Project Back at Mandalay Bay
A new home seemed to agree with Project Global Trade Show, which for the Fall 2010 selling season moved from its home at the Sands Expo & Convention Center to the Mandalay Bay Convention Center. “Being in Mandalay Bay with MAGIC Men’s was new. It was great for the men’s buyers to have everything in one location. It worked out very well,” said Sam Ben-Avraham, president of Project. “We kept the merchandising basically the same. When people come to Vegas, it is confusing enough. We did some tweaking, but for the most part, we kept it consistent.” The show welcomed more than 800 brands to its show floor.
Attendance figures were not available at press time, but exhibitors and organizers said traffic seemed steady. Buyers from retailers such as Anthropologie, Ron Herman, Harrods, Holt Renfrew, Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom, Fred Segal, Hub and American Rag shopped the show in search of newness and must-have items.
Karen Meena, vice president of Ron Robinson at Fred Segal, said she found the show to be much easier to shop than in past seasons. “I liked the show much better than the last few times. It was much cleaner, the aisles were bigger, there seemed to be fewer [brands], and it felt better organized and much more manageable,” she said. Meena did echo some complaints heard from other buyers about a general lack of newness in the market. “Everything has started to look the same; there isn’t much newness in the market,” she said. “Plaids, for example, are everywhere. How many plaids do we need? I’m looking for stripes.”
Marc Flashberg debuted his new denim collection, Marc Allison, at Project and reported slow traffic but strong buyers. “It was our first time at the show, and we didn’t know quite what to expect,” he said, adding that he was pleasantly surprised that the buyers who came into the Marc Allison booth seemed to have no reservations about taking a chance on a fledgling brand.
Drew Bernstein of Kill City reported a strong show. Buyers, he said, left plenty of paper, writing orders for faux-leather leggings, leather T-shirts and cargo skinny jeans for Fall 2010. More-progressive buyers bought into the contemporary brand’s range of drop-rise jeans and pants.
Ben-Avraham said next season Project and MAGIC’s men’s offerings will return to the Mandalay Bay.—Erin Barajas
