Interest about Fashion Trade Fairs has grown

Retail is growing and so are the Brno International Fashion Trade Fairs STYL and KABO. The traditional 45^th show of new collections of textile, fashion, footwear, and leatherwear suppliers was attended by 767 brands, which is the biggest number since August 2010. Novelties for the Autumn and Winter 2015/2016 season were viewed by more than five thousand trade visitors, businessmen, and buyers.

For the very first time in their 22-year-old history, the trade fairs took place during both days of the weekend. The demands of the majority of exhibitors, who couldn’t manage to attend to the visitors on Sunday alone, were behind this change, and the intention to divide the visitors’ attendance into two days was fulfilled. During the weekend the expositions were viewed by four thousand visitors, mainly owners of small businesses and boutiques, and, as expected, another thousand of professional visitors representing bigger business units came to the trade fairs on Monday. Foreign visitors came from fourteen countries, mainly from Slovakia, Poland, and Austria.

“The STYL and KABO trade fairs reflect the development of the Czech fashion market, which was very positive in the last year, mainly in its end. Therefore both Czech and foreign exhibitors were greatly interested in participating in the trade fairs,” said the director of the STYL and KABO trade fairs Gabriela Císařová. The increase in demand was felt especially at the KABO trade fair, where several interested applicants had to be rejected due to lack of space in the footwear section.

239 companies from 17 countries exhibited at the 45^th Fashion Trade Fairs this year. The majority of foreign exhibitors came from Germany, Poland, and Slovakia; the attendance of Greek exhibitors was also numerous, the number of exhibitors from Austria had grown as well, and the visitors could not miss the stands of Croatian, Russian, Lithuanian, or Spanish companies. Both representatives of foreign brands and 63 direct manufacturers were among the Czech exhibitors. The section of young and independent fashion Fresh Fashion was again a part of the trade fairs.

The number of new exhibitors was big as well – it was the first time exhibiting at the Brno trade fairs for 43 exhibitors (sports and outdoor clothing SB Group, Polish leisure clothing MZGZ, German ladies’ fashion Kenny S, Slovakian leatherwear MAX, Croatian ladies’ fashion LADY M, MARIA and M WOMAN, original Czech ladies’ plus size fashion KA & BO, men’s shirts JASPIS FASHION, luxurious jeans ZM Jeans etc.).

The exhibitors presented their novelties and trends at contractual fashion shows taking place several times a day at the pavilion P catwalk. Companies and brands Boja, DDP Paris, Camp David, Elega + Elega by Dana M., Geisha, Moděva, Pause Cafe, SOCCX and Tramontana participated in the series of men’s and women’ fashion shows STYL SHOW. Fashion shows of collections of lingerie, nightwear and hosiery LINGERIE SHOW introduced the offer of the companies Conturelle, Felina, Hotex, Lisca, Pleas, Sassa, Schiesser, Un:usual and Werso.

Two special fashion shows became a rare event at the trade fairs. The German brand of luxurious ladies’ lingerie FELINA celebrated 130 years since its foundation at the catwalk. Another celebration took place on Sunday with the special fashion show Czech Designers for ELLE. It was a unique presentation of models which were created by twenty Czech top designers in honour of the twentieth anniversary of the magazine ELLE on the Czech market. The finale of the show belonged to the collection of the latest creations of Klára Nademlýnská.

Information about current trends in world fashion was conveyed by the only seminar of its kind held in the Czech Republic. The seminar was presented by the Dutch expert Ellen Haeser, who works for a number of renowned brands and has more than thirty years of experience with trend making as well as developing of textile materials. The presentation was focused on styles, shapes, colours, and fabrics for men’s and women’s fashion, footwear, and accessories in the Autumn and Winter season 2015/2016, and it attracted a great deal of attention of both the exhibitors and the visitors of the trade fairs.

On the occasion of the fashion trade fairs the magazine Svět textilu & obuvi (The World of Textile and Footwear) gave a prestigious award to two important personalities of the field. The Personality of the Year 2014 in the Textile and Clothing Industry award went to Jiří Grund, the director of the company GRUND, an internationally successful manufacturer of bath mats. The Personality of the Year 2014 in the Footwear Industry award went to the footwear expert Michal Špaček, who continues the educational activities of Jan Pivečka and works for the United Nations in the field of industrial development.

The panel discussion “Experience with complaints after the first year of the new Civil Code” attracted an extraordinary number of participants. Other supporting seminars focused on new technologies and materials used in footwear production, the usage of the technology RFID in the textile and clothing retail sector, and the international project S2S, which is focused on environmental sustainability in the footwear industry.

 What they said about the trade fairs:

Livia Klausová, Ambassador of the Czech Republic in Slovakia: 

Once again I have visited Czech companies at this trade fair and I was surprised by the number of the exhibitors. Never would I have guessed that STYL and KABO would have almost 800 brands. Last year I did not attend the trade fair, but I feel that fashion trade fairs have undergone a recovery. The exhibition Czech Designers for ELLE was very nice and it was a great idea to present twenty Czech designers at once.

