Comments on: Launching at Moda

By: Andrea

Andrea — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 18:24:16 +0000

Wow. Great article! I’m an assistant to a designer who asked me to check out the NY shows and my Google search lead me here first! Valuable information that I plan to share with my boss. Thanks for the insights.

By: from marissa v.

from marissa v. — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 15:02:55 +0000

Regarding A’s experience with being put in a bad area, I experienced a similar thing at Who’s Next in Paris (this doesn’t just happen in the US!). The problem was they had opened a new area as the show is quite popular and the sales rep for Who’s Next promised that it was appropriate for my semi-directional casualwear company (the show is called Who’s Next – the “international laboratory of style” for crying out loud). Instead, I found myself in an area featuring dark colours, lots of suits, Jackie O style dresses, and a furrier. I guess this new area was created to accomodate more mature companies than the usual Who’s Next crowd. I complained about this and the sales director came over, had a look at my stand, and admitted it was the wrong area – but that doesn’t mean I got a refund!
It’s pretty common to be put in a bad area the first time of a show, and my experience is that even if you have been put in an excellent spot (as I have been at Pure London), you are still not likely to sell much when your brand is young. I have a hard time believing a young brand showing for the first time would write $20K in orders – you would need to have an extremely special product (I know, I know everyone thinks their own products are extremely special). You either have to look at showing as a marketing investment, or wait until your company has got more PR and more stores under your belt before showing.

By: Designer08

Designer08 — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 04:25:33 +0000

The same thing happened when I was talked into doing Shecky’s. $700 for a booth where supposedly Barney’s, Saks and other upscale buyers would be. I pulled my designs and left, very pissed off, less than two hours later. I was livid beyond belief. I was surrounded by people that were showing cheap jewelry, reworked one-of-a-kind clothes and about 500+ drunk women eating pizza and popcorn that wanted to handle my designs with greasy hands. Oh boy, that taught me to walk a show ahead of time. I never, ever would have given them a second thought if I checked them out at another date and time. Not that I can afford to lose $700 but it could have been worse.

By: Designer08

Designer08 — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 04:14:50 +0000

By: susan

susan — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 15:44:29 +0000

Thank you~~ Without better information, Moda does appear to be an obvious show to do. I’ve walked the show with a friend who is a buyer and neither of us were impressed by the clothing.

I’ve also walked the Philadelphia show (Rosen group) and although the area of women’s clothing is small in comparison, it is more unique with higher price points. Depends on what you’re doing. If you design your own pieces and oversee production, the Philadelphia show may be a worthwhile consideration. But you have to commit to doing both the February and the August shows.

Beside Coterie and Intermezzo, there is also the Atelier show (atelierdesigners.com) and Nouveau Collective (nouveaucollectivetradeshows.com).

By: Marguerite Swope

Marguerite Swope — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 16:31:55 +0000

Bethany,
I have a little smile on my face reading your comment about Direction. I did the exact same thing last year (although I can drive to NYC, so it was not a big deal). I use a lot of patchwork in my line, and I saw a woman next to me pay $4.95 for a small piece of fabric. So I’m figuring in my head how many pieces it would take to make my top and I know I could never afford it. Well….when I glanced at her bill when it was written down, I saw…not $4.95, but $495.00. I nearly fainted, and then I learned what you learned. People are buying the right to the print and they take it to converters to get fabric. I’d never even heard of a converter! Now I actually have one.

For fabrics, I just returned from Material World in NYC, and I’ll send Kathleen a mini-report on that show when I catch my breath from being away.

Thanks, Kathleen, for posting this, and thank you, A, for giving us the benefit of your experience. I’m looking for a fit in a trade show and the names you mention are some I’ve considered.

Marguerite

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 00:17:13 +0000

“A” seems to suffer from a few misconceptions…first and formost that the Trade Show grass is always greener (and busier) someplace else…another show, another aisle…anywhere but where they are. Secondly would be judging a book by its cover (sorry for all the old adages). You don’t have to be 20 to sell to 20 or to have a shop for them either. It is about having a pulse on who or what your market is and merchandising to it. If 17 Mag is their target than perhpas that is what they should have told the rep at MODA. The phrase Young Designer can mean alot of things….you can be young and merch young or you can be young and target 35-65. It sounds like a bit of sour grapes because they did not research enough and felt misunderstood….(but to be sure it will happen again as it does to all of us because you can do everything right and still end up at the end of a dead end aisle next to the absolutely wrong line…..but also maybe their stuff was just not that good or not that right.

