California Apparel News

NEW YORK—Last season’s newcomer is growing up fast. Blue, the denim-driven show that launched during the men’s market week in New York in January, was back July 24–26 at the stylish Tunnel, in the middle of the city’s art district.

“Last time there were 52 exhibitors,” said Mike Sampson, show coordinator for ENK, which organizes Blue, as well as The Collective, Fashion Coterie and Brighte Cos., among other trade shows. “This time there are 99, so it has pretty much doubled.”

The space certainly did seem much fuller, but not overly so—with returning exhibitors such as Hudson Jeans, Goldsign, Earnest Sewn, The Other Side of Kyoto and Paige Premium Denim next to a whole slew of new exhibitors including Sling and Stones, Mynk and Barking Irons.

“It is kind of a little experiment for us,” said Daniel Casarella, designer of Barking Irons, a New York–based company that instills some antiquated “Gangs of New York” style into garments, and now jewelry, for the discerning modern-day dandies that roam the Lower East Side today. “We heard so many people talking about the last show, there was such a huge buzz about it, that we thought we should definitely try it out.”

Casarella had exhibited at the Project Global Trade Show, held a week earlier at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York. He said that rather than seeing the same faces as he had at Project, he had noticed at Blue a whole new range of buyers walking through the ultra-hip, brick-walled warehouse space.

“The space makes all of the booths look really, really great,” added Michael Casarella, Daniel’s brother, and Barking Irons’ director of operations. Michael noted that Blue felt similar to how Project started off when it was in the more-intimate Puck Building. “I think the buyers really like the boutique feel of the show—it’s their environment after all, it makes them feel comfortable, more at ease,” he said, adding, “I think Blue really has the potential to grow. Give it two or three years and it will definitely be up there as one of the main shows.”

Another Blue newcomer, David Long, cofounder of Mynk in Atlanta, also had showed at Project. He, too, said he had been intrigued by the murmurs surrounding Blue’s launch. “I have actually been involved with Elyse Kroll [chief executive officer of ENK] before at the Coterie show, and when I heard what everyone had to say about this show, I thought I should be a part of it.”

Mynk’s slick upturned-pocket details have had the line sold out for quite some time, but Long is interested in getting in new buyers to take up the next line. “Elyse always has the best buyers coming to her shows, and I feel that this show is a good one for them as it is really user-friendly and laid-back.”

Guido Ditto, creative director of Compulsive Collection, a store in Delray Beach, Fla., agreed. Ditto came to Blue after browsing the aisles at The Collective show, which ran concurrently at the nearby Show Piers on the Hudson. The retailer said he thought that Blue was much less overwhelming than the larger Collective show. “It’s refreshing to have everything in one space, rather than having to work through three [piers] of exhibitors.”

The small, intimate quality of Blue was a selling point for Jeff Shaffer, owner and designer of Los Angeles–based Agave, who showed his denim line for the first time at Blue. “People love the ’boutique- iness’ of this show, and the fact that it’s manageable,” he said. “I really see this show developing, but they need to keep it small.”

That was the same advice Jonathan Weisner gave Blue organizers. “We really don’t want it to get much bigger,” said Weisner, East Coast president of sales for California-based Z-Brand, in conversation with ENK’s Sampson. Zbrand was a returning exhibitor and had experienced great success at the last show.

“The booth has always been busy, at this show and at the last,” said Weisner, who also said he thought that if the show increased in size, the effect on exhibitors might be detrimental, with buyers becoming swamped in a mass of new and probably smaller booths. Being yet another fan of the actual space itself, he also didn’t want to see the show moving to a new location.

“No matter what happens, we will always look after our exhibitors,” Sampson replied. “We can see how things are developing with Blue, and we have been talking about the next show already,” he said, although he declined to give any details about future developments. “There are other floors that can be taken into consideration, and let’s leave it at that.”