With retail spending on shaky turf, organisers and exhibitors at trade fair Fashion Exposed in Melbourne were cautiously optimistic about attendance and sales at the event. Melinda Oliver gets the official verdict.
Business travel budgets may have been hit by the global financial crisis, but this did not deter distant retailers from venturing to Melbourne for Fashion Exposed. In fact, it was quite the opposite.
Geoff Betts is a telling case. The store owner and buyer for Geoff Betts Menswear, an independent boutique situated in South Australia’s Ceduna district, says traditional sourcing options for regional businesses have all but dried up.
“My store is 800km west of Adelaide,” he says. “I would prefer to do my indent buying in my own store so you can see straight away what you need, however travelling reps [sales agents] are rare on the ground these days.” Betts wasn’t alone.
Over 8200 industry visitors attended the autumn/winter instalment, which ran from August 30 to September 1 and featured some 500 exhibitors across apparel, footwear and accessories.
While a bulk of these visitors hailed from Victoria, around 1200 came from New South Wales, 500 from Queensland, 400 from Western Australia and 80 from the ACT.
Combined with the co-located Bags and Accessories Fair and the Australian Shoe Fair, the attendance figure included 6528 individual buyers. A higher proportion than usual were first-time visitors.
Organiser Marie Kinsella says exhibitors were given access to a broader range of retailers this year.
“We are certainly attracting regional retailers from around Australia and the only opportunity to be introduced to them as a new potential customer is through the fair,” she says.
According to Kinsella, an increase in transeasonal fashion styles, rather than pure winter ranges, made the event more attractive to warmer climate retailers from Queensland and Western Australia.
“Fashion is changing at such a rapid rate, the stores are demanding it [transeasonal options],” she says. “A lot of them don’t like to order for a season that is six months away – it is almost risky in this economic environment.”
International guests included 162 from New Zealand and a handful from Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand, Egypt, the US and France, among others. Trade show delegates from Beijing and India were also in the mix.
Sleepwear label Pyjama Queen was visited by buyers from a broad mix of regions including country Victoria, NSW and Tasmania. By day two of Fashion Exposed, accessories exhibitor Her Ego picked up over 40 new accounts from across the country and five from New Zealand.
Kinsella believes the first two days of the fair were the strongest.
“We had a fantastic start on the Monday, there was a real buzz. Day two we certainly were still quite strong. There were a lot of orders written, as a lot of people spent the first day looking but came back the next day to do more serious buying. Day three ... it quietened up, but there was some business being done right till the end.”
Sydney accessories label Frou Frou has exhibited at the event for eight seasons. Operator Peta Mathews says her sales were up compared to last year’s event, with 20 new accounts in the bag plus repeat orders. Similarly, Katerina Miaoulis, from handmade label Memsahib Millinery, has exhibited a number of times and says she was pleased with the outcome.
“Despite having included more budget-priced pieces to create volume, people were still happy to be outlaying and to increase their budgets to include a greater volume of the luxury pieces,” she says.
“I probably had a jump of 137 wholesale hats for immediate delivery compared to last year. People were paying up-front to secure their order.”
As Ragtrader reported recently, it was many of the new exhibitors who found on-the-spot orders slow. Kinsella believes that retailers need to be exposed to young labels for a few seasons to gain confidence in their offering before plunging in with an order.
“We encourage designers to participate in a number of fairs and don’t just look at doing one fair and not come back. It is important to do that on a number of occasions to expand their networks.”
Children’s activewear designer Nicole Lewis-Jacobs went through this experience at her first Fashion Exposed event in Sydney earlier this year. While buyers were initially cautious about ordering Lewis-Jacobs’ label, Stretching It Out, she secured several orders this time around, including her first Queensland boutique.
Buyers were not only hungry for experience this year but knowledge too, according to Kinsella. An array of industry talks were offered, including a US and Europe retail trend analysis by Westfield retailer relations general manager Jack Hanrahan, as well as a trend forecast presentation by Mudpie marketing manager Jo Little.
Workshops were held to help designers develop and sustain their businesses, exploring issues such as direct mail marketing and success in economic hardship. The Australian Retailers Association held half-hour discussions to cover topics such as visual merchandising, retail operations, successful branding and customer service.
Students from fashion colleges joined exhibitors to attend many of the presentations.
“They are our next generation of buyers and suppliers so we need to introduce them to what is on offer,” Kinsella says.
Emerging designers were also awarded for their talents in Debut, a dedicated section aimed at promoting new players in the market. An award for apparel went to Marion Liese, who exhibited her self-named lingerie range. Best accessory label went to Danielle Zanetti Jewellery, while the avant garde nod went to Tasmanian label Sabio Designs.
Exhibitors and retailers are now preparing to do it all again for Fashion Exposed Sydney, which will feature spring/summer 2010/11 collections and run from February 14 to 16 at the Sydney Exhibition Centre.
This date is earlier than usual, but following initial uncertainty, Kinsella says retailers are now adapting.
“A lot of suppliers said they couldn’t be ready, but now stands are walking out the door. We have never had such a demand for space in ages. I think people are interested in the change – there is a freshness about it. It is looking very positive.”
Prints prime for the street
StreetLab, the precinct for young, urban apparel brands, showed that printed T-shirts are always in vogue. New on the scene Melbourne label You Vs. Me offered men’s T-shirts with edgy photo-like graphics, while fellow Melbourne brand Made By Metric went for underwater and futuristic print themes for men and women’s styles.
Wita Design launched its first range of organic T-shirts for men and women, which featuring stencil art images of cute animals. UK label We Walk from Top Shop sold a vintage rock-style collection of T-shirts and dresses with prints sourced from international travel and music history. Live look book shows, which were mini-parades with rap dancers and models showing off apparel, were a key attraction of the precinct.
Visitors by region
VIC: 65 per cent
NSW: 14 per cent
QLD: 6 per cent
SA: 6 per cent
WA: 4.5 per cent
TAS: 3.4 per cent
ACT: 0.9 per cent
NT: 0.2 per cent
Exhibitors by category
Fashion Exposed: 292 exhibitors
Preview: 47 exhibitors showed, representing 147 labels
Bags & Accessories Fair: 89 exhibitors
Australian Shoe Fair: 77 exhibitors took part, showing over 170 labels