TRADE SHOWS
Six Apparel Trade Shows to Merge for Las Vegas Debut in August
Streamliningmay be the answer to shopping the massive apparel shows held twice a year inLas Vegas.
Six exhibits—representing streetwear, action sportswear, menswear,high-end women’s apparel and accessories—will merge to form one show called Modern Assembly. They willexhibit at The Venetian and Sands Expo and ConventionCenter starting in August forthe Fall/Winter 2013 season.
Combined, the six entities will have a total of 2,500 brands ofmen’s and women’s apparel and accessories.
One of those shows, Agenda,a Los Angeles–based trade show founded by Aaron Levant, will be new to the LasVegas trade show scene.
Business Journals Inc. owns threeof the shows: AccessoriesTheShow,for accessories; MRket,for menswear; and Stitch,for better to contemporary women’s ready-to-wear.
The other two shows are Capsule,an edited selection of womenswear and menswear created in 2007 by fashionconsultancy BPMW, and Liberty, a new show being puttogether by Sam Ben-Avraham, founder of the original Project show. Liberty will have a selection of250 premium men’s and women’s labels.
Britton Jones, president and chief executive of Business JournalsInc., said a united front will help buyers. “For far too long, the fashionmarkets in Las Vegas have not lived up to their real potential because theyhave been so splintered,” he said in a statement. “Buyers have spent too muchtime rushing to try to reach all the resources they want to shop, andexhibitors have been frustrated by buyers being so pressed for time. Now buyerscan shop the best of each season without leaving the Venetian.”
Tom Florio, chief executive of AdvanstarFashion Group, which owns MAGIC and Project,said he was not fazed by the new competition because the trade show market hasalways been competitive. “There always was more than one show [in Las Vegas],”he said. “What’s interesting about this market is that Advanstar built themarketplace for these new shows, which validate what we built here.”
Eric Martin, owner of ThePark showroom in the LosAngeles Fashion District, said he was curious to see what the new merged showshave to offer. “It’s hard to make a trade show that is much different,” hesaid.
Shaun Neff, chief executive of NeffInc., which makes headwear for the surf and skate industry, said Agenda’sstrength is core shops and retail chains such as Zumiez while MAGIC’s strengths are departmentstores and urban stores.
“All tradeshows cater to different genres,” he noted. “You have to be at all of them."
