TRADE SHOWS
New California Swim Trade Show Riviera by CurvExpo to Launch in 2014
California is getting a new swimwear trade show next year when Eurovet, the European trade show organizer and owner of CurvExpo, launches Riviera by CurvExpo in August.
The show, which will be organized in partnership with ISAM (the International Swimwear and Activewear Market), will be held Aug. 11–12 at the Hyatt Regency Beach Resort and Spa in Huntington Beach, Calif.
Plans call for 100 swimwear and activewear brands to exhibit. Organizers are targeting 200 of “the most wanted stores from California.”
The new show is inspired by Eurovet’s Riviera by Mode City, launched last year and held annually in Cannes, France, to complement Eurovet’s Mode City swimwear and lingerie show in Paris.
“Since we have acquired CurvExpo in April 2012, we are now closer to fulfilling the needs of the industry in North America,” said Marie-Laure Bellon, chief executive officer of Eurovet, in a statement. “The success of this first Riviera in Cannes validated our strategy: acting globally and locally by gathering the industry at the most favorable time and place to conduct business.”
ISAM was a longtime organizer of a West Coast swim trade show but in recent years has been holding its event within WWDMAGIC in Las Vegas.
ISAM members had wanted to return to the West Coast, said ISAM Director Barbara Brady. Riviera by CurvExpo will be an additional venue for ISAM, which will continue its partnership with WWDMAGIC.
“It is clear that we have the same vision and we think alike when it comes to the swim industry,” Brady said. “It’s going to be a very nice partnership.”
Pierre-Nicolas Hustel, chief executive officer of CurvExpo, said he had been in discussion with ISAM about forming a partnership for some time, noting the shared values of ISAM and Eurovet.
“We have a culture of serving the industry,” he said. “It’s the same for ISAM; they have always been serving the brands.”
The West Coast show is also part of Eurovet’s strategy to expand its global reach in the swimwear and lingerie markets.
“Eurovet has a leadership strategy worldwide for the lingerie and swimwear trade show market. Everywhere we can be to build a network and offer to the industry our know-how and our community and our connections, we do it,” Hustel said. “Wherever there is the need for a show in this industry, we prefer if we can do it—because we want to take our brand all over the world and we want to build the best retailer and brand network in this industry. We believe we have a card to play on the West Coast.”
The timing was selected to fall immediately after New York market week but before the trade shows in Las Vegas, where CurvExpo hosts its CurveNV show.
The timing puts Riviera by CurvExpo after Los Angeles Fashion Market and Agenda on the West Coast but at approximately the same time as Swim Collective, the 4-year-old swimwear show organized by Shannon Leggett.
Swim Collective is scheduled to return to the Hyatt in Huntington Beach for its Jan. 25–25 run. Leggett said Swim Collective will host two West Coast editions in 2014, but the dates and venue for the second show have not yet been announced.
In addition to the CurvExpo shows in Las Vegas and New York, and Mode City in Paris and Riviera by Mode City in Cannes, Eurovet’s trade show holdings include Salon International de la Lingerie Paris, also in Paris, and Shanghai Mode Lingerie in Shanghai.
