The Story Of A Wedding Dress – Behind The Scenes With Jesus Peiro

jesus peiro wedding dress

If you’ve been following Love My Dress for a little while, you’ll possibly know all about my love for Jesus Peiro and their absolutely gorgeous, luxurious, stylish and yet affordable bridal gowns.

This Spanish label is a firm favourite with our readers and countless luxury bridal boutiques throughout the UK – and with very good reason. The designs are impeccable, the dresses themselves are exquisitely made and, according to all these brides, they’re a joy to wear too.

Conveying just how much I love and respect this brand is important to me and to the philosophy of Love My Dress. I will never short-change our wider community of brides by promoting brands I’m not 100% invested in and love and adore. That’s not why I’m in this. I want to highlight the craftsmanship as well as the beautiful end-product. I want to showcase the talented team who work hard behind the scenes to bring you the kind of beautiful dresses you see in this article. The unsung heroes whose creative passions make it possible for you to look and feel incredible on your wedding day.

Jesus Peiro celebrate 30 years in the business of making wedding dresses this year and in homage to this special birthday, I wanted to dive a little deeper into the magic of this brand and introduce you to some people and tell you a few things about how your wedding dress is made, from scratch. I spent some time very recently, chatting with Marion Mathews, the UK agent for Jesus Peiro.

It was fascinating listening to her talk with such enthusiasm about Jesus Peiro and their process creating wedding dresses. If you already have your wedding dress, please allow me to ask you, do you know how and where your own wedding dress was made?

https://vimeo.com/304482274

Can you guarantee your dress was made with love by skilled designers, pattern cutters and seamstresses? Can you be sure the production was not outsourced to a sweatshop? Can you rest assured the money you paid for said gown is a fair and honest transaction that represents superior quality craftsmanship and highly skilled production?

The answers to these questions may prove difficult for some, but the provenance of expensive garments like this really ought be on the mind of everyone in the position of being able to purchase such a dress. Fast fashion and cheap imports have no place in the wedding industry, in my most humble of views.

30 Jesus Peiro wedding dress design

The way that Jesus Peiro approaches the design of every one of their gowns is the antithesis to fashion fashion. There’s no churning out gowns in high volume in this fashion house. Instead, each and every gown is cut, sewed and constructed with painstaking perfection.

Every dress starts, as you can imagine, with the design. The design team at Jesus Peiro is headed up by the super talented Merché Segarra, who’s been at the helm of the department for 15 years. Merché is an award-winning designer and her influence permeates right through Jesus Peiro…

“Merché’s office is a joy to behold,” says Marion. “It is an inspirational space, filled with mood boards, fabric swatches and with sketches of works in progress adorning the walls.”

Jesus Peiro wedding dress 978

Jesus Peiro design 978

“She is meticulous and highly organised and she works closely with our stockists and the commercial department to deliver a mixture of innovative and classic pieces each season. Merché is assisted by a wonderful and talented team. Her first assistant is Jairo Rodriguez from Galicia who is a talented designer in his own right and brings his own flair to the collection. Alberto Fernandez is the second assistant, he started working with the company last year and has been a fantastic addition to the team.”

So how are collections produced? Well, each year, the design team produce an 80-strong collection and the overall theme and inspiration of the collection changes each year.

Jesus Peiro wedding dress 942b

Jesus Peiro design 942

“The team generally go on an overseas trip to buy fabric, for example this year it was Paris. This gives them a chance to step away from the day to day activities in the company headquarters to really focus on the overall theme of the collection and to be inspired.”

“Once the fabrics have been selected various sub-sections are introduced, for example a certain amount of dresses in plain fabrics, a certain amount of full skirts, a certain amount of a lace or unusual fabrics etc.”

Jesus Peiro wedding dress 924

Jesus Peiro design 924

“Once the fabrics have been chosen the design process proper begins. Generally after the idea for a dress is decided on Merché sketches it and the production team mock up an initial sample. At this stage the design is often modified before the final sample is made.”

“A model comes to the company near the end of the process so the team can check how it fits on a real body and make any further modifications if necessary.”

28 Jesus Peiro wedding dress design

Bridal gown detail being hand stitched

Quite rightly, Jesus Peiro are very proud of their manufacturing process. Each gown is individually cut and handmade and the process takes place entirely in Spain. They are the only Spanish bridal company who’ve achieved the prestigious ‘Made in Spain’ accreditation mark and this is down to their fabulous production.

“We always hand cut each brides dress individually. This is different to most other bridal companies who tend to cut all the dresses for a certain style together. It is one of the reasons we are able to offer design and size modifications at a low price.”

