Good, Better, but Who's Best?

Las Vegas—For years, the upstart apparel tradeshows drawn to Las Vegas twice yearly by the success of MAGIC Marketplace have sought to create a fashion week in the city. Now, they've entered a new phase, in which like-minded events are huddling at the Sands Expo & Convention Center/Venetian Resort Hotel Casino, most notably to create what some are calling a "better community."

By this, they don't mean a better tradeshow; they mean a collection of events catering to (in fashion industry terms) the "better" market: upscale clothing and accessories, which they claim isn't MAGIC's strong suit.

The summer edition of the semiannual MAGIC, No. 7 on the most recent Tradeshow Week 200, took place Aug. 27–30 at the Las Vegas Convention Center and adjacent Hilton Las Vegas. Statistics from the show were not available by press time, but last summer it spanned more than 1 million net square feet and drew 3,998 exhibiting firms and an estimated 112,000 total attendees (including exhibitors).

In the past, competing shows have taken place at venues throughout Las Vegas. Although Specialty Trade Shows continues to produce Women's Wear in Nevada, or WWIN, at the Rio All-Suite Casino Hotel, the bulk of fashion week shows are now at the Venetian. This summer's market saw nine there:

• Accessories TheShow—Las Vegas and Moda Las Vegas, versions of the accessories and women's wear shows that Business Journals produces in New York
• Apparel Sourcing Assn. Pavilion Global Sourcing Show, for worldwide fabric and manufacturing resources
• Curve NV, a lingerie show that, starting next year, will have a New York version
• Curve's competitor, Lingerie Americas Las Vegas, which launched this year as a spinoff of an established New York show
• The Off-Price Specialist Show — Apparel, for second-run, overstock and other discount goods
• Project Global Trade Show — Las Vegas, owned by MAGIC Intl., and also a version of a New York show, this one for cutting-edge designs
• Men's wear show West Coast Exclusive and its younger companion, Synergy

Of the nine, six are considered to be for the better market by their organizers and/or participants: Accessories, Curve, Moda, Project, the Exclusive and Synergy.

"We studied the market and found that a lot of brands in intimate (apparel) at MAGIC felt lost," said Jean-Luc Teinturier, president of Curvexpo. "We wanted to create a new market for them that's more high-end."

Besides Curve and Project, the rest of the Venetian's better-market shows fall under the purview of Business Journals. The Norwalk, Ct.-based business-to-business media firm purchased the assets of the Exclusive (including Synergy) last month, and will use them to launch MRket (named after its men's wear retailing magazine, MR) during February's fashion week.

Together, Accessories and Moda spanned more than 37,000 net sq. ft. The August 2006 Accessories attracted approximately 3,000 buyers, and organizers said attendance at this summer's show was tracking 40 percent higher. In addition to Sands Hall D, Business Journals is holding the Venetian Ballroom for February's combined accessories, women's and men's wear event.

"We're not trying to build another Project or MAGIC. What they do, they do well," said Britton Jones, president and CEO of Business Journals. "We're serving the better community, and (with the Las Vegas shows) we're targeting different areas of the country and the world than we do in New York."

Jones said it's frustrating for designers and distributors of quality products to show lines to buyers who scoff that they're too expensive to even consider. These exhibitors, he added, prefer to be among others like themselves so they can attract serious buyers from their end of the scale.

Exhibitors seconded this assessment.

"I found the product (at MAGIC) to be not high-end enough," said Karen Jones, who switched to the Exclusive three years ago. "Here, they have a lot of extras — wine, cocktail parties, catered meals."

She, and other Exclusive exhibitors speaking with TSW, said they did plan to stick with the show under its new name and ownership. Exhibitors with Moda, a launch this summer, were equally confident in Business Journals.

All that's lacking, some said, was for the company to find more buyers from their ilk.

"We hope it will work," said Moda exhibitor Mark Weissman, president of Weissman Krull, which represents several formal wear lines. "The venue is nice. The collections are gorgeous. ... As long as we all work together, there's no reason we can't do it."