Attendance Up at Hong Kong Fashion Week
Hong Kong Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2006—a four-day trade show filled with exhibitors, fashion and seminars—is growing in popularity.
The semi-annual show saw a nearly 29 percent jump in the number of visitors who attended the summer event at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, perched on the edge of Victoria Harbour.
The July 12–15 show had 19,430 visitors, compared with 15,000 last summer, when the last day of the fair was cut short by a typhoon passing through the former British colony.
The ostensible end of apparel and textile quotas for members of the World Trade Organization inspired more exhibitors to set up booths in three cavern-like halls inside the convention center. There were 903 exhibitors at the fair, a 17 percent increase over last July.
One of those was Los Angeles–based So Cool Inc., the only U.S. apparel company exhibiting at the show. Kay Chong, So Cool’s general manager, said the 7-year-old company decided to attend Hong Kong Fashion Week for the first time because his company is looking for ways to expand its clientele. “I saw a lot of Australians and people from the United Kingdom and the United States,” Chong said.
So Cool sells its juniors, sweater and activewear labels to chain stores, including Forever 21 Inc. in Los Angeles and Chateau Stores of Canada, headquartered in Montreal. Both chains sell moderately priced clothing.
“The buyers we saw liked our lines, and we were very satisfied. We have to see now if people are really going to order and if it is in large quantities,” Chong said.
Returning to the fair was Vikas Agarwal, who attends the event regularly with his father and uncle. They own Aman Exports International, a mid-sized manufacturer in Jaipur, India, whose 1,000 workers make brightly colored T-shirts, tops and other garments for such stores as Forever 21 Inc. and the Woolworths Group in England. Agarwal said he doubled his orders from January, when he attended Hong Kong Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2005.
He saw new buyers from countries such as Israel, Malaysia and China. All were looking for Indian or ethnic clothing with the bright colors and wispy fabrics that are in vogue right now.
Christopher Chan, marketing manager for Bremer International Ltd. in Hong Kong, said he saw new buyers for the company’s men’s and women’s lines. But he felt that business was not quite as brisk as it had been last summer. He attributes that to buyer confusion over temporary quotas being imposed on several clothing categories exported to the United States and Europe. “Buyers are not sure what will happen,” he observed. —Deborah Belgum
