses”
He used the show to unveil his 1,000,000 dirham bridal gown- that’s about £183,000 or $272,000!
The gown is made from the finest French and Italian materials , featuring 500,000 Swarovski crystals. The bodice is crystal mesh with a dante and tulle skirt and train and takes 10 weeks to create.
The picture shows the designer with a prototype of his dress. Despite the lofty price tag four orders for the gown were taken at the show!
Ecru Haute Couture also showed off a Swarovski crystal dress, using 200,000 crystal (but who wants 200,000 when you can have 500,000!) their gown was a more traditional Middle Eastern design, created from five different materials and is priced at slightly more reasonable 150,000 dirham, about £27,000 or $40,000 (I will have two!!) one customised version of the dress was purchased during the event.
The Bridal Show also featured the Crystallized Young Designer Award, in which entrants were provided with Swarovski Elements to use in their design, this year with a “Gypsy Rose” theme. There were two categories, one for fashion school students and one for amateur designers. Amateur designer Jihae Yun winning her category and Bashra Khatib the winner of the student category.
Italian designer, Ines di Santo was one of the dress designers new to the exhibition and her daughter Veronica said that the show “is a good entry way into the Middle East market” and that people were “interested in their dresses.” Which is not surprising looking at their collection, my favourite four are pictured below.
At Wedding Fashion Files we are looking forward to seeing what will be at next years show but it is hard to image what can top the 1,000,000 dirham gown!
