Agenda Launches Stitch
Agenda LLC said it will widen its scope of alternative clothing trade shows by sponsoring a new industry event called Stitch in New York in July.
Scheduled for July 18–20, Stitch is planned as a complement to the premium denim and high-end fashion from Project Global Trade Show and the suits and ties on display at ENK International’s Men’s Collective. “It’s streetwear vibe,” said Aaron Levant, president of Los Angeles–based Agenda.
Levant added that Stitch will fill a void left by TBC—To Be Confirmed, which displayed cutting-edge brands in menswear, womenswear, accessories and shoes in July 2004 on a battleship moored next to a building housing Collective. Levant said a number of the companies that have agreed to participate in Stitch’s inaugural show previously went to TBC but could not get into or afford Project.
Stitch will have 30 booths, priced at $2,000 each and covering enough space for a rolling rack, table and chairs. Levant said the show will be in the same location where Project will be held.
Agenda is heretofore known for the semiannual eponymous trade shows it organizes in San Diego and Tokyo and Osaka, Japan. Levant said the San Diego show is intended to bring a fashion edge to the action sports sector that is represented in VNU Expositions’ Action Sports Retailer Trade Expo, held concurrently in San Diego. He said he decided against calling the New York show Agenda because there is a different mentality in Manhattan as well as an absence of an action sports market there.
Stitch will target primarily men’s clothing designers, although Levant said some of the participants also produce women’s apparel. He said he is also talking to vendors that make solely womenswear, although he declined to identify them. Some of the companies that will show at Stitch are Brown Sound, FreshJive, Grnappletree, We, Rojas and Deeper Shades of Soul. The products at Stitch will range from T-shirts retailing for $20 to leather jackets selling for $1,400, Levant said.
For more detailed information, visit www.agendashow.com.
—Khanh T.L. Tran
