California Apparel News

Twice a year, textile and apparel executives travel to New York to participate in a slate of trade shows that include textile shows Texworld USA, Kingpins, Première Vision, Indigo and DG Expo; menswear shows MRket, Project New York, Liberty and Capsule; and streetwear show Agenda. And in July the schedule also includes yarn show SpinExpo.

Organizers from three of those shows hope to make those trips more efficient, more productive and more fun for the attendees and exhibitors through a collaborative marketing effort called NYC Textile Week.

Organized by representatives from Texworld USA, Kingpins and MRket, NYC Textile Week will soft launch this month with plans for an official debut in July.

“What goes on in the third week in January and the third week in July [in New York] is enormous,” said Andrew Olah, chief executive officer of Olah Inc., producer of Kingpins. “For the people that come to New York for those weeks, we should all get together and make it an outstanding experience for them.”

By working together, the shows can negotiate better hotel rates, recommend restaurants and organize activities for attendees and exhibitors to do while they are in town, Olah said.

“I think we can make the experience of coming to New York during those weeks much better,” he said. “That’s our challenge and our mission.”

For Lizette Chin, vice president of menswear for the MRket menswear trade show, the partnership offered an “opportunity to work with shows to create an experience where our attendees come to New York and [have] an opportunity to not only visit the MRket show but walk other shows that have somewhat of a different synergy with what we do.”

Chin said many of the MRket exhibitors are already taking advantage of the overlap in scheduling.

“I have over 350 brands that come to New York to show their collections. Whether it’s Première Vision or Texworld, a lot of them come in a day or two earlier to source fabrics and shop for fabrics,” she said.

Joining forces also puts more attention on the sourcing side of the apparel business, said Tricia Carey, merchandising manager for Lenzing Fibers, which organizes the Lenzing Innovation Pavilion at Texworld.

“We did an economic analysis in terms of what our shows bring to New York, and it’s over $25 million,” she said.

Carey said plans are underway to highlight some of the local “near-sourcing opportunities” in New York as well as offer educational seminars and host a launch party in July—“to bring the whole community together.”

The three trade shows have approached the other apparel and textile trade shows to join in NYC Textile Week before the official launch in July, and the group has already enlisted the support of the tourism board, NYC & Co., and the New York City Economic Development Corp. The group’s website (www.nyctextileweek.com) currently lists show information, including details about each show’s seminar series, recommendations for restaurants and activities, and a delegate discount pass, which offers savings at dining and other attractions.

The Texworld textile show and MRket menswear show run concurrently Jan. 19–21 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, and the Kingpins denim trade show runs Jan. 20–21 at Skylight Clarkson Sq in Manhattan’s Soho neighborhood.