Bridal Times had the great opportunity to speak to Laue Festgarerobe’s Managing Director Henning Laue to find out what has made his family business so successful over the years and the decision to launch their very own collection.
Photo: Kirsten Juergensen, Henning Laue
After celebrating 48 years in businesses, what would you say has made your bridal shop so successful over the years?
I’ve personally only been with our family business “for 15 years”, but in general I believe that customer service and the incredible depth of our range are the main reasons for the success and longevity of our business. As a “one-stop shop” we can serve everyone in our 4500 square meter shop in Tellingstedt with the bride, groom and the entire party. The comprehensive range of sizes (bridal size 32-60, men 40-76/88-126/23-38, women size 28-60) and the consideration of all price ranges also help. In total, we have a range of around 40,000 articles in-house.
The credo of our founders Grete Laue and Kirsten Jürgensen was very personal and individual advice. We have committed ourselves to this to this day. Our tailoring department, which has more than 40 employees, is certainly a unique selling point that our customers appreciate very much.
Tell us what makes “Laue Festgarderobe” so unique and what future brides can expect from your bridal shop?
It is definitely the customer service and product range factors mentioned above that are among our strengths. We currently have around 2700 wedding dresses in a wide variety of styles and price ranges on site. I’m not aware of many stores with such a selection, a factor that should not be underestimated given the sometimes ongoing supply chain problems.
The many choices after the initial the search for a wedding dress are also taken advantage of, such as a selection over 10,000 evening and cocktail dresses for bridesmaids or the groom’s outfit.
Congratulations on the launch of the “Laue Collection” What has been the response so far?
Many thanks for the congratulations! We are very happy with the feedback so far and have already sold each of our six styles several times. The best feedback for me, however, are the pictures of happy brides in our dresses on the wedding day. Our Laue Collection has only been around for about 2 months and we received the first “Thank You” photos of a bride in one of our models arrived a few days ago. For me, this is the most beautiful form of resonance. Happy brides are what drives us.
Abby Gown
Tell us about the decision to launch the “Laue Collection” and the design team behind it.
The basic idea of a small own collection is about two years old, but was unfortunately delayed by Corona and the Ukraine war. We have a lot of customers and get a lot of direct feedback from brides. There are always some topics where even our comprehensive range is less well stocked than demand and we don’t have a supplier who adequately serves these topics.
One example is plus size maternity dresses. Some suppliers stop at certain plus sizes, and some have delivery times of 4-5 months. We really wanted to launch a maternity wedding dress that would go up some sizes can be delivered within 8 weeks. The result is our model Annabelle.
When creating the designs, we created the designs across departments with six people from sales, tailoring and management. It was very important for us to take into account the customer’s wishes, which were brought to us in direct discussions. We think that the Laue Collection will also contribute to increasing the public awareness of our house.
What is the inspiration behind the new collection?
In addition to the deep desire to implement our ideas and at the same time to incorporate customer feedback into the collection, the shortening of the supply chain was also an important argument for us with a collection “Made in Europe”.
In Corona times, we experienced how fragile the supply chains are due to the almost 100% dependency on China. Considering the situation in Taiwan, we think that there will still be threatening scenarios that endanger China’s ability to deliver. From our point of view, the majority of bridal brands hardly or not at all take this into account. We are of the opinion that we cannot always just babble about human rights, democracy and independence, but that we can also make a difference in this regard on our own initiative. We are therefore pleased to have found a great partner with whom we can produce our collection in Europe with great quality and moderate prices. A maximum of 8 weeks delivery time for repeat orders is the happy result of our efforts.
Annabelle Gown
Alba Jumpsuit
Alba Jumpsuit
What are some highlights or trends that have flowed into the Laue collection?
Our Laue Collection stands for puristic elegance and timeless style. The jumpsuits Alba and Ava as well as the bodysuit Ashley, for example, can be wonderfully combined and worn after the wedding day. So if I have to name trend buzzwords that can be found in our collection, purism, mix & match, reuse, cut outs, leg slits and flowing fabrics come to mind.
Ashley Jumpsuit
Ashley Body
Ava Jumpsuit
Would you say that after interacting with brides on a daily basis, it was easier for your team to assess what styles brides want and love?
I do think that our day-to-day market research through direct customer contact is an advantage. Commercially, this practical relevance is certainly good for a collection. You just have to assess whether it is the wish of a single bride or whether a specific wish is expressed repeatedly. In general, direct contact is definitely an advantage, but it only really becomes worth mentioning with the short-term production processes. Based on the feedback we received in November, we designed two more models. We received and approved the samples in January and at the end of February these models will be available in our shop. This quick implementation is of course fun!
After hitting so many milestones, what’s next for Laue Festgarrobe?
Good question: That is not easy to answer. First of all, after the ups and downs and challenges of the past 3 years, we hope for stabilization and better planning in the wedding industry. That is certainly what all brides wish for. As far as our collection is concerned, we want to gradually expand it and gain more experience.
An important milestone is certainly more sustainability. We currently get 70% of our energy from our own solar power, and we want to expand this to 100% in the next two years.
We would like to thank Henning Laue from Laue Festgarderobe for this interview.
For more information in the German language, visit Laue Festgarderobe