Trade shows can be frustrating and when you are new to the market, or to a show….it is a lot more than “build it and they will come”. it takes time, marketing, postcards, phone calls, personal visits to stores….it takes prep and that is a lot more than making samples and showing up at the last second to decorate a booth.

At the end of the day most Trade show people are selling real estate….some are nicer than others about it but that is what they are doing….nothing more and nothing less. Some care about your success (others could care less) but in the end the trade show rep can only do so much to bring success to your booth. THAT is incumbent upon you the exhibitor. Our company exhibited in both the February and May Moda shows we had the best February show ever (in NYC market) and we have done more than a few February shows. We made lots of appointments and that brought more traffic. Admittedly it is a bit of a vicious catch 22 to get there (and our company is still getting there) but we have created a niche with the specialty store….and I would no more want to be across from Juicy than I would that Yoga line….but you can have a good show either way.

Our company has had experience with both the people at Bus. Journal (Moda, Acc the show etc) and ENK… and while ENK may draw a crowd….there is a lot of junk there too (like anywhere) AND, more importantly they are neither pleasant nor proffesional to deal with….and that is NOT an industry secret.

A may or may not have a good product, in the end it doesn’t always matter. There is plenty of talent that goes no where, incredible lines that don’t get placed and alot of trash selling right accross the aisle from you at your next trade show. There is nothing worse (trade show wise) to be standing in your booth with a great collection and see the junk that is selling like it is the last day on earth…but it happens.

By: MW

MW — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 15:22:25 +0000

He says they asked everyone they knew which shows were the best bet and none had heard of Intermezzo. He said others had heard of Coterie (owned by ENK) but they didn’t know enough to ask about that show at the time.

I wonder who was asked. I went to MODA, for the first time, in Vegas. It is definitely a certain type of show. It was bundled with Accessories the Show and they paired well together, but that show was definitely for a certain demographic. It reminded me of the chain store Georgiou (not sure of the spelling).

Intermezzo and Coterie are definitely good shows. Harder to get into, but far better for certain demographics.

Listen, if you cannot walk a show, and you must ignore all advice to walk first because you are pressed for time, look at the exhibitor list of past shows. 99.9% of the time, that will tell you if it’s even reasonable for you to be at that show. If you know who you “hang with” (past post), you can do a decent job picking a show by looking at where your peer group is showing. You should always go first (because even knowing where they show won’t prep you for being ready to show there, knowing the environment and all). But what I can say about MODA is had they looked at the exhibitor list, they would have known that wasn’t the show for them.

In Vegas, it was very much an older woman’s dressy clothes (including heavily embellished evening wear) type of show.

By: bethany

bethany — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 04:58:47 +0000

If it makes you feel any better, the first trade show I ever did was ASR Holiday in Long Beach. I had seen competitors that had done it and it was really close to home and I was just itching to sell, so I went. Not only did I not get one order, I think maybe two stores stepped inside the booth! It was a disaster, but because it was so bad I knew all I could do was laugh. But I will say, just getting my feet wet made my second show, Bubble, go so much better then if Bubble was my first show.

Oh, one last thing: I was looking for a fabric show besides the LA fabric show (this was before I found this site) and I saw there were two ‘fabric’ shows ‘Direction’ and something else. I read the websites and they looked awesome. So I flew to NYC, spent the night, got up and was first one in the show. Turns out it wasnt a fabric show at all! It was just a print show which means I could buys prints and get them printed on fabric myself. The buyers there were like Walmart, Target, etc- HUGE buyers! I about died! I was on a plane back to LA by 2:30pm that day! I dont think I was in NYC for 24 hours. Now that my friends, was a mistake! LOL!

By: cdbehrle

cdbehrle — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 01:58:40 +0000

Bravo for this post, it’s a hard and expensive lesson, but as “A” found it’s INVALUABLE. They will (and do) sell you anything to fill the booth. They have done it forever and that won’t change. Take the trip and walk the show(s) if that’s how you’ve determined to sell. Talk to people and get out there. Ditto with sales reps, When I was in full production, I found it way too easy to find “reps”- they could sell it all! (NOT!) I’ve gone overseas, just to walk shows. It’s well worth it.

And make sure your showroom fee goes for something
besides your rep’s rent- Some very high profile reps demand a huge monthly fee, but sit on the samples- it’s a well known practice.