Glossy+: Grasping for relevance, fashion trade shows attempt to pivot

“The trade-show organizer is becoming more of a business development consultant than a real estate provider,” said Pierre-Nicolas Hurstel, UBM’s evp of strategy and business development, and founder of its events company, Remode, launched this year. “We believe we need to help fashion brands become more vertical, build up their direct-to-consumer businesses, build up their influencer marketing and take more of their supply chain to become more sustainable.”

The company plans to achieve that a number of ways, from “matchmaking” brands and vendors, to advising brands on all-new store matrices.

UBM’s trade show side of the business isn’t going anywhere. “We all know there are now fewer retailers at market,” he said. “But at some point, DTC brands are going to want to do wholesale. And teaming with wholesale partners is the easiest, most affordable way for brands to enter international markets.”

Danielle Licata, who became the vp of Coterie three years ago, said the event’s brand-retailer ratio is still strong and has remained consistent for the past five seasons. Still, she’s looking to make big changes. “We will be extending the Coterie brand outside of the [trade] show and into a more B2C capacity,” she said, noting that a small section of the show is now available to the public. “We launched a pop-up shop over the summer at Miami Swim Week, and it was hugely successful. I can confidently say we’ll be continuing with that initiative and other initiatives in the same vein.”

Brand-retailer relations
Trade shows often shine a light on what’s working in retail and what’s not.

A contemporary label founder-designer said that, during market weeks, buyers from traditional retailers are now asking her how to go about marketing and connect with the consumer. “They need our help,” she said. “It’s ‘What ideas do you have?’ and ‘How do we talk to our customer?’”

Some retailers, however, are further ahead and have noticeably brought more expertise in house.

Another brand founder said she’d long worked with the same retail buyers, but this past market, she barely knew anyone. “It was a younger group, following restructuring by several retailers,” she said. “They got what I’m trying to do, and now I’m in a lot more stores.”

Both of the founders said retailers at market are now seeking more exclusives from brands, and the brands are working to accommodate them.

Greener pastures
Mohamed Haouache, co-founder of Storefront — which acts as the middleman between real estate owners and brands, and self-identifies as the “Airbnb of showrooms” — has noticed a showroom boom. He said demand for Storefront spaces is highest in September, or spring fashion month — during this time, even more so than fashion shows and retail pop-ups, brands are booking storefronts for multi-day showrooms. In fact, some brands book four Storefront spaces over the course of September — in New York, London, Milan and Paris, syncing their showrooms with the fashion calendar.

The company’s goal is to eventually own Market Week in New York — now Coterie — as it does in Paris, where it currently makes the most money, said Haouache.

Bag brand Baggu, which is used to taking part in NY Now and Coterie trade shows in New York, opted instead to meet buyers in a showroom setting this season, working with Storefront to find a space to hold its appointments kicking off today.

“We’d noticed an industrywide shift in this direction,” said Tamara Shkurkin, Baggu’s head of sales. “Deepening B2B relationships is a top priority for us right now, and a showroom allows us to provide a more personal, immersive brand experience for buyers that’s difficult to achieve in a traditional trade show setting.”

Dress brand Fame & Partners also went the showroom route, which it manned from September 11-14. “We timed it to coincide with New York Market and New York Fashion Week,” said Camilla Mayer, the brand’s communications manager. “We invited buyers, fashion influencers and bloggers to customize capsule collections from our resort 2019 collection.”

Licata said showrooms make sense for luxury brands, which sell through a limited number of stores — often a maximum of one per city. Contemporary brands, on the other hand, often sell to multiple stores in major cities, and trade shows allow them to see more shows in a concentrated amount of time.

In addition, she said she’s not concerned about seasonal buying transactions moving online. “Ultimately, buyers want to talk to brands about who they’re selling to and what their brand story is. And they want to see the pieces and touch them — it’s not like buying for yourself; you can’t send back what doesn’t work.”

Other brands on the relevance of trade shows: