New Format for New Ecollection Show
The MAGIC Marketplace bowed its new Ecollection show, devoted to all things fashionably green, during the trade show’s Aug. 25–27 run.
Tucked into the back of the North Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center, Ecollection operated as a show-within-a-show, with its own entrance, runway, seminar series and bookstore.
“The whole field is changing so rapidly, there’s a lot to be learned,” said Lorelyn Eaves, director of corporate marketing for MAGIC’s parent company, Advanstar Communications, the organizer of the Ecollection show. “Everybody is a pioneer,” Eaves said.
The show featured nearly 100 companies, including apparel labels BGreen, Haley K., Ecoskin, Anvil, Fair Indigo, Indigenous, Rene Geneva Designs LLC and organizations such as the Organic Exchange and the Sustainable Cotton Project.
“Many of these people are new to MAGIC,” Eaves said.
Bgreen, the branded division of Nature USA, GOTS-certified manufacturer of organic cotton apparel in Rancho Dominguez, Calif., previously exhibited at the Global Eco show at The Venetian but opted to show at the debut of Ecollection.
Bgreen founder Mike Farid said the buyer turnout was good, particularly on the first day.
“There was a lot of curiosity, for sure,” he said, noting that he saw a mix of Bgreen’s existing customers and “some new contacts, people who want to test the market.”
This was the first U.S. trade show for 6-year-old French brand Ideo, which primarily features contemporary womenswear made from 100 percent certified cotton grown and produced in India. The company also manufactures organic cotton and silk infant apparel, as well as a women’s jean made from Peruvian “jungle” cotton and grown by independent farmers in the rainforests of Peru, according to Kate Dwyer, co-founder of Fair Tribe, which distributes Ideo in the United States.
Fair Tribe, based in Felton, Calif., is a distributor of a wide range of green products, but this is the first apparel collection for the company.
Dwyer was pleased with the show overall.
“It’s been really good,” she said. “There’s been some good attention and some bigger stores.”
Among the retailers spotted shopping on the floor at Ecollection was Mark Werts, owner of the American Rag stores.
Werts said he and his team of buyers have been shopping several of the Las Vegas trade shows, including the Project Global Trade Show, Pooltradeshow, ENK Vegas, CurveNV and Accessories The Show.
But on the afternoon of the last day of the MAGIC Marketplace, Werts was browsing the aisles of Ecollection.
“We’re working right up to the end!” he said. —Alison A. Nieder
