Question

Economics: Why do brides spend so much money on a wedding dress they will wear one time? While women often spend thousands of dollars on a gown, men only spend a couple hundred on a tuxedo, or even just rent it. Why is this?

What are the economic principles that can explain for why this is?

Answer 1

First, if they reacted to that business demand the dress stores would leave money on the table. Additionally, without a substantial economies of scale, the expense of renting a clothes has been customized and ultimately dry-cleaned would expense you almost as much as a cheap clothes. You end up with this strange secondary market where many brides end up dabbling the clothes on a craigslist or something, because other than sentimentality for certain ladies, there is literally no reasonable reason to hold onto an asset

Traditionally the wedding is her experience not both of their events, not a joint experience, but the moment she says goodbye to her family and is whisked off to his house, never and never to see her friends and family again. It is being held at her place, along with her relatives, who offer her dowry gifts to carry her to his castle. She has not even had a last name on 90 percent of wedding invites to this day