Fashion Week: Are Nine Shows Too Many?

By Heidi Genoist -- Tradeshow Week, 9/20/2004

The Teamsters' strike at the end of MAGIC Marketplace may have overshadowed the conclusion of a big week of fashion tradeshows in Las Vegas.

Organizers of the eight other apparel industry shows that took place in Las Vegas Aug. 29¨CSept. 3 may love MAGIC or hate it, but one thing is certain: They were there because of the seventh-largest tradeshow in the United States.

"We like to think we're fashion week by ourselves," said Camille Candella, marketing director of MAGIC Intl., the Advanstar Communications division that runs the show.

Who can blame her? With 930,000 net square feet, 3,300 exhibitors and 90,000 attendees, the Aug. 30¨CSept. 2 MAGIC, a semiannual show, was nearly 70,000 sq. ft. larger than last February's show. The reported growth was even more impressive considering the entire show took place at the Las Vegas Convention Center for the first time since 1998, when WWDMAGIC, the women's wear expo, moved to the Sands Expo & Convention Center.

Since it's not just size that matters, MAGIC management has toiled to keep up with important trends in the apparel business. Some efforts have borne fruit. The 6-year-old streetwear section brought the hip-hop energy of clothing lines like Phat Farm to the show, not to mention enough exhibits to fill the LVCC South Hall's second level. They remain the show's most conspicuous sponsors, plastering the exterior walls of the LVCC with massive ads for their latest lines.

This year, a global sourcing division was developed to respond to designers' search for inexpensive overseas fabrication. "I wish I had known there was a global sourcing section of MAGIC, because I think they get a lot more traffic," said Herry Hanafi, general manager of Bintang Kanguru and an exhibitor at ASAP Global Sourcing Show, taking place alongside MAGIC at the Las Vegas Hilton. "I will look into it for next time."

But nobody can please everybody all the time. Despite MAGIC's claim to the contrary, certain underserved segments have thrived in exhibitions outside Advanstar's jurisdiction.

When asked about cooperating with other shows to promote the concept of a Las Vegas fashion week, MAGIC spokeswoman Ernae Mothershed responded: "Since we cover every single segment of the market, we don't see any need to do that." When asked about specific segments like western wear, featured at the Intl. Western and English Show, Mothershed said, "We don't share customers with them."

Hand and Associates' IWE, collocated with ASAP at the Hilton, coincided with MAGIC for the first time this year. Show managers admitted anyone with a badge from the flagship event.

"I wouldn't be here if it weren't for IWE," said attendee Elliott Kavesh, a buyer for Renton Western Wear, "but I went to MAGIC and found five new designers there too."

IWE owner Rodney Hand said he may be adding a little traffic to MAGIC, but he's grateful to the larger show for giving him its blessing to be there.

IWE has changed both dates and locations a few times since it started two and a half years ago, and Hand hopes it's found a permanent home now. Still, he knew the move to the more expensive Hilton, and yet another timeframe, would cost him. The show was down from more than 400 exhibitors at its peak, to just under half of that this year.

Hand may be the biggest proponent of the fashion week concept ¡ª with good reason. The creator of Western & English Today (which he sold to USFR Media Group in 2000) this year launched a twice-yearly publication called Las Vegas Fashion Week to coincide with MAGIC's summer and winter dates. For now, the publication supplies a rundown of the tradeshows going on around town. But Hand hopes to develop it into a more elaborate dining and attractions guide in order to woo high-dollar advertisers.

He was not the first to see the potential synergy. The Off-Price Specialist Show for years collocated with WWDMAGIC at the Sands. And this year, MAGIC continued to allow Off-Price to run buses between the Sands and the LVCC. "We have a longstanding agreement with them," said Off-Price CEO Bill Jage.

He added that not having the women's wear show going on upstairs at the Sands didn't hurt Off-Price. With 9-percent growth in exhibits and 4-percent growth in attendance this fall, compared with the last show, Jage said he's hoping the Sands-MAGIC litigation over the upper-level hall is resolved soon so he can have a shot at moving into that space.

Another event that's thrived in MAGIC's shadow is The Westcoast Exclusive. Although this high-end menswear show overlaps with MAGIC more than others, the two still have come to an agreement that allows buses to run between the LVCC and Mandalay Bay Convention Center, Westcoast's new home.

Organizer Amy Freeman said the show ¡ª which her parents Herb and Stevi Goetz started seven years ago as meetings in Los Angeles hotel suites ¡ª is still necessary today, because it fulfills the need for the upper crust of men's fashion to gather in a quiet, luxurious setting.

Freeman said she had no choice but to make the leap to an exhibit hall this year, having outgrown the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino. But she took pains to maintain the intimate atmosphere in a 200,000 net sq. ft. exhibition, with touches like fine linens on all the dining tables, Japanese-themed decor, and a Zen garden where visitors could relax.

That's exactly why Westcoast is no threat to MAGIC, she added. "We're interested in quality, not quantity. We'll keep this show as small as we have to in order to maintain its luxurious feel."

Freeman said she likes the idea of a fashion week, but doesn't expect Las Vegas to produce a runway-centered week of activities on the scale of those in New York or Paris. "People have suggested an alliance, but we don't all share the same buyers."

It's the shared buyers from upscale boutiques that caused Freeman to allow Ronda Walker to collocate her fledgling show POOL with Westcoast at Mandalay Bay. Yet no two shows could be more different.

At POOL, house music echoed off bare cement floors, dotted with white shag rugs to designate conversation areas. A lounge area in the middle of the showfloor featured a disc jockey, full bar and foosball table. Almost all the 500 booths were minimalist 10¡ä¡Á10¡ä hardwall pop-ups.

Walker is somewhat ambivalent ¡ª both about MAGIC and the idea of a fashion week. But she can afford to be: Of all the exhibitions in town, hers generated by far the most buzz this year.

"This is the place to be for cutting-edge designers," said exhibitor Thomas Tarricone of Triluxe. Attendees on the floor of POOL repeatedly mentioned the appearance of budding celebrity J. Lindeberg in Triluxe's exhibit.

Specialty Trade Shows' Jeff Yunis and Roland Timney, producers of Women's Wear in Nevada, are definitely not ambivalent. "(MAGIC) considers us leeches," said Timney. "They won't allow us to move buyers around, but it's their loss. Everybody else works together." Yunis and Timney believe in the value of what they call a "market week," and said they've approached every other show manager to discuss the idea.

It's not greed that drives them, they said, but the interest in shared growth for all. Their niche, fashion for larger and more mature women, maintains a steady base of buyers and sellers, as specialty stores come and go. Rather than growing the 100,000 net sq. ft. exhibition, Yunis said, they prefer to focus on running a friendly show.

WWIN plans to stay at the Rio and move the 200 or so exhibitors now in a tent in the parking lot to the hotel's new 60,000 sq. ft. exhibit hall, expected to open in 2006.

Timney said participants like the hotel, where they can hear background jazz and get free lemonade and iced tea from waiters cruising the show's aisles with drink carts.