Klára Nademlýnská, fashion designer:

Brno traditionally holds a special place in the Czech fashion scene. My cooperation with the Brno Trade Fairs has been going on for some time and this year it has been my fourth show in a row. I have prepared an exhibition Autumn-Winter 2014-2015, where the first half revolves around outfits for daily use and the second is aimed at evening dresses.

Iva Macháčková, Managing Director, commercial representation of the company Wortmann for the Czech Republic and Slovakia:

During this trade fair we present the collection for Autumn and Winter, which revolves mostly around leather ankle high shoes. We can see new interest in our products. Ten years ago we explored a new franchise project Tamaris Store. The sole traders more and more come to realize that if they want to lead their stores right and encapsulate everything new, there are some pieces of knowledge and experience which are good for them to take up. 

Pavla Šedinová, Commercial Officer, ELEGA:

We have returned to the trade fair after four years because it is good advertisement and the need for it is really high. We are a Czech company, lately we have been focusing on leather goods only, and we have expanded our collection by a new brand called ELEGA by Dana M., on which we collaborate with the actress Dana Morávková. Handbags from this brand were presented during the fashion show and it was a success. Customers came after the show and said that they liked it very much, which pleases us a lot.

Miroslav Slavík, business partner of the company Skorochod, St. Petersburg, Russia:

Skorochod is one of the five biggest child shoes producers in Russia and they produce 1 800 000 pairs of shoes per year. The company has its retail stores all over the Russian Federation, from Vladivostok to St. Petersburg, and they sell their products even to Scandinavian countries. Now they would like to expand their business activities to Central Europe and that is why we are exhibiting in Brno. Especially the first day we were pleasantly surprised with the attendance and the positive feedback we received concerning the quality and price of our products.

Pavel Hajn, owner of the company Pavel Hajn, výroba kožené galanterie:

We have attended KABO twice a year for twenty years straight. We show off our novelties because the need to produce something new is perpetual. Now we have managed to attract the attention of visitors with our hand-painted handbags and wallets. From time to time, we acquire a new client at the trade fair, but since we have been on the market for a long time and the customers know us, we see it as an opportunity to meet with our regular clients, who, for ten years straight, can find us at the same place.

Andrea Verešová, topmodel:

Brno is connected with my modelling roots. After my success in the Elite Model Look competition, when I was sixteen, I began to acquire my first modelling experience and I was taught how to walk like a model here. Back then I was bursting with stage fright, anxiety a little, but also expectations, hopes and unfulfilled dreams. It was a completely different experience from now, when I can enjoy the atmosphere of a fashion show from the view of a guest. I am a big fan of young models and fashion designers.

Jiřina Matoušová, owner of the company Werso Fashion:

The organizers have prepared for our presentation a nice atmosphere and our stand was always booming with customers, sometimes they even had to stand in a line, so we are happy. We also had a fashion show, after which a lot of intrigued people came over and they were very happy that somebody in the Czech Republic is making underwear like we do. We even gained new customers.

Lenka Švecová, Sales Department, Linia:

We are producers of Czech underwear. We liked this year of Brno’s trade fair, the attendance was great, and we are looking forward to next year.

Michal Staněk, co-owner of the company Blue Trading Group, the brand GEISHA:

We come here regularly and we have welcomed the change to Saturday, Sunday and Monday, which manifested itself in an even number of visitors. We present here the Netherlands brand Geisha and we focus mainly on acquiring new contacts. Not only do we exhibit at our stand, but also we take part in the fashion show, which is an intriguing combination. We are reasonably content and we want to exhibit here in the future as well.

Václav Salač, Managing Director, Belgian hats HERMAN:

We represent the high quality hat brand HERMAN from Belgium. These hats do not have any real competition here on the Czech market. Our primary goal was to intrigue a spectrum of customers as broadest as possible, so that they would learn that they can get their hands on our products even here in the Czech Republic. A very positive aspect of this trade fair is the feedback from the visitors; how they react to our prices and which types of hats they like. In effect, it will help us with the creation of pre-orders for future collections.

Petr Vykoukal, Sales Manager for the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the company Felina ČR:

Today is the third day of the trade fair, which means that we have a lot of business meetings ahead of us. But I can now say that overall the number of clients, who have visited us during Saturday and Sunday, was great. They came in much greater numbers than during last year’s fashion trade fair. What had helped it greatly was that we had arranged for an anniversary exhibition in honour of the 130 years anniversary of our founding. If I were to rate this trade fair, I would say that for our company it was a success. We have a great number of customers from the Czech Republic and Slovakia here, but we also had some intrigued visitors form Slovenia, Hungary and Russia.

The 46^th International Fashion and Footwear Trade Fairs STYL and KABO will take place from the 22^nd to the 24^th of August 2015.