About Trunk shows

What exactly are bridal trunk shows? What does it mean to shop during a trunk show? And how do you know if visiting Chic Parisien during a trunk show is right for you?
We’re here to demystify the trunk show shopping experience.

What is a trunk show?

A trunk show is when the latest collection from a designer visits us our bridal boutique for a limited time only shopping event. It’s your opportunity to shop a full range of designs from one of our designers while we await the rest of the stock pieces. During these events, the store runs as normal — you’ll need an appointment and will be paired with a private bridal stylist — but you’ll also have the opportunity to shop this spotlighted collection, alongside the rest of our stock. Often, we can offer special incentives for purchasing during a trunk show.

A trunk show is an early look at the latest collection from a designer, which means you’re amongst the first in the world to shop these gowns.

Why do trunk shows exist?

To really understand why the trunk show model exists, it’s important to take a step back and look at the production calendar for our bridal designers. Twice a year, in October and April, we travel to Bridal Fashion Week to view the latest designs from our international edit of wedding dress designers. Because of the labor intensive and handcrafted nature of these designs, the designers wait to start production on their new collection until the stores have placed their orders. That means it’s about four to six months, typically, before we start to receive the dresses we saw at NYBFW for our stock room.

Trunk shows are an amazing solution to this long wait! It gives us, and our designers, a way for brides to shop the brand new, beautiful designs shortly after they see the imagery (on our Instagram) and fall in love.

Instead of waiting for our stock pieces (4-6 months), we host trunk shows with each of our designers where they ship us the full collection for a limited number of days. Think of it as the new collection going on tour — with a weekend stop at Chic Parisien.

What should I know about shopping a trunk show?

All our bridal appointments are welcome to shop from the visiting trunk show, as well as the chic edit of wedding gowns we have in stock.

If you are coming in specifically to shop the trunk show, please let your bridal stylist know at the beginning of your appointment. If you have reserved an appointment and weren’t aware of the coinciding trunk show, your bridal stylist might think a gown in the collection is a good fit for you and they might include a gown from the trunk show in the edit they pull for you.

Often times, we offer special incentives that we’ve worked out with our designers for brides who purchase during the trunk shows.

When are trunk shows?

We host trunk shows multiple times a month! They usually take place from Friday - Saturday only, but sometimes we are able to hold the collection for longer to offer more brides the opportunity to see the new gowns.

If you have scheduled an appointment with us and are curious whether there will be a trunk show during that time, please feel free to check this page or to send us an email. We announce trunk shows on our website about one month in advance.