Bridal gown design firm finds its home

Overland Park, Kansas: International city of fashion.

This, it turns out, is not exaggeration — if the discussion is about bridal gowns.

Overland Park can legitimately claim that title because it is the center of northern hemisphere operations for Essense Designs, a bridal and bridesmaid dress design company that was founded in Perth, Australia.

Gown collections from the designer have won awards as the favorites of bridal shop owners who sell them. This year, the company won top honors in three categories of the Distinctive Excellence in the Bridal Industry awards. Martine Harris, who co-founded the company with her husband, Wayne, said no other designer has won those three awards in the same year.

Harris splits her time between the family’s Leawood home and their permanent residence in Zug, Switzerland.

Q. How did a fashion designer that started in Perth end up in Overland Park?

The Harrises, both from Australia, founded Essense Designs about 18 years ago in Perth and started out selling their labels throughout Australia and England. Five years later, they decided to expand into the U.S. market and chose Long Beach, Calif., as their first location, she said.

They visited the Kansas City area to meet with clients and Harris said she found herself gravitating toward the Midwest. “I came to love the Midwestern people,” she said. “I found it was very similar to the way we think as Australians.”

Midwesterners were more aligned with the company’s core values, which included mutual respect and good relationships between the customers, suppliers and staff, she said. “It became a running joke, ‘Why don’t we move the office to Kansas City?’” she said. The Overland Park office opened about 10 years ago. “Honestly it’s been the best thing we’ve ever done.”

The area has business advantages as well, she said, because it’s centrally located and in a good time zone.

Q. What kind of training did you have to get into this business?

Martine Harris studied fashion and business in college and Wayne had a business background. Although she didn’t specialize in bridal wear, she said she took to it as she got to know the environment at the shops. “Bridal is such a special space of the fashion industry. There’s so much caught up in that moment,” she said. “It’s such a joyous occasion.”

Q. Describe how your business is set up

Harris and four designers based in the U.S. and Australia draw up the designs, which are manufactured in China. The company has three brands of wedding dresses and one brand of bridesmaid dresses, which are sold in over 1,200 stores around the world, including 800 in the United States.

The company also has one proprietary store, Belle Vogue Bridal, in Overland Park, that is a testing and training environment for staff. The designs are not offered for sale online.

Q. How hard is it to keep ahead of changes in fashion?

Keeping up with changing tastes is a challenge for anyone in the fashion industry, and Harris and her team are always watching the red carpets and checking out what future brides are attracted to. That said, bridal designers get a small break because wedding fashion tends not to change as quickly as other categories.

Bridal designers typically offer new collections twice a year, compared with around eight times for other areas of the industry, she said. And some bridal styles are so classic they can sell for five or six years, she said.

Q. What are your biggest challenges?

Globalization and online selling are top challenges for Essense, she said. “Girls still want to go in with their families and have that say-yes-to-the-dress experience,” she said. But having dresses and staff in a store cost money for retailers. “If she goes and buys the dress online then that becomes a real problem for our brick-and-mortar stores,” Harris said.

At the same time, some Chinese factories have also tried to sell directly to customers, sometimes with knockoffs and counterfeits, she said. “It’s really important for us as a brand that we support our brick-and-mortar stores and make our brand important enough to the bride so she can only find it in these stores,” Harris said.

The company also works to educate consumers about the differences they can expect between Essense brands and knockoffs, she said.

Q. What’s on the horizon for your company?

Essense has been selling in Europe for about 18 months and will continue to expand in that market, Harris said.

“Design is paramount. We will continue to have fantastic design,” she said. “We have to continue to be a leader in the market and continue to partner with our retailers so we can both be really strong,” in the face of globalization and internet selling.

This story was originally published November 8, 2016 at 11:28 AM with the headline "Bridal gown design firm finds its home."