California Apparel News

Los Angeles is becoming the hot spot for textile shows.

Just a few weeks ago, it was revealed that Urban Expositions, a trade-show organizer outside of Atlanta that puts on Material World in Miami Beach, Fla., has its eye on Los Angeles and plans to start up a West Coast version of Material World in 2009.

Now the people behind the Dallas Market Center are planning to organize a textile show in Los Angeles, too.

The DMC declined to give specific details, but a spokesperson confirmed there will be a textile show coming to Los Angeles in the near future. However, it wasn’t clear whether the show would concentrate on just the home-furnishings industry, fashion industry or both. “Conversations are still going on this week,” said Meredith Hite, public-relations manager for the DMC, which is owned by the Market Center Management Co. “We are working on all the details right now, and our executive team has been on a retreat [doing that].”

The textile show would be somewhere in downtown Los Angeles and probably be held twice a year.

According to Brian Thaler, president of the Textile Association of Los Angeles, a press conference announcing more information about the textile show is planned for May 29 at 9:30 a.m. at The Standard hotel in Los Angeles. Thaler said he and other TALA board members will be present, but he declined to give further details about TALA’s involvement with the new show.

It also was unclear whether the DMC would partner with George Little Management LLC, which manages the DMG World Media–owned California Gift Show, held twice a year at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The three companies were partners in developing the California Market Center’s Building C into gift showrooms when the building was owned by Judah Hertz.

This latest addition to the textile-exposition lineup increases the competition for Los Angeles’ businesses. The Los Angeles International Textile Show, held twice a year at the CMC, is the oldest of the group, started 15 years ago. The next show is scheduled for Oct. 27–29.

Dallas’ new textile show is part of the company’s expansion plans to grow its revenue and reach. “We are in the works to expand more internationally and in the United States to manage and operate shows,” Hite said.

Early this year, the Market Center Management Co., owned by Crow Holdings, announced a multiyear agreement to help develop and manage the LatinAmerican Trade Mart in Bogota, Colombia. The 2.5 million-square-foot mart, with more than 500 permanent showrooms, is scheduled to open in 2011.

The company also manages the ShanghaiMart in China and the Brussels International Trade Mart in Belgium. At the Dallas Market Center, the company stages nine major trade events a year.

DMC and Urban Expositions aren’t the only show organizers looking at Los Angeles lately.

In March, IDG World Expo, producer of trade shows and consumer events—including Macworld Conference & Expo, E3 Media & Business Summit, Entertainment For All and GreenXchange Xpo—announced plans to kick off Reveal L.A., a biannual fashion event, in Los Angeles in 2009. The event—which will be held at the California Market Center, L.A. Live and other downtown venues—will include a designer marketplace, fashion presentations and other events to spotlight Los Angeles’ design community. —Deborah Belgum