Vancouver-based bridal brand Park + Fifth aims to create 'fit-friendly, flattering and re-wearable' dresses
Credit to Author: Aleesha Harris| Date: Mon, 12 Aug 2019 18:00:32 +0000
It’s a special moment when a friend or family member asks someone to be in their wedding. Standing alongside a loved one on such an important day is an honour.
But, it can come at a price.
As weddings become more elaborate and involved, so too do the costs of being a part of them. With bridal showers, gifts and more totalling an estimated $1,000 per bridesmaid for the average wedding, purchasing a dress can seem like an overwhelmingly daunting element of the ever-growing list of expected wedding accoutrements.
But, the team behind the Vancouver-based bridal wear brand Park + Fifth is looking to change that.
Zoe Tisshaw was operating a men’s bow-tie brand with her boyfriend, when she noticed the colourful options on offer for grooms were becoming a hit. After a stint at Kit + Ace led to an introduction to her now-business partner Brooke Johansen, Tisshaw decided it was high time to return to the wedding realm to shake things up a bit.
This time, though, she wanted to focus on women’s wedding wear.
“It’s way more fun,” Tisshaw says with a laugh about her decision to focus on dresses for bridesmaids. Tisshaw started Park & Fifth in June 2016, bringing Johansen and business partner Jenny Wright-Harper on-board soon after.
Park + Fifth founders, from left, Zoe Tisshaw, Brooke Johansen and Jenny Wright-Harper.
“I bought into the company because I saw its huge potential,” Johansen says. “And, it’s grown a lot since then.”
What started as a brand that was focused solely on affordable bridesmaids gowns, has since grown to include offerings for special-occasion outfits, rehearsal dinners and more.
“Bridesmaids was the bread-and-butter and is still the bread-and-butter,” Johansen explains of the business focus. “Mainly because the market lacks re-wearable bridesmaids dresses.”
“Fashion-forward, trendy options,” Tisshaw adds. “Something that you can literally hem and wear it again.”
Cheekily referred to as a collection of “Un-Bridesmaid” dresses, the range features stylish silhouettes in on-trend colours — each one made in Vancouver.
“Simple, fit-friendly, flattering and re-wearable,” Johansen stresses of the designs, which are designed in-house by the owners. “And the colours have to hit home, for sure, because you need the colour of the rainbow for weddings. Everyone cares about different colours.”
Most of all, though, the Park + Fifth designs offer comparatively affordable alternatives for bridesmaids dresses, with the full collection of pieces ranging from $200-$295.
“Our goal has been to create great dresses that people don’t want to burn after,” Tisshaw says with a laugh, recalling a story of a friend who spent hundreds of dollars and went to several fittings for a bridesmaid dress only to end up hating it in the end. “I feel like, at least every appointment we have, a bridesmaid turns to the bride and says, ‘I’m so excited that I can actually wear this again.’ ”
A model wears a bridal gown from Park + Fifth.
On the floor in their locations — which includes a flagship destination in Vancouver’s Railtown neighbourhood, as well as shops in Toronto and Calgary — the company carries an assortment of dress styles in various colours ranging in Sizes 00-16.
“And then, we have a specific made-to-order line with three different dresses that we will do in any colour for you that we have, and that goes for the size 16-22 range and maternity,” Johansen says. There’s a 60-day timeline for bridal parties from first try-on to dress delivery.
The company also offers Virtual Fittings that allow them to work with brides and bridal parties that aren’t able to make it to one of their bricks-and-mortar locations.
“During the high season, we do about 30 virtual appointments each weeks,” Tisshaw says of the online appointments that see them walk customers through the self-measurement process as well as show them colours and designs via FaceTime.
In addition to providing bridesmaids with more affordable dress options that give people the piece-of-mind knowing that they will want to wear the garment again after the wedding, the designers say they’re motivated by the idea of creating more sustainable pieces that won’t just end up in the trash.
“The sustainability element, we try to build into every aspect of our business, for sure, but the two biggest aspects are that you can re-wear your bridesmaid dress and that we collect every single piece of scraps. Nothing ends up in the landfill,” Johansen says.
Park + Fifth collects all the scrap fabric from the production of their dresses and uses them for filling in pillows that are then sold through their Pillow Project.
“When we ramped up production this year, we had to make hundreds and hundreds of pillows. So, we had a pillow-warehouse sale, which was awesome,” Tisshaw says of the initiative.
This summer, the Park & Fifth offering expanded to include a little something special for brides too.
“From the first year, we actually had one of our dresses that we did in a silk version with a train. Because people kept commenting on that certain dress that they wished we did that dress in a bridal version,” Tisshaw explains of the gradual expansion into a full bridal line. “Then, we had about three styles, and this year we’re adding four. And then, next year, we’re adding approximately 16.”
While the decision to introduce a designated wedding-dress collection undoubtedly grew from customer feedback, there was also a personal need for Tisshaw and Johansen. Faced with finding their own wedding gowns for their individual nuptials this year, they found themselves coming up empty-handed when searching for dresses that were both fashionable and fiscally responsible.
Finally deciding to create their own gowns in-house, they felt confident that other brides were facing the same problem.
“We’re both young professionals living and working in Vancouver, so going out and spending $2,000-$3,000 on a wedding dress wasn’t possible,” Tisshaw says. “In the bridal industry, there’s a lot of markup. The brand makes the markup and there are maybe one or two middlemen that makes a markup and then the boutique. With our direct-to-customer model, we want to be disrupting the market.
Working with manufacturers in Vancouver, as well as through their own atelier in the shop, they’re able to limit the markup on each gown — while still making enough of a profit to keep Park + Fifth growing.
“Our price points are going to be about $600-$1,300 for a bridal dress, retail,” Johansen says proudly of the price point.
“We don’t make having a wedding an excuse to mark them up 10 times,” Tisshaw adds.
The curated collection of new gowns includes sheath styles, form-fitting silhouettes and more dramatic-skirted dresses, each one crafted from either a weighted polyester Japanese crepe, silk chiffon or lace. Samples of the dresses are available to try on in-store in a range of sizes, and will be ready to wear within a 90-day period.
“The regular industry timelines is six to nine months, so we’re really cutting that down,” Johansen says. And, they say there’s a customizable option with the gowns, as well.
“What you see isn’t exactly what you get — unless you want to,” Johansen says of the mix-and-match possibilities. “You could do this skirt with that bodice and that lace. It’s just not custom, where you come in and give us a design. But it is custom in the combination of it within our designs.”
Vancouver boasts a growing number of bridal brands in addition to Park + Fifth. But, the team is confident each brand can find its own unique share of the Canadian bridal market.
“If the dress is the one, it’s the one. Ours is just a different offering at a different price point,” Tisshaw says of the collaborative community feeling.
“Shop all the places, and then make your best choice,” Johansen suggests with a smile.