David’s Bridal Files for Bankruptcy, but Brides Will Get Their Dresses

David’s Bridal, the largest wedding retailer in the country, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday as it tries to shed more than $400 million in debt and adjust to new rivals, but it promised brides that no one would lose their gowns.

The company is the latest bridal business to flounder in the face of sliding marriage rates, intense price pressures on dresses and a shift away from elaborate and expensive fittings toward easy online ordering.

Before going to bankruptcy court in Delaware, David’s had already negotiated a deal with creditors for $60 million in new financing and a recommitment for a $125 million revolving credit facility.

The support will help David’s, which skipped a loan interest payment in October, continue to operate its more than 300 stores. The company plans to exit bankruptcy in January.

The business, based in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, after starting as an individual bridal salon in Florida in 1950, is known for selling affordable bridal gowns, usually priced below $2,000. It was purchased in 2012 by a private equity company, Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, in a $1.05 billion leveraged buyout, making it one of many retailers that have struggled with their debt loads after being acquired.

David’s is a giant in a fast-evolving industry that is worth $2.5 billion in the United States, according to data from the research firm IBISWorld.

In more than six decades in business, the company has “seen a lot of things change: fashion trends, where brides find inspirations and how customers shop,” Scott Key, chief executive, said in a statement posted prominently on the retailer’s website last week, announcing the restructuring.

The average amount spent on wedding gowns increased to $1,564 in 2016 from $1,211 in 2012, according to data cited by IBISWorld. But marriage rates in the United States have steadily declined since 2014 and are expected to continue slumping. Manufacturers in China have begun to lure many brides with dresses sold online at wholesale rates, according to researchers.

New rivals to David’s have emerged, offering low prices, fewer frills and respite from a dress-shopping ritual that is often nerve-racking. For example, Kleinfeld Bridal, an upscale New York institution featured in the popular TLC show “Say Yes to the Dress,” opened a separate store last year with off-the-rack sample dresses that can be tried on without an appointment. Anthropologie’s BHLDN brand is popular, and the e-commerce fashion behemoth Asos began offering wedding dresses in 2016, with many options priced below $1,000.

But other wedding dress sellers have stumbled. Gap left a partnership with Weddington Way in April, causing the bridal startup to close its shops within Banana Republic stores around the country. Last year, Alfred Angelo suddenly closed dozens of stores and then filed for bankruptcy, leaving frantic brides in the lurch. J. Crew, as well, shut down its endeavor into wedding products in 2016.