California Apparel News

Los Angeles–based upscale menswear show Westcoast Exclusive will hold its August event, opening one day before Las Vegas trade show giant MAGIC International, at a new location in Las Vegas.

For the past five seasons, the WCE has held its Las Vegas show in hotel rooms, first at the Palms Resort and then at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino. Come August, the WCE will unveil a new open-booth format that will cover 167,000 square feet at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center.

WCE organizers are offering exhibitors a range of booth sizes, from shared 10 x 10 spaces for accessories companies to large 20 x 40 booths that can be open or enclosed for more privacy.

The new format will be a shift for WCE exhibitors, who show in private hotel rooms at the WCE’s Los Angeles show.

Although some exhibitors expressed concerns about the new venue at the Las Vegas show in February, WCE On-site Producer Amy Freeman-Cohen said she is already receiving a favorable response from exhibitors and retailers.

“We just got our contracts out the week before last, and we have more contracts than we’ve ever had—usually it takes them a lot longer to fill out the contracts,” she said. “We’ve been getting calls from retailers who are very excited about the open booths.”

Inviting competition

The WCE has been held for the past seven years in Los Angeles. Organizers saw an opportunity to bring the show to Las Vegas in early 2002 to provide an upscale alternative to the massive MAGIC show.

But this season, the WCE’s venue and format change have invited competitors. A group of WCE exhibitors who are unhappy with the new open-booth format have approached organizers of the Chicago Men’s Wear Collective with the idea of launching a new hotel show at the same time.

Bruce Schedler, managing director of sales and marketing for the biannual Chicago Men’s Wear Collective at the Merchandise Mart, said he was asked to look into the viability of staging a hotel show in Las Vegas this August by several former WCE exhibitors, many of whom also show at the Chicago Collective. “A lot of exhibitors have told us they want a hotel show,” said Schedler, who added that Merchandise Mart executives are still investigating properties in Las Vegas.

“It’s a matter of timing and place. It’s not a matter of cost,” he said. “It has to be an upscale hotel, a better hotel, one that is in line with the type and quality of exhibitors.”

WCE organizers declined to comment on the Merchandise Mart’s plans.

“We just know we do a quality show and our main concern is to make it high quality and most convenient for our vendors and our retailers,” said Freeman-Cohen.

The WCE will hold its Las Vegas show Aug. 29–31.

Changes for L.A. show

WCE organizers are so bullish on the idea of an open-booth show, they have added it—in a limited fashion—to the Los Angeles show.

The Aug. 1–3 run at the W Hotel in West Los Angeles will feature a small open-booth area on the hotel’s second floor in addition to private hotel rooms on the upper floors.

“We’ve found that some of the smaller companies and the smaller, trendier companies like that [open venue] for a little more exposure,” said Freeman-Cohen.

—Alison A. Nieder