“Maybe Miss Bush Bridal is attention seeking?”

How many ends does a stick have? Two? Apparently, according to the misreading of a blog post I wrote last week, the amount of ends that a stick can have is legion.

My blog post (link) was a reaction to the irritation I felt by UK wholesale bridal companies blaming counterfeiting  and online sales from the Far East for a down turn in their business.

My point was to suggest that so many brands fail to  invest in original design, listen to what brides want or look across new media. So busy are they flooding the market with samples that they don’t focus on developing talent, trends and ideas.  These wholesalers are pushing generic, far eastern made, factory-designed dresses with an English-sounding brand name. Yet the Brides Beware campaign claims to be concerned with the “fashion designers intellectual property.” If that is the case I suggest Eternity Bride, the wholesale company behind the Brides Beware initiative,   start employing some designers & lobby the government for investment in the UK textile industry.

My post was also met with the utterly wrong assumption that I didn’t know or care about counterfeiting.

Firstly, when someone buys a fake anything, from Uggs to a Rolex to a wedding dress they know it. The consumer is simply hoping for a good fake.

Secondly, I care deeply about the rip-off culture. Nothing saddens me more to see brilliant ideas from whatever field of endeavour copied, diluted – pirated.

What was interesting in the hypocritical, self serving, reactionary nonsense that spilled out onto social media after the post went viral is very telling.  Brides Beware’s Facebook page was ‘disappointed’ by my post. One of it’s ardent supporters is Jenna Whatmough

“I believe we’ve had a ‘run in’ with Miss Bush before.. Alexia Designs fully support Brides Beware & BBSA xx”  Jenna Whatmough  Link

I believe the ‘run-in’ that they have had with me concerned a comment I made about an Alexia Designs advert in Wedding Ideas. I was ‘disappointed’ that the magazine had an accepted an advert for them with a dress that has a striking resemblance to a Jenny Packham.

Below is Jenny Packham Aspen followed by Alexia Designs Style 377

Not a great amount of respect shown for Jenny Packham’s intellectual property from one of the Brides Beware & BBSA’s most ardent supporters.

Frankly the Facebook link was a gift. Between the Brides Beware page & the traffic from the shadowy Bridal Retail Forum the blog was well read. I have applied for membership of the BRF and as yet have not been accepted into what, I understand, is the biggest bitch-fest in bridal. I am happy to quote the famous Groucho Marx line  “I don’t care to belong to any club that will have people like me as a member” although the grounds of my refusal would be interesting to know.

So Sally Sellars, yes, I was attention seeking. There is no point to social media if you are not social – to quote Liene Stevens again – “social media (at it’s) best is a return to  old fashioned conversations.”  I will use social media to highlight double standards in the wholesale bridal industry one day & celebrate the wedding of a Miss Bush bride the the next.

My favourite quote of all is from Aron Padley “She obviously knows very little about the industry and is looking for a bit of attention!”

Emma x

Emma Meek, Managing Director, Miss Bush Bridalwear

Miss Bush Bridalwear is Surrey’s leading designer bridal boutique