California Apparel News

The West Coast debut of Material World & Technology Solutions this fall has been moved to the California Market Center, where it will co-locate with the Los Angeles International Textile Show for a three-day run Sept. 30–Oct. 2.

Material World was originally planned to launch its West Coast run at the Los Angeles Convention Center, but organizers Urban Expositions, based outside of Atlanta, and the CMC, organizers of the Los Angeles International Textile Show, struck an agreement to co-locate and co-promote the two shows.

“It’s been our design for a long period of time to work with the Los Angeles Textile Show to produce a larger event,” said Tim von Gal, partner in Urban Expositions and president of Material World & Technology Solutions.

According to Joanne Lee, senior vice president of the CMC, she and von Gal have been discussing opportunities to work together for some time.

“We have been in touch with each other since the beginning to make sure our dates did not overlap,” Lee said. “This past October, we talked about ways we could potentially work together moving forward.”

Together the two shows will create a marketplace of fabric, trim, garment manufacturers, service providers, print suppliers, trend forecasters, IT solutions, equipment and machinery that will be housed in several areas of the CMC, including a newly renovated 10,000-square-foot space on the twelfth floor called 12C.

Material World organizers are anticipating about 300 exhibitors showing in 12C, the Fashion Theater and its annex across the lobby, the Exhibition Hall, and a portion of the 13th floor.

The CMC is expecting more than 250 exhibitors, including representatives from both domestic and international fabric and trim suppliers, who will be showing in the 13th-floor Penthouse Pavilion and in permanent showrooms on the CMC’s sixth and seventh floors.

There are a number of exhibitors who have shown at both the Los Angeles International Textile Show and at one of Material World’s shows, the longstanding show in Miami Beach, Fla., and the now-defunct show in New York. Lee and von Gal said organizers for both shows are currently evaluating how to address the crossover exhibitors.

“Those exhibitors who have been with the L.A. International Textile Show in the past will continue on with them,” von Gal said. “And we have a number of exhibitors who have traditionally been with Material World and who have not shown at other places in the same categories. They will continue on as Material World exhibitors as well.”

In recent seasons, the CMC has hosted a Korean Pavilion of Korean textile suppliers and manufacturers, organized by KOTRA, the Korean Trade-Investment Promotion Agency.

“We are working with Material World to divvy up geographic locations, and I think the Korean Pavilion will fall under the Material World umbrella,” Lee said.

Material World has worked with KOTRA in the past, von Gal noted, adding, “The important thing is that we make sure that [Korean exhibitors] are in the building and in a market that is good for them.”

Material World will also provide match-making services to help manufacturers locate sourcing partners.

The two shows will present a coordinated education conference and a jointly produced Trend Pavilion in the CMC lobby. In the past, the L.A. Textile Show’s seminar lineup has included trend presentations by international trend-forecasting services. Material World’s education series, produced in association with the American Apparel & Footwear Association, tend to heavily focus on trade agreements, sourcing and technology.

“We have to look at what the content offerings are and make sure that together as a marketplace coming together that we are eliminating duplicity and putting together the strongest content possible,” von Gal said. “I think this affords us the possibility of cherry-picking the best of both.”Schedule shift

One major shift for the Los Angeles International Textile Show is a shift in dates from a Monday-through-Wednesday schedule to Wednesday through Friday.

The Textile Show is typically held in late October, but in order to co-locate with Material World, the CMC moved its dates earlier and shifted to Material World’s previously announced Wednesday-through-Friday dates.

“We had been promoting our dates that we had originally slated in Los Angeles, and the CMC was very kind and accommodating to line up with our dates so we would minimize any amount of change that we had to make to come together,” said von Gal.

“We’ve done Wednesday through Friday in Miami Beach and New York, and there have been a number of people who prefer it if they come in from out of town and they want to stay into the weekend.”

Urban Expositions and the CMC plan to continue to co-locate the two events going forward on a biannual basis. Busy marketplace in L.A.

When Material World debuts its West Coast run, it will join a growing textile trade show market in Los Angeles. In addition to the Los Angeles International Textile Show, which has been produced by the CMC since 1993, the city will see the launch of GlobalTex: L.A. International Textile Fair, a new textile trade show that will bow April 28–30 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

The new show is produced by Dallas-based Market Center Management Co., which manages the Dallas Market Center, the ShanghaiMart in China, the Brussels International Trade Mart in Belgium and the upcoming LatinAmerican Trade Mart in Bogotaacute;, Colombia, and has received the endorsement of the Textile Association of Los Angeles.

Organizers have scheduled the second run of GlobalTex for Oct. 13–15.