Busy Schedule, Crowded City in Las Vegas

As the fashion industry prepares for a week of schmoozing, shopping and trend spotting at the Feb. 13–16 run of the MAGIC Marketplace, many retailers and market watchers will be looking for the single overarching trend defining the Fall 2007 season’s fashions that will be on display at what is the largest apparel trade show in North America, featuring more than 4,000 exhibitors.

“There is no direction in the market now,” said Fred Levine, co-founder of the Agoura Hills, Calif.–based M. Fredric chain of contemporary boutiques. “It’s fun because it makes the market mysterious. That’s when designers can become creative.”

When Levine travels to MAGIC’s Project Global Trade Show, which opens at the Sands Expo & Convention Center on Feb. 14, he said that he hopes a new trend takes shape because new trends inspire consumers to buy new wardrobes.

Kathy Shawver, buyer and partner of the Los Angeles–based Diane Merrick boutique, forecast that she was going to keep her buying choices conservative because the market has given no leads as to what is going to be popular.

“I’m not going to take any risks,” Shawver said. “I want to have pieces that look timeless on the boutique’s floor.”

However, a few Fall trends may emerge, according to Mercedes Gonzalez, director of New York–based buying office and forecasters Global Purchasing Companies. Women are forecast to be buying non-denim garments, possibly corduroy or twill. The must-have men’s item will be the hooded sweat shirt, she said.

Busy city

MAGIC’s parent company, Advanstar Communications, owns Project; the MAGIC Marketplace, which will be held in the Las Vegas Convention Center; and the Pool trade show, which will be held in climate-controlled tents outside the convention center. In addition, buyers will also be in town to shop the many concurrent shows, including The Exclusive at the Sands Expo, Women’s Wear in Nevada at the Rio Convention Center, the ASAP Global Sourcing Show, Accessories The Show and the Off-Price Specialist Show at The Venetian, as well as newcomers United trade show and Fo Sho Fo Show, both at the Alexis Park Resort.

If no specific trends are forecast, those attending the apparel, accessories and sourcing shows in Las Vegas can be sure of one thing: crowds. Las Vegas will be anticipating one of its most crowded weeks of the year, according to Jeremy Handel, a spokesperson for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Bureau.

“We’re calling it the perfect storm,” he said. Perhaps it’s a perfect storm of events and people. The MAGIC Marketplace is forecast to attract 115,000 attendees, and they are expected to spend $176.1 million in Las Vegas.

The NBA All-Star game is scheduled for Feb. 18, and 25,000 basketball fans are expected to visit the city. They are forecast to spend $26.7 million. Handel said he expects a bumper crop of weddings on the Feb. 14 Valentine’s Day holiday. He estimates more than 400 each hour, compared with the city’s average of 131 weddings each hour on days not marked as holidays.

The importance of being there

Exhibitors such as Vince Gonzales, chief operating officer of New York–based Meltin’ Pot USA, said he will brave the crowds because experience tells him that not making a robust appearance at MAGIC could start nasty rumors.

During the July 2006 Project show in New York, his Italy-based company’s products were held up at customs. So Gonzales was left with an empty booth. Soon he started hearing stories about how Meltin’ Pot was pulling out of the United States.

It wasn’t true, and one of the best ways to prove the company’s health is with a well-stocked, buzzworthy booth, which he plans to debut at Project on Feb. 14. “We do 40 percent of our Fall business at Project. We see most of our important West Coast customers there,” Gonzales said. (He is not related to the Global Purchasing Companies’ Mercedes Gonzales.)

MAGIC will also be an opportunity for the Pool trade show to renew its focus on being an incubator for new labels, said Mindy Wiener, the show’s director. “One hundred fifty of the 400 exhibitors are new. Emerging labels still seek Pool out,” she said.

The show will be located in a series of four climate-controlled tents 100 yards away from the North Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center. The tents will be decorated with the sinister “Moulin Rouge”–style graphics of Pool exhibitor Torsion, a Costa Mesa, Calif.–based label that started business about nine months ago.

At MAGIC, attendees should expect to see a larger juniors area located at the trade show’s women’s market, WWDMAGIC, according to Chris McCabe, the vice president and general manager of MAGIC. Compared with the August 2006 MAGIC show, the juniors area will feature 11 percent more companies, which will take up 19 percent more floor space.

Footwear also is becoming more important at MAGIC. The percentage of exhibitors offering footwear grew 94 percent since 2004, McCabe said. They include everyone from resortwear label Tommy Bahama to Manhattan Beach, Calif.–based footwear brand Skechers.