Weddings are here to stay according to Jill Layfield, the chief executive of apparel manufacturer Birdy Grey, which reached $100 million in revenue last year and is adding new product lines.

The downtown company – which specializes in bridesmaid dresses – has a tiny, impressive and growing slice of a market that shows a lot of resilience, Layfield said.

“There is a lot of commerce that happens around weddings,” she added.

Layfield joined the dressmaker in late January after a career spent at other direct-to-consumer companies. Most recently she was chief executive of James Michelle, a Bend, Oregon-based jewelry manufacturer. Before that she was a co-founder and chief executive of Beverly Hills luxury shoe brand Tamara Mellon and was chief executive of outdoor gear and apparel retailer Backcountry.com. During her 11-year career at Backcountry, Layfield saw the business grow from $30 million in revenue to $500 million.

She also serves on the boards of The Orvis Co., an outdoor ecommerce company in Vermont, and of LivePerson Inc., an information technology company in New York City.

She said ecommerce is important to the success of all the brands she has worked with.

And it fits with Birdy Grey’s model. The company is a digitally native business and while ecommerce has evolved over the past 20 years, there is still a lot about it that has stayed the same, Layfield said.

“I think a lot about removing the friction in the buying experience and make it as seamless as possible for the user,” she added.

There is also a commitment to really understanding what your brand is and how it is different from the competition and delivering that brand experience to all the customer touchpoints, Layfield continued.

She said that culture of a company is important as well. She has been fortunate to have worked for brands that have a deep alignment between how the culture is internally a reflection of the brand and how that brand reflects the way a company operates, she said.

“If you have a deep alignment between brand strategy and culture, you deliver a better consumer brand,” Layfield said. “And that is already here, and it is a reason I was drawn to Birdy Grey.”

Taking the job

When asked why she decided to take the chief executive role at Birdy Grey, Layfield, 50, outlined three reasons.

The first was that she was impressed by the company that founder Grace Lee Chen and her business partner Monica Ashauer had built, which she said was fiscally responsible.

“And when you have that foundation and that discipline it gives a great platform from which to grow,” Layfield added.

Second, she found the wedding market to be very interesting.

“There are certainly similarities to other brands that I have run,” Layfield said. “At its core we are selling something online. But the dynamic and the nature of the market in the way it works is unique.”

And then last, and most important, was the culture at Birdy Grey, which she described as high performing and populated by very smart and hard-working people who work well together.

“At this point in my career, I want a high performing culture but one that is underpinned by collaboration and kindness,” Layfield said.

Growth at Birdy Grey

Birdy Grey reached $100 million in revenue last year, a milestone number for such a young company. Birdy Grey has had double digit growth every year since it started in 2017, Chen said.

Chen, 43, used to be the chief executive and is now chief creative officer and executive chair of the board, along with Ashauer, who is based in New York and serves also as chief strategy officer and president of the company.

Chen attributes the company’s growth to a great product with an assortment of bridesmaid dresses in different colors, styles and patterns. When the company started nearly eight years ago, it had a very limited number of dresses in only a handful of colors, Chen said, adding that year after year it expanded and captured new customers.

“We have a delightful brand that sets us apart from a lot of our competitors and that contributes to the growth,” Chen said.

Catering to the millennial and Gen-Z populations, Birdy Grey has a strong social media presence with a lot of loyal followers on Instagram and TikTok, she added.

Also contributing to the growth is customers coming to the company for ideas outside of the wedding, like bachelorette party suggestions, Chen said.

Expanding into suits, tuxedos

Starting this month Birdy Grey will begin to offer suits and tuxedos for the groomsmen in a wedding party.

Those clothing items will be offered in two cuts and in colors coordinated with the dresses.

“The idea is for a bride to come find her perfect bridesmaid dresses and then find coordinating groomsmen suits to match,” Chen said.

“We want to make it easy for her to find her bridal party outfits under one roof,” Chen added

The opening price point on the suits and tuxes is $199, or about the same as it costs to rent, Layfield said.

“For anyone in a wedding or for a bride and groom thinking about their bridal party being able to say let’s go to Birdy Grey to get your suit and you can keep it and wear it to other events, it is another acknowledgement to quality and value,” Layfield added.

Layfield said that she and Chen expect men’s clothing to be about 10% of its sales volume for this year.

“That is a starting point, and we think it can be as big as our bridesmaid dress business is today,” Layfield added.

Other new categories

Bridesmaid dresses is the core product at Birdy Grey but it also offers little white dresses, shoes, jewelry and has a pajamas and robe business, Chen said.

“Our goal is to become the number one destination for all wedding apparel needs, so I would love to do wedding gowns,” she added. “We are way far off from there. But that is my goal.”

The events surrounding a wedding give the company a lot of opportunities, Layfield said.

“There is a lot of untapped category opportunity since the lion’s share of the business is in bridesmaid dresses,” Layfield added.

“There is so much more that can be done in that category, with new fabrics and styles and trends,” Chen interjected.

There is also a future for the company in an offline world, knowing that its brides and the bridal party want to touch and feel the product in an offline context, Layfield continued.

“The future holds some sort of offline strategy,” she said.

The team at Birdy Grey will also continue innovating within its categories.

“I also think there is opportunity to continue to innovate on behalf of our brides and celebrate those friendships that are the core of the bridal party experience,” Layfield said.

Part of a larger industry

According to a Verified Market Reports study released last month, the global bridesmaid dresses market size was valued at $4.5 billion in 2022 and is projected to reach $6.7 billion by 2030, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 6.5% from 2024 to 2030.

The study noted in its executive summary that there has been a shift towards personalization and customization in the bridesmaid dress market.

“Many brides are opting for dresses that reflect not only their personal style but also the individuality of their bridal party,” the report said.

This trend is evident in the increased popularity of mixed-and-matched dresses, where a bridesmaid can choose a style they like and that suits their body type, it added.

“As a result, retailers are diversifying their collections to include a wider range of colors, fabrics and silhouettes, catering to various tastes and body types,” the study said.

That would include Birdy Grey – many brides these days are into variability in the selection of the bridesmaid dresses, Layfield said.

“For me that is very exciting,” she added. “It takes what used to be a very boring purchase process and elevates it in a way that I think is fun and fashion forward for the bridal party.”

Women are sized differently, and they do not all look good in the same dress, she continued.

Chen designs Birdy Grey dresses intentionally for the female body and for the variability within those body types, Layfield said, adding, “We are very confident that a bride who chooses Birdy Grey, her bridesmaids are going to find something that they look beautiful in.”