POOL Plunges Into New York Fashion

Watch out, New York. A burgeoning Las Vegas fashion show is headed East with the intention of creating a little competition in the city.

Meanwhile back in Las Vegas, February's results are causing some changes to fashion week for this coming August, including Reed Exhibitions' exit from MAGIC Marketplace.

Las Vegas boutique lifestyle exhibition POOL Tradeshow will hit the New York fashion scene for the first time this summer.

The show, which Advanstar Communications acquired in August along with another fashion week show, Project Tradeshow, will make its New York debut July 17-19 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. It will collocate with the existing Project New York show in side-by-side Javits halls. Both shows primarily feature lesser known, albeit up-and-coming, designers.

Los Angeles-based management firm POOLTradeshow expects the New York launch – dubbed POOL 11, because this will be the brand's 11th staging – to attract more than 15,000 attendees to see 250 labels in 70,000 square feet of exhibit space. Project is expected to feature 600 brands.

According to POOL's Web site, the new show sold out within 24 hours of registration opening. Launched in 2001, POOL recently evolved from a rack-and-rail show to modular concept booths.

"Our buyers and exhibitors have been begging us to move east for the past few years. The timing was right for POOL to expand into a new market," said Mindy Wiener, the show's director of operations. "We are launching our Fashion Freedom Worldwide Tour and bringing a breath of fresh air to Manhattan."

Tanis Paul, the show's production coordinator, said that because POOL and Project are similar, "we could feed off each other. It's really good for us."

POOL exhibitor Kris Nations of Kris Nations Jewels has been looking forward to a POOL show on the East Coast.

"It will be great to meet with more New York City and East Coast buyers. POOL has some of the most interesting and original vendors, and I think the East Coast buyers will enjoy the show," Nations said. "Buyers who were planning on attending Project, and didn't know about POOL, will be pleasantly surprised and vice versa."

Wiener said the power of the two shows together could be enough to make some buyers forego trips to other New York fashion shows.

"POOL believes there are too many tradeshows. Buyers are tired of having to travel to the city every week for a different show," Weiner said.

Along with Project, POOL joins a number of New York fashion industry mainstays, including several shows operated by both Business Journals and ENK Intl.

Weiner said, "With Blue (an ENK show) a week later, D&A (operated by Designers & Agents) a few days after that, out-of-town buyers are forced to choose. We are confident that with so many brands under one roof, the decision will be simple."

Both Blue and D&A, as well as ENK's The Collective, take place at non-traditional New York venues. Blue is scheduled July 24-25 at the Tunnel; The Collective July 23-25 at the Show Piers on the Hudson at the New York City Passenger Ship Terminal; and D&A July 29-31 in photography studios at the Starret-Lehigh Building.

ENK Intl. spokesman Coleman McCartan said he doesn't think the POOL and Project collocation will impact ENK's two July shows, which are sold out. The company stages several other fashion shows in New York that occur multiple times throughout the year.

"We just added 30 more designers to Blue," he said. "We don't base our schedule on anyone else's shows. Our dates are our dates."

McCartan added, "We understand that certain people would prefer" to attend shows during the same time period. Nevertheless, he said, "It doesn't really have an effect on us."

Business Journals currently produces three shows a few times each year in New York – AccessoriesTheShow, and the apparel shows FAME and Moda Manhattan – none of which takes place in July. President and CEO Britton Jones said he doesn't feel threatened by a POOL and Project collocation.

"While POOL and Project are fashion shows, they are more complementary than competitive to our shows," he said.

In the West, Business Journals also organizes AccessoriesTheShow – Las Vegas. The February show (its second appearance in Las Vegas fashion week) increased attendance by 5 percent and square footage by more than 34 percent over August, when it drew approximately 3,000 attendees to see 300 lines in 14,000 net sq. ft.

Other Las Vegas fashion week shows didn't do so well.

In fact, Reed Exhibitions is ending its brief involvement with MAGIC Marketplace. MODEUROPE, which Reed launched in February with MAGIC Intl. (the Advanstar subsidiary that produces MAGIC), will no longer take place. Also, after two seasons as a part of MAGIC, Reed will discontinue its Jewelry Marketplace by JCK.

Greg Topalian, group vice president for Reed's LaunchPad group, said both MODEUROPE and Jewelry Marketplace exhibitors indicated they would prefer to be a direct part of MAGIC, not featured in a show within the show.

"You live and learn," Topalian said.

However, he added, Reed would consider working with MAGIC again in the future. "It's an amazing show," Topalian said.

The February 2006 MAGIC grew in some respects – net square footage and number of companies – over February 2005. However, attendance figures weren't available nearly two months post-show due to "unusual difficulty with (show management's) attendance reports this season," according to a MAGIC spokeswoman.

The February MAGIC offered 3,356 exhibiting companies representing 5,507 brands filling 914,000 sq. ft., up from 3,155 firms in 897,044 sq. ft. in February 2005 (which garnered it a No. 10 spot on the Tradeshow Week 200).

POOL 10, which took place at Las Vegas' Mandalay Bay Convention Center, attracted more than 15,000 attendees to more than 500 exhibitors. POOL 12 will take place Aug. 28-30 at the same venue.