Will Fashion Shows Be United in Las Vegas?
At least eight shows are now held during same week as MAGIC market
By Heidi Genoist -- Tradeshow Week, 8/2/2004
Las Vegas—The city is gearing up for fashion week, loosely Aug. 29–Sept. 4, when at least eight tradeshows will overlap MAGIC Marketplace. And unlike the automotive after-market industry — which has brought together SEMA Show, AAPEX, NACE Intl. Autobody Congress and Expo, and a handful of other events in a more-or-less harmonious organization — fashion tradeshows in Las Vegas are popping up in an organic and disjointed way.
There's no getting around the fact that MAGIC has magnetism. The show, which organizers said spanned 864,827 net square feet and drew 3,027 exhibitors and 90,000 attendees (including exhibitors) to the Las Vegas Convention Center last February, has long been in the upper echelons of the Tradeshow Week 200. Although they haven't returned to the pre-Sept. 11 days of a million-plus net sq. ft., both the winter and fall versions of the show held steady throughout the economic downturn.
The other fashion-industry tradeshows that have sprung up around MAGIC openly acknowledge their debt to the heavyweight. "It started out that we wanted MAGIC's traffic, but now we have our own," Amy Freeman, director of marketing and special events for Westcoast Exclusive, told Tradeshow Week last year.
Combined with the fashion industry's diverse and creative nature, as well as Las Vegas' abundance of exhibition space and hotel rooms, MAGIC's drawing power has given rise to a plethora of new events in the last few years.
ASAP Global Sourcing was started in February 2002 by Frank Yuan, founder of business-to-business company Cyber Merchants Exchange.
Show manager Beverly Wu said ASAP caters to "people in the apparel industry — buyers, sourcing execs — who are looking to get goods produced overseas." Wu said C-ME is expecting more than 300 exhibitors from 35 countries to fill 40,000 net sq. ft. at the Hilton Pavilion and attract about 5,000 attendees this Aug. 29–Sept. 1.
Alongside ASAP at the Hilton will be the Intl. Apparel Show, produced by Las Vegas-based Fred Nassiri, and Hand & Associates' Intl. Western and English Lifestyle Market. The former, in its third year, projects 60 to 80 booths covering 60,000 net sq. ft. and attracting 5,000 buyers of both promotional and regular priced apparel.
Owner and manager Rodney Hand said the 15,000 net sq. ft. IWE Show draws upwards of 5,000 buyers and features 130 manufacturers of western and English equestrian-oriented wear. The three-year old show used to take place in a different timeframe, but Hand moved it to coincide with some of the other shows in town, like Womenswear in Nevada.
Because of their shared location, C-ME, Nassiri and Hand have begun the process of coming together. ASAP and IWE Show are co-marketed, and all three work together on logistics. Still, none has managed to build a relationship with MAGIC Intl. "Originally, we approached them to see if they wanted to start a show like this," Wu recalled. "Our CEO, who has 30 years of experience in this business, saw a need for a show of this type, but they did not, so we started our own."
MAGIC shared space at the Sands Expo & Convention Center with the Off-Price Specialist Show before deciding last April to move its women's wear show, WWDMAGIC, from the Sands to the LVCC in order to consolidate it with the men's, kids', alternative and fabric portions of the Marketplace.
Off-Price has had its own headaches. Close Out Expo, now owned by the Intl. Apparel Show, was launched last spring by Chris Brewer and Tom Metsa, former employees of Off-Price owner Tarsus Expositions. Although Brewer said at the time that Close Out Expo was geared toward a different audience, Bill Jage, chairman and CEO of Off-Price, disagreed. The Off-Price Specialist Show, which will be held at the Sands Aug. 27–31, anticipates around 12,000 visitors and 400 exhibitors filling 380,000 net sq. ft.
Across town at Mandalay Bay, meanwhile, another type of competition is cropping up. Founders of Westcoast Exclusive said they moved their 8-year-old luxury men's wear show from Los Angeles to Las Vegas in 2002 in response to exhibitors' demands. The show has done so well in its new destination that this year it is moving from the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino to Mandalay Bay's Bayside B exhibit hall.
Also growing into Mandalay Bay will be POOL, a show that features designer lines aimed at boutique buyers. Organizer Ronda Walker expects it to cover 150,000 net sq. ft. of Mandalay Bay's Bayside C exhibit hall and attract around 5,000 international buyers.
"MAGIC was not an option for the little guys and new designers we cater to, because it grew too big and was all over the place," she said.
Two other venues, Caesars Palace and the Rio All-Suite Casino Resort, are also hosting fashion trade events during the week of Aug. 29. The Intl. Swimwear/Activewear Market's ISAM 2004, Aug. 30–Sept. 2 at Caesars Palace, lists nearly 200 exhibitors, several of whom are MAGIC mainstays. And the Rio has cited continual growth of its staple exhibition client, Womenswear in Nevada, also Aug. 20–Sept. 2, as part of the reason it's adding 60,000 sq. ft. of exhibition space to its pavilion.
