California Apparel News

The speculation is over. Project Global Trade Show opened its first Las Vegas event on Feb. 13 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center with a strong showing and positive energy that spilled over to the other trade shows running concurrently in the desert city.

The New York–based contemporary menswear show joined a lineup that included the massive MAGIC International at the Las Vegas Convention Center, The Exclusive and Pool Trade Show at Mandalay Bay, WomensWear In Nevada (WWIN) at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino, the Off-Price Specialist show at the Sands Expo & Convention Center, and the ASAP Global Sourcing Show and ENK International’s Brighte Vegas at The Venetian.

Project founder Sam Ben-Avraham struck a deal to share space at Mandalay Bay with The Exclusive (formerly called the Westcoast Exclusive, a name the Los Angeles trade show producer still uses for its biannual California event). The combination of The Exclusive’s upscale, traditional offerings and Project’s more contemporary wares seemed to work. Buyers crowded the aisles of the side-by-side shows on opening day.

The strong support for Project Las Vegas was encouraging to Ben-Avraham, who said he could envision the day when Las Vegas’ abundance of trade show space allows the show to grow larger than the original event in New York.

Darren Gold and Christos Garkinos, owners of West Hollywood, Calif.–based menswear store Alpha, recently returned from a buying trip in New York that included a stop at Project. Although the Las Vegas show is smaller, the two were pleased with the selection of exhibitors.

“We were just at Project New York, and we like Project here better,” said Gold as he navigated between Project and Pool, which was held next door.

Pool returned to Las Vegas for its eighth season with about 500 exhibitors, ranging from start-ups selling artdriven T-shirts, jewelry, streetwear and jeans to more established companies such as Fornarina, Reebok, Lacoste and 55DSL from Italian brand Diesel.

This season, Pool featured several industry veterans, including XOXO founder Gregg Fiene, who showed his new Yank line, and Tag Rag founder Orly Dahan, who displayed his contemporary Tag Jeans collection. And Daniel Bohbot offered his Hale Bob collection, while his brother, Bisou Bisou founder Marc Bohbot, showed his True Meaning line.

Another newcomer, Brighte Vegas, organized by Fashion Coterie producers ENK International, got underway at The Venetian with about 100 exhibitors, including Da-Nang, A.B.S. by Allen Schwartz, Trina Turk Handbags and Sunglasses, Chaudry and Junk Food.

MAGIC centerpiece

Opening day at MAGIC was the typical flurry of meeting and greeting. Buyers seemed to hold off on placing firm orders and instead surveyed the diverse offerings in the cavernous convention center before leaving paper.

While the buzz may have been with the newer, smaller trade shows, many MAGIC exhibitors acknowledged that MAGIC is the main event, thanks to its huge offering of menswear, young men’s looks, streetwear, juniors fashions, contemporary and misses apparel, accessories, and childrenswear.

“Maybe it’s not packed, [but] it’s because they’re all going to all of the shows attached to MAGIC—the Pools, the Projects and the Brightes,” said Aaron Levant, who was representing Los Angeles– based streetwear line Fresh Jive at MAGIC. This is familiar territory to Levant, owner of the Agenda showroom in the California Market Center and organizer of the Agenda trade show, which runs as a biannual satellite show to the Action Sports Retailer Trade Expo in San Diego.

“They’re going to spend a day there and then come here,” he said on opening day of MAGIC. “This is the strong show. It still makes the impact.”