Once the dress has been cut it goes to the relevant seamstress who sews it and then it proceeds to the quality control department who check it on a mannequin for any flaws or marks.”

https://vimeo.com/304477182

“Once it has passed quality control, it goes to the packaging department. Our customers tell us that our packaging is the most beautiful in the industry and it is something we take great pride in. Each brides dress is packed with a suit carrier, branded tissue and ribbon in a Jesus Peiro branded box before it is shipped via FEDEX to our stockist.”

Once a year, the bridal industry brings Barcelona to a standstill and Barcelona Bridal Fashion Week is THE place for designers to launch collections and showcase their latest designs to boutiques, bloggers and bridal industry influencers and, as you might expect, Jesus Peiro is one of the hottest tickets of the week.

“The full collection is unveiled at a spectacular catwalk show that takes place during Barcelona Bridal Fashion Week in April.”

14 Jesus Peiro wedding dress design

Post-catwalk photograph after the launch of the 2019 bridal collection earlier this year

“This event brings together the world’s bridal press and buyers and is one of the most important events in bridal fashion. The day after the launch event we start our buyers convention in a hotel in Barcelona. We invite all our stockists from all over the world to come and view the collection up close.”

“It is a chance for us to cement the important relationships we have with our stockists as well as show them the fruits of a year’s work in the form of the new season collection. Personally I love that time of year, it’s exciting to see the new dresses and so lovely to get to hang out with all the UK stores in a city as beautiful as Barcelona.”

From here, the boutiques eagerly await the arrival of their new gowns – some styles are delivered in July whilst more will come through in September and even into October. Orders for brides always take priority in production but this means that your local stockists is likely to be receiving new designs through summer and into autumn.

I’ve always thought that choosing which gowns to stock must be an incredibly difficult task for boutique owners. You’re balancing so many things and trying to satisfy your own brand whilst giving your brides a wonderful selection of gowns to choose from, across a range of styles and price points.

“It’s a tough one for sure! It’s very interesting to watch the different techniques boutiques employ to choose. Some are very analytical and look at their sales of the previous year and know exactly what shapes sold well. Others go with their gut and buy what they love whilst some know what gaps they have in their boutique and are looking for specific things.”

“Others tend to be democratic and listen to the opinions of all the sales staff that have come along.”

Jesus Peiro wedding dress 944b

Jesus Peiro design 944

Obviously, the boutiques that stock Jesus Peiro are integral in the success of the brand. These boutiques are trained to understand how the dresses are made and, importantly, how to measure brides to get a great fit. If you’ve ever wondered what happens when you order your dress, here’s the answer:

“After taking a brides measurements the bridal consultant must decide if the bride can order a standard size or should go for a made to measure gown. Once the bride has confirmed the order the shop send it to Barcelona by email along with the brides measurements and any special requests in terms of design changes.”

https://vimeo.com/304478598

“Then the order is passed along to the production team. An individual label is created with the brides name on it. This travels with the order throughout the production process and is sewn inside the dress as the garment label at the end. I think it is a nice touch to know that the dress was handmade for you and to have your name printed on the label.”

So, what’s next for Jesus Peiro? Well, the first gowns from the 2020 collection are just about to be shown to the bridal industry in Barcelona and then, these gowns will be on their way to you…

“These dresses will be the first 20 dresses from the 2020 collection and will be in a small number of UK stores in January. Then the full collection will be launched in April as part of Barcelona Bridal Fashion Week and will be arriving with stores from July onwards.”

“It might sound strange that it isn’t even 2019 and we are starting to show the 2020 collection but we envisage these dresses will be worn by brides getting married in 2020, most of whom will order their dress in 2019.”

And there we have it, the story of a dress from start to finish. Except, that’s not the end, it’s nowhere near the end – the story of the dress is only complete when it’s worn on a wedding day by someone who’s fallen in love with it. And there’s so much to love with Jesus Peiro.

To find out more about the latest collection from Jesus Peiro and to find your nearest stockists, do visit the label’s website. A list of UK stockists can be found on this page.

Love Annabel x

Annabel

Annabel View all Annabel's articles

Founder of Love My Dress. Passionate Podcaster and Editor. Annabel lives in rural North Yorkshire with her husband and business partner Philip, their two daughters and menagerie of furry hounds. She loves photography, meditation, walking, being outdoors and star gazing. She is fierce when it comes to championing talent within the wedding industry and when she's not working on Love My Dress, she supports her husband Philip in the running of the family's sustainable flower farm and floral design business, Moonwind Flowers. In 2013, she became a published author.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Close
Top