Class to Take August Recess
Class trade show will not schedule any August dates, according to Jason Bates, show director and co-founder of the biannual men’s and denim-focused Los Angeles–based trade show. The show has mostly catered to buyers from West Coast better boutiques, which ranged from Los Angeles boutiques Fred Segal and Lisa Kline to LASC in West Hollywood. However, Bates plans to produce future Class trade shows, perhaps as soon as October or November.
Since Class started in 2007, it produced shows in August or shortly after the Labor Day weekend. The Class producers decided to take a break for this August because the trade show calendar is too crowded, Bates said. The MAGIC Marketplace and its satellite shows are scheduled Aug. 22–24 in Las Vegas. Agenda is scheduled Aug. 3–4 in Huntington Beach, Calif. There also are trade shows scheduled in Dallas and Chicago during the same month. “We want to stand for something different. We want to make sense financially,” Bates said.Bates and his Class partners—Hanna Diouml;s and Greger Hagelin, the chief executive of Swedish brand We Are the Superlative Conspiracy—are talking to investors and venues about when to schedule the next Class. Until 2011, Class trade shows were produced at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in Santa Monica, Calif. The venerable auditorium closed for renovation, and in February 2011, Class moved operations to photography and events compound Siren Studios in Hollywood.
Class’ upcoming strategy might be to produce shows in the wake of big buying shows, such as Los Angeles Fashion Market. “People do spend money at that time of the year,” Bates said. “They need immediates.”—Andrew Asch
