Japanese Company Offers Men Glamour Shoots in Wedding Dresses

The cult of the bride continues to spread! According to a report, there’s a Japanese company marketing glamorous photo shoots just for men. For less than $600, customers are glammed up and photographed in the wedding dress or elegant ball gown of their choice.

The Bangkok Post says the scheme was dreamed up by Mary Mariee, which rents women’s formalwear, ranging from traditional kimonos to Western white wedding dresses. First they ran a special for women who wanted fancy photos, but after receiving several inquiries from men, they created a package just for interested dudes. “We concluded that men want to feel like princesses, too,” said the store’s manager told the Bangkok Post.

The store now has around a hundred dresses explicitly for male customers. Partakers are packed off to a nearby barbershop for grooming, before being made over and dressed up for the cameras. There’s a similar offer for women who want to be photographed in traditionally male garb.

The Bangkok Post offers precious little context on the phenomenon. It’s not clear who’s using the service, or why—whether this is typically a lark, or a more fraught act of gender expression. It doesn’t sound like the company really cares, though; they’re happy to offer the service, no matter the customer’s motive: “We want to provide opportunities for people to enjoy showing their real selves, whether they are men or women,” said the manager.

But I’ve buried the lede here: Why can’t American couples simply rent the traditional trappings of marriage for photographic purposes and then throw a low-key party where everyone wears jeans?! Somebody please get on that.