Traditional wedding dresses are seen at Dingji Town, in Lu'an City, east China's Anhui Province, Jan. 14, 2025. (Xinhua/Wang Haiyue)
HEFEI, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- For Su Lin, a bride-to-be from east China's Anhui Province, finding the perfect wedding dress is one of her key aspirations for her wedding ceremony in October this year.
She has visited multiple bridal stores in the city of Hefei, the capital of Anhui. Earlier this month, she traveled with her family for over an hour to Dingji Town in Lu'an, another city in the province, to choose a wedding dress.
"Deciding on the dress is a crucial step in my wedding preparations. I heard that Dingji is the source of the dress, which has a wide variety and significantly lower prices, so I traveled there," said Su, 28.
After visiting several stores, she spent nearly 4,000 yuan (about 558 U.S. dollars) on a wedding dress and two other pieces of clothing, which was cheaper than renting similar attire from urban bridal stores.
Dingji is situated in a mountainous area and is home to over 500 businesses that together produce and deliver nearly 5 million wedding gowns each year, generating an annual output value of 2.4 billion yuan. With a registered population of over 50,000, more than 15,000 of them are engaged in the wedding dress industry, according to statistics provided by the local government.
The predominant local industry was once farming. In the 1990s, locals began migrating to prosperous regions for better-paid jobs. Huqiu, a major wedding dress manufacturing base in Suzhou, east China's Jiangsu Province -- over 400 kilometers from Dingji -- was a popular destination for work.
But years later, these migrant workers began returning to their hometown to start businesses, attracted by potential opportunities and favorable government policies.
Xu Changying, now 70, was one such returnee. He moved to Suzhou in 1992 and returned to Dingji some 18 years later, transforming an abandoned brick factory into a three-story manufacturing facility and hiring over 100 workers.
"When I first returned, we had to rely on buses traveling back and forth to Suzhou to bring in materials for wedding dresses, and to transport the dresses from the town once they were completed," said Xu, who noted that he hadn't expected the town would one day become one of China's largest wedding dress manufacturing bases.
To develop its wedding gown industry, the town has been improving its infrastructure to cater to the needs of companies for more than 10 years. Express delivery enterprises and shops selling wedding accessories have also settled in the town, forming a complete industrial chain covering everything from production of materials to manufacturing and sales.
Over 15,000 wedding dress packages are now shipped daily from Dingji to locations across the country and around the world. This popularity can be attributed in part to the technological transformation that has taken place in the town.
Unlike fast fashion, wedding dresses require intricate craftsmanship and necessitate numerous manual labor processes. To improve efficiency, many companies have purchased smart equipment such as automated cutting machines for their factories to reduce or replace manual labor.
Beyond technological upgrades, the town has also stepped up its wedding dress design capabilities, brand building and sales channel expansion.
Xu Xiaolong, who heads the Lu'an Zhongyuan Wedding Dress Co., Ltd. factory, said that the company established its own design team early on, launching three to four new designs each day. Sample dresses are first sold in urban stores, and mass production decisions are then made based on market feedback.
"The wedding dress market is changing rapidly, and consumers are increasingly aware of quality and design," Xu Xiaolong said, adding that the company has also opened more than 10 online stores on e-commerce platforms, shipping nearly 2,000 packages a day during peak seasons.
Over the years, Dingji has expanded its product categories based on market demand, with new additions including children's formal attire. And the clothes made in the town are gaining popularity all over the world.
"Since Christmas, we have ushered in the peak clothes manufacturing season for our customers abroad, and we will be busy until June," said Xu Bingchao, general manager of Lu'an Omais Garments Co., Ltd., one of over 30 wedding dress manufacturing companies engaged in foreign trade in Dingji.
These foreign trade enterprises generate an annual output value of nearly 600 million yuan, with products sold to countries and regions including the United States and Spain.
Building on its established fame, the local government of Dingji has supported the creation of a wedding dress town that integrates production, marketing, photography and runway shows in a planned area of about 3.15 square kilometers, according to the town head Chen Fei.
"We will attract more leading companies to settle in Dingji, expand the wedding dress industrial chain and continue bolstering technological transformation, among other efforts, to help the town's wedding dresses reach more people worldwide," Chen said. ■
Xu Xiaolong works at a wedding dress factory in Lu'an City, east China's Anhui Province, Jan. 14, 2025. (Xinhua/Zhao Jinzheng)
