David's Bridal — the retailer that once provided a quarter of all U.S. wedding dresses — has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as it struggles with $257M of debt. The move endangers 294 stores, overwhelmingly in the U.S. but also four in the UK.

The crisis comes as the $2.1B U.S. bridal stores sector — and its smaller UK and Canadian siblings — struggle with long-term declining sales.

David's Bridal, which filed for protection in New Jersey, will trade during restructuring, but it had already announced plans to make 9,000 U.S. staff redundant. Around 100 UK jobs are at risk.

The cost of living crisis and a shift to a more competitive online retail scene, combined with a shift from formal wedding wear to a more varied look, has upended the wedding retail sector. A year of lockdowns with relatively few large weddings created a disastrous combination. A buyer is now being sought for the company.

The move highlights a long-term instability in the wedding retail scene on both sides of the Atlantic. David's earlier filed for bankruptcy in the face of spiralling debt in 2018.

Decline in the U.S. bridal stores sector has been steep. A market worth $2.1B in 2023 represents a hard landing after a series of some ups and several downs beginning in 2016. This year IBIS World predicts growth of just 0.7%.

The record of the small UK David's business, which has been placed in the UK equivalent of Chapter 11, neatly demonstrates the problem: Its store chain in London, Glasgow and Watford launched in 2013, expanded in 2016 into a flagship store in Birmingham, but hasn't made a profit since 2018. Turnover was just £4.3M, Business Desk reported.

The UK bridal store sector is said to be worth £272M ($340M), with annualised market growth of -4.4%. Although the sector is predicted to grow by 7.7% in 2023 it remains far below its value before 2020, when annual turnover was closer to £341M ($425M), despite efforts to broaden bridal gown stores into one-stop wedding shops, according to IBIS World figures.