California Apparel News

LAS VEGAS—Buyers were cautious, going for safe bets and proven sellers at the recent round of apparel trade shows in Las Vegas. But they were buying.

The guarded atmosphere came as little surprise for many exhibitors heading into the show, but it did not prove to be a damper on business altogether, as retailers looked for items to fill in low inventories and entice consumers into spending their money on fashion and accessories.

Most shows opened strong, particularly the MAGIC Marketplace, Pooltradeshow, Project Global TradeShow , WomensWear In Nevada and Off-Price Specialist, which set a record for opening-day attendance. MRket, the renamed, revamped men’s show formerly called The Exclusive, drew a crowd of buyers eager to visit the show, now under new ownership. Even the tiny ASAP Global Sourcing Show and the Global E.C.O.Trade Show had their busiest day on day one.

With staggered opening days, buyers could cover plenty of ground in a short time. Moda Las Vegas returned for its second season, sharing space with sister show Accessories The Show. Dueling lingerie shows Curve NV and Lingerie Americas bowed with new locations, new partnerships and different show dates. And newcomer United Trade Show returned for season three with a trimmed-down roster and a renewed focus.

A sudden windstorm on Feb. 13 grounded planes for several hours at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, keeping some people in town and preventing others from arriving.

Another challenge for many attendees was the tight trade-show schedule. Many manufacturers and buyers raced into Las Vegas directly from attending New York trade shows Fashion Coterie, Designers and Agents, The Train and Platform 2.

Walter Baker, owner of New York–based contemporary line Walter, was showing at Project for the first time.

Baker lost half a day, however, when his Walter samples were late arriving from Fashion Coterie in New York, which ended the day before Project began.

“I was in New York, and everyone on the last day was rushing to get here,” he said, adding that after Project ended, he planned to head to the Premiegrave;re Vision fabric show in Paris to start working on the next collection.

“It doesn’t stop,” he said.

Nonetheless, the stop in Las Vegas was worth it. Baker met a few international buyers from Germany and Switzerland at Project, as well as “a lot of Japanese buyers.”

“You have to come here and build momentum,” he said, adding that he plans to exhibit again in August.

For many apparel companies, the main challenge going into the shows was determining where to exhibit. Several split their brands between shows in an effort to snag a broad range of retailers.

New York–based Schott NYC split its lines among three locations: the core Schott line in MAGIC’s men’s section, the new high-end Perfecto collection at Project and the licensed Jib Hunt line at MAGIC’s streetwear section.

Project was the debut of Schott’s Perfecto collection. The line is a nod to the company’s 95-yearold roots in motorcycle gear and a premium take on motorcycle- and varsity-style jackets rendered in luxury fabrics with specialty trims and handvintaged finishing. The small collection retails for nearly twice the price of jackets in Schott’s core collection.

“We’ve always shown at both Project and MAGIC,” said Chris Horsfield, Schott’s vice president of product development. “But we wanted to be far clearer about the difference in product. Principally, we were at Project to attract new customers in this higher range.”

California Apparel News’ editors were out in force covering the Las Vegas shows. Coverage begins here.