£12k ‘handmade’ bridal gowns that were just cheap Chinese imports
THEY had been promised bespoke wedding dresses, crafted by hand for their big day.
But brides-to-be quickly found their gowns were in fact from a Far East factory – thanks to labels declaring that they had been ‘made in China’.
Thirteen brides who realised they had been conned out of almost £12,000 between them launched a campaign to get their money back from boutique owner Melanie Bishop, 36, and her 60year-old mother Patricia.
But the Bishops, who had advertised bridal dresses as handmade in their workshop, quickly shut Anna Sara Bridal in Newport, South Wales – leaving more than 100 other brides worried that they would be left without their dresses.
Instead, the women complained to consumer watchdogs, and now the Bishops are both facing jail after each admitting 18 counts of engaging in unfair commercial practices at Cardiff Crown Court.
One bride, 34-year- old Nichola Pakau, said: ‘It has been an awful experience. It has affected my home life and work life.’
Another bride’s mum Kim Burroughs, 55, said: ‘You expect everything to be perfect for your daughter’s wedding. I didn’t expect this.’
Before she was charged over the dresses, Melanie Bishop had claimed her customers should have known the gowns, which cost from £700 to £1,000, had been made in China – and said she was the victim of a campaign of ‘abuse and lies’.
She had said: ‘In the space of three weeks my reputation is in tatters and I believe I will lose my house, my livelihood and the business I worked so hard to build up from scratch.
‘I haven’t stopped crying since it all spiralled out of control.
‘The reality is that these women have rallied together and whipped themselves up into a hysteria that is only based on one thing – the fact that my dress suppliers are based in China. The dresses are not worth £40 and from eBay as these women believe. That couldn’t be further from the truth.
‘We own a factory that is staffed by 15 seamstresses.
‘We run a legitimate business and I am devastated that this Facebook campaign of hate and lies is stopping my genuine customers from receiving their dresses. It’s not that we set out to deliberately mislead people, that’s not it.
‘When I said our dresses were all our own designs that was true.
‘The only thing I could have done differently was be explicitly clear about the origins of the dresses, but so many shops outsource their materials and labour from China.
‘It’s not uncommon and I never hid it. I left the made in China labels in. And yes there is a mark-up. As a
company we pay around £200 for each dress and sell them to the customer from £700 to £1,000. ‘That’s how a business operates. That’s how I paid my rent, taxes, import fees and overheads but that mark-up does not take away from the quality of the product offered.’ But, after an investigation by Newport Trading Standards, the Bishops accepted they had claimed to be designing and making the dresses themselves.
The pair pleaded guilty to failing to inform customers the wedding dresses were actually made in China, falsely stating they would be made in their local workshop, between March 2015 and April 2016. And they admitted that this was likely to distort the behaviour of the average consumer. Another 20 charges will lie on file. Judge Patrick Curran QC told them: ‘All appropriate sentencing options are open.’
Both women, of Oakdale, near Blackwood, South Wales, will be sentenced next month.
‘Whipped into a hysteria’