Drew Delgado in the Globe booth at Liberty
TRADE SHOW
Liberty: New Section, More Booths
For its third Las Vegas show at the Sands Expo and Convention Center, Liberty Fashion & Lifestyle Fairs, held Aug. 18–20, added a new section and a surge of new brands.
Liberty founder Sam Ben-Avraham said that the show added 45 new booths and 150 new brands to the show, for a total of 360 brands exhibiting at Liberty. Quest, a new Liberty section, took a bow. It showcased suiting and designer clothes. “The hardcore layout is pretty much done,” Ben-Avraham said. “We have 5 percent room for growth to play with.”
Retailers such as Harvey Nichols, Nordstrom, Zumiez, Ron Robinson and Kin browsed through the show. For Ron Robinson’s Karen Meena, the show was a chance to see what is next in fashion. “I try to look for newness and new inspiration,” Meena said of her mission for trade shows. For Kin’s Darrel Adams, the show was an opportunity to look for designer brands to mix with the streetwear brands at his Los Angeles–area boutiques.
Different vendors had different goals for the show. For Frank Delgadillo of the Chapter brand, Liberty was about squeezing a last few sales out in a season where it had filled most of its orders at trade shows in New York and Paris. For Drew Delgado, who was exhibiting the Globe brand, the trade shows are for marketing. “It’s to show people that we’re still here,” he said.
