It is likely to go down in Fashion Exposed history as the only time when buyers and exhibitors paced the carpeted floors of the Melbourne Exhibition Centre devoid of a Prime Minister. Fashion Exposed organiser Marie Kinsella admits this season's August 29 to 31 fair dates – smack bang in the middle of Australia's fling with a hung federal parliament – set off a few stomach butterflies.
“We were getting some rather concerning reports from retail that [business] was very slow prior,” Kinsella says. “We didn't know what to expect with the amount of ordering done on site.”
Weeks on from close of the fair, however, and Kinsella is pleased both with the number of orders written on the show floor and with the 8446 trade visitors that ventured through Fashion Exposed's doors.
“That was three per cent up on the last August fair,” she says.
One of the most noticeable booms was in the Bags & Accessories Fair, which recorded 4231 visitors.
“There's no doubt we had an increased interest in accessories buyers,” Kinsella says. “We also had quite a strong growth in accessories companies exhibiting. We actually had 100 on the waiting list that we turned away.”
Kinsella says there was an increase in the number of companies that previously exhibited only at gift trade fairs. Gretchen Wainscott, manager of Firucci, is one.
“[Firucci's] a new label for Fashion Exposed but we do all the Reed Gift Fairs,” Wainscott says. “We've been doing them for about 25 years. We just thought we'd like to see if we could approach some new customers, more shoe stores and fashion people.”
Firucci and other accessories labels including Fabienne and Nordic Design report a solid fair, with orders and interest from new customers, albeit with some quiet periods. Kinsella says while the results vary across accessories exhibitors – “it does depend who you speak to, what section of the market they are targeting” – it also points to the accessories segments' swelling size.
“There's increased competition, there's no doubt, at Fashion Exposed now that we haven't had in the past for the accessory companies.”
Over in the halls devoted to men's, women's and kidswear, intimate apparel and streetwear, exhibitors report a tendency for buyers to place 'top up' orders.
The director of womenswear label Boo Radley, David Sibel, explains. “We've found a lot of our customers, repeat customers, have come to us during the fair and asked to top up their orders. That really indicates to us that they're concerned they haven't got enough stock coming in for summer.
“That's a very positive sign for us. They're gaining confidence moving into the season.”
National wholesale manger of menswear label Connor, Amanda Dolan, says her customers found extra dollars for her summer range, while Barbara Kessler from womenswear label Joseph Ribkoff says buyers were topping up winter orders.
“We've seen a lot of our regulars who've already bought who maybe come to the stand to add some extra pieces,” Kessler says.
The August fair also saw the introduction of a number of new initiatives for buyers, including the First Day Forecast hosted by Mudpie Trend Forecasting, and a retail tour of Melbourne. Owner of Melbourne boutique Silver Thimble, Stacey Popovski, believes the forecast presentation slightly missed the mark.
“All the imagery I'd already seen on Style.com and magazines and that type of thing,” Popovsky says. “I thought they could have maybe explained the key elements they thought were going to sell the best here and why.”
“There were mixed reports,” Kinsella concedes, “but we definitely want to continue with the First Day Forecast. We need to offer this service to give retailers confidence in their buying before they hit the show floors.”
Buyer John Carter, of Carters of Echuca, didn't manage to make it to any such seminars, but only because he was too busy placing orders with the likes of Back Bay, Breakaway, Blu Galaxy and Lichfield.
He expresses a sentiment that exhibitors and buyers voice repeatedly during the course of the fair's three days.
“I think the fair over the last three years certainly has improved and they've streamlined it. It presents really well.”
French connection
Fashion Exposed is teaming up with French trade fair ‘Who’s Next’ to create international opportunities for local labels. Erin O’Loughlin learns more about the details of the program.
French people find that Australia is a really exotic country, this nation, and this helps a lot. In the same way, Aussie people love Paris.”
So says David Clement, born-and-bred Frenchman and now resident Sydneysider. As senior trade advisor for the local arm of the French trade commission Ubifrance, Clement works to create opportunities for French businesses in the Australian market.
He has overseen the participation of many a French label in Fashion Exposed over the past four seasons, including such brands as Teachheart, Little Marcel, Cannisse, Charlie Joe and One Step.
Earlier this year, Clement got to thinking there were more opportunities to be created from the trade fair scene. As he flitted between Fashion Exposed in Sydney and fashion trade fair Who’s Next – which is held multiple times a year in Paris, New York and Dubai – he struck up conversations with the organisers of each event.
“I just contact both of them and I say, listen, we are all doing the same job on the other side of the world so maybe we can help each other with growing the fashion brands,” Clement says.
The result is that in addition to French labels continuing their presence at Fashion Exposed into the next few seasons, an as-yet-unfinalised number of Australian fashion labels will also now have the opportunity to exhibit in both Paris and Dubai as part of Who’s Next 2011.
Clements says the labels will be hand-picked by the organisers of Who’s Next and granted access to a host of opportunities, not least of which is access to one of the biggest apparel markets in the world.
“France is one of the biggest fairs in Europe, [along] with Spain and London. Eastern Europe is 210 million inhabitants, so 10 times Australia,” he says.
“Second reason, Europeans spend a lot of money [on] fashion. The climate’s a bit tougher than here so they’re used to buying more clothes, more heavy clothes, and very fond of accessories.
“After that, it’s about doing some more volumes out of the export market. If they produce one big batch in Australia, they’re going to lower their cost per product. Then if they have customers who are ready to buy the stock overseas, it’s a good match.”
It is the desire to be a leader in bringing new trends and fresh talent to the European market that Clement believes has motivated Who’s Next organisers to sign up for the program, despite the fact they always have a long list of European labels vying for spots on the Who’s Next floor.
He says while the selection criteria will be up to Who’s Next organisers themselves – “I know they are quite picky for the stands” – he says interested Aussie labels can look to the criteria French labels must meet prior to coming out to Fashion Exposed for ideas on how to make the Who’s Next grade.
“We ask them prior to show, ‘Do you export? Do you speak English? Do you have any exporting expertise in the US or UK, for example?’ It’s not the same but if they’re used to dealing with the UK or the US, they know how to send the pallet with goods, and invoice, and do the billing in foreign currency and everything.”
Who’s Next is scheduled to debut Australian labels at its April 2011 fair. Interested labels can contact Fashion Exposed organiser, Australian Exhibitions and Conferences.