WHY BUY BRITISH

Leading UK brand, Alan Hannah, with its portfolio of in-demand labels, is proud of its ability to deliver awardwinning collections to its retailers and their customers. Boss Alan Hannah talks us through the company’s ethos

Without question, the wedding dress carries so much more emotional expectation than any other garment a woman will ever wear. It is imbued with meaning, symbolism and the realisation of dreams.

As you all know so well, in our industry we don’t just take the money and hand over the goods. Most brides will visit your salon many times, from choosing their dream dress through to fittings and final delivery.

Over this time, a relationship of trust develops and part of this trust is knowing that you can deliver what your bride wants through confidence in your own designers or suppliers.

When buying British you know that the designer is fulfilling your order here in the UK, that they are actually in the building where the gowns are being produced and that they are in charge of the design and production process from start to finish, so that if there are any problems they can be rectified straight away.

Most UK designers who produce here are fairly small and you can feel that you are speaking to an individual artist rather than a department in a huge corporation. Even if a dress has to be returned for any reason, it’s straightforward and you don’t have to deal with re-exporting and long waiting times. We also share a cultural familiarity and speak the same language so communication is always easy and usually free from misunderstanding. This makes for a seamless process from your bride choosing her dress until the big day itself.

Your business can be stressful and at the same time very rewarding. We know that you, as retailers, are at the front line in dealing with emotional brides and their often very high expectations. If you can share this

with your designer and let them take some of the burden in helping to assuage worries and details about their dress, then it makes your life so much easier.

expectations. Perfect timing We are not immune from the Today’s brides tend to expect a demand for fast fashion, and having a short lead time for delivery and can’t British-made label gives you a huge understand why our industry takes advantage over competitors who so long to make their dress. Here at can’t offer this service. Alan Hannah, our gowns are often How many brides have you turned bespoke and made to a very high away because their wedding is in a level of technical month’s time? All expertise, but We are able to deliver you need to do is we are able to prioritise our dresses in a matter of give us a call while your bride is in the and adapt to weeks. In fact, we have salon and speak your bride’s customisations been known to deliver a to our designer Marguerite, to and deliver our dress within a week when find out whether dresses in a the time scale is matter of weeks. absolutely necessary possible along with In fact, we have any customisations. been known to deliver a dress within If the bride requires special sizing, a week when absolutely necessary. again we are just on the end of

This is impossible when ordering the phone and if we need to do a dresses from overseas and it gives toile (mock up bodice) to get the fit you such an advantage when trying absolutely right, you just need to fit to meet the moderns bride’s high this and pop it into the post and we will do the rest.

We are on first name terms with all our customers and we know that it makes their life much easier if we can deal with the sometimes exacting expectations of their brides.

Sometimes brides change their mind on details and we can incorporate these at short notice and adapt the design fairly close to the delivery date. You can really prioritise selling gowns and focus on your customer needs if you don’t have to deal with the hassles of importing and working through the barriers of language and bureaucracy.

Because every dress is produced here, delivery is easy and quick and also less expensive for you as the retailer, and at less risk of being held up in the delivery process because of customs bureaucracy and delays.

Taking responsibility

More and more people are looking at the ethical and ecological aspects of the supply chain in relation to their purchases and this definitely includes brides . Most suppliers would like to think that their production is responsible and often visit factories abroad to ensure that this is the case.

Most retailers, however, don’t get the chance to check this. If your designer makes their dresses here in the UK, you can be absolutely sure that the workforce is paid above the minimum wage and that working conditions are good.

How do you know this for a fact? First, it’s the law, and second, you can easily visit and see for yourself.

Most of our retailers have visited us. They are always welcome here, and can speak to their brides and tell them that their dress is made in a clean, modern factory and design studio where the people are paid properly and have a very comfortable working environment. Our clients not only know our designer, but have chatted to our production staff and seen them at work.

Important, too, is that spending your money with British designers keeps resources and investment in the UK and employs people here who pay tax, and that funds our own NHS and other infrastructures.

If you support British-made design you are also supporting British skills and expertise and this in turn enables us to train tomorrow’s designers and seamstresses. Keeping these precious skills in the UK is surely an amazing benefit of buying British.

More and more consumers are really interested in the ethics of the supply chain and the ultimate proof of this is seeing how your dresses are made with your own eyes. We are also in control of our own fabric supply and are gradually replacing all our fabrics with eco alternatives made from recycled and natural materials.

All this creates a wonderful story which incorporates British ingenuity and skills as well as taking ethical and environmental responsibility for our own product.

The provenance of our dresses is completely transparent and open to scrutiny. We are so proud to be part of a tradition which spans hundreds of years of knowledge and investment in people.

When you relate this to your bride she can own this story as part of the choice she has made when choosing the most important dress she will ever wear.