Wedding dress business shattered in valley

Srinagar, October 14 : Traders dealing in wedding garments have a rough season for their trade in valley as the unconducive situation wreaked a wreck on the wedding garments trade. The trade has hardly a breathing space at present here.

The current situation in the valley has forced many marriage ceremonies to cancellation, causing a blow to wedding dress business here.

The traders in valley had bought various wedding dresses from other States in advance, anticipating good sales during the season. But following the cancellation of wedding ceremonies they have failed to sell off their stock and recover their investments.

" We have incurred a loss of about 20-21 lakh rupees as our business suffered a blow because of the curfew, the valley was reeling under for the Amarnath Land Controversy", said Asif Bhat a Srinagar based businessman", adding, " We bring fresh stock of clothes in January and February, get new Lehngas stitched, which takes around six months to get ready for the showroom,".

Many shopkeepers, dealing in the special wedding garments, had to return the advance payments from customers. They lament the fact that the sales this year could not be anywhere close to that witnessed last year.

"In comparison to last year's sales, we have undergone loss of about 70 per cent because of the strike. October is the wedding season. We hoped that all of our bookings that we did in the past two months would be recovered. But we incurred losses. Now the people, who earlier used to wear Lehngas during the weddings, prefer to wear simple wedding suits," said Tagvish Ahmed, another shopkeeper.

The brides and bridegrooms, who earlier thought of wearing the specially designed dress on wedding day, are also dejected due to non-availability of a wide special dress material for weddings.

"These days, the fashion of wearing Lehngas and Sherwanis has captured the minds of every bride and groom. It is their earnest desire to wear Lehngas and Sherwanis on their wedding day. But due to the recent agitations, the shopkeepers could not buy enough stock from outside. The brides and grooms could not buy dresses as per their desire," said Afrida Dar, a customer.

Source