I think we need a new series. Let’s call it Tradeshow Calender. Here you can find news on upcoming apparel industry trade shows where you can show a line (or shop the competition) or buy stuff you need. There’s so many of them that this won’t be all inclusive. Should we discuss the regional aka “second tier” shows?
Today’s highlights are news excerpts from Women’s Wear Daily which is gated. Sorry ’bout that. I subscribe electronically with the headlines automatically routed into a folder.Out of sight, out of mind, I forget to read it much of the time. If you subscribe, don’t assume I’ve seen it so please send your tips along.
In Dollars and Sense; it’s said that textile vendors showing at the upcoming round of shows in NY (January) will be feeling the brunt of a weakened dollar. I’m not sure I concur. If you don’t have fabric, what can you sell?
New York textile week starts Jan. 22 and includes the Turkish Fashion Fabric Exhibition, Texworld USA, Supima Premium Fabric Show and Première Vision Preview. I haven’t been to any of these.
In the WWD article Standing Out, there’s a run down of what’s expected at the upcoming Magic Show in February (register). Pool continues to grow by leaps and bounds, they’ll be in the central hall this go round rather than the parking lot. Pool’s attendance for August was up 37 percent over February. Pretty amazing considering the August show is slower. Also new for Magic in February is Printsource which premiered there in August. Printsource isn’t a fabric supply show; it’s textile design.
Among satellite shows at local hotels, WWIN is moving to the Rio. I’ve never been to this show; it has 2,000 lines and while the website is kind of cheesy, it gets consistently high marks for attracting quality buyers among F-I visitors who’ve exhibited there. WWIN has also added KIDShow. ASAP (mostly foreign textile exhibitors) will be back. It didn’t excite me much, nor many of you judging from previous comments. E.C.O. Apparel will be back (Venetian) with 20-30 exhibitors.
A complete list of upcoming trade shows for the next six months -all 22 pages of it- can be found on WWD. Infomat is also a resource and it’s not gated.
As an aspiring DE how can one attend any of these shows? I’m interested in the KIDS show but I can see in the registration page that is for buyers. I would like to be able to learn more about the competition and maybe find suppliers.
Thanks in advance.
Thank you for this resource! I’ve been trying to figure out what shows to try to go to (if any) and this is exactly what I needed for a starting point.
Hey Kathleen,
I went to Supima and Texworld for the first time last year… Texworld mostly had overseas fabric mills/suppliers from Asia. It was well organized, but hard to shop with most vendors due to language barriers.
Supima is 100% american grown cotton that is shipped all-over the world for processing into textiles… The had a trend siminar and it was well organized… Thee were not a lot of vendors but one of my favorite denim companies was there Cone Denim… It’ worth checking out.
Texworld was a littlebit out of my league as emerging designer…
For anyone interested in attending all it takes is a business license, business card and a form of idenitfication. They just want to know that you’re an established business.
Kathleen – hello.. This is Michael from Apparel Search. I was on your site today becauase I wanted to contact you to find out if you wanted me to add your “rss” feed on a new site I am working on. Anyway, when I was looking for your e-mail address I found this well written article you wrote about the trade events. I am in the early stages of developing a site at FashionIndustryCalendar.com If you have any interest in working on that project with me let me know. I am hoping to develop a free resource for people to post or view fashion events. Anyway, if you are interested, let me know.
Hi Kathleen and Michael,
It would be good to have a site with information about what the trade shows are really about, and for whom specifically. In looking at the ads in WWD, it is hard to figure out what each trade show offers. Their ads are very generic. It would be good for people to post reveiws of the shows. There are just so many shows! By the way, does anybody know of a US source for US- grown cotton yarn for industrial knitting?
It would be good to have a site with information about what the trade shows are really about, and for whom specifically. …it is hard to figure out what each trade show offers. It would be good for people to post reveiws of the shows. There are just so many shows!
Funny you mention that (and how coincidental Michael stopped in). When I wrote this yesterday, I was remembering a few other people who’d mentioned how they wished there were reviews of shows (one reason I love guest entries on shows, you did one) so I registered a url for a site. Don’t know when I’d get around to putting up a site but I did sketch out what I thought would be helpful to include dates, links, ratings etc. Maybe I’ll get with Michael to see what he’s thinking of.
Brenda,
If you contact the show and tell them you are a designer interested in exhibiting in the future, you can probably get a guest pass.
Marguerite