The rain petered out overnight and Day 4 of the trade shows was back to hot, sunny Vegas. I needed to hit the road by 4pm at the latest to make sure I was in front of the massive convoy traffic heading back to LA once the shows finished at 5pm.
I spent the day at the Venetian Hotel covering the MRket menswear show and the CurveNV swim, lingerie and men’s underwear show.
MRket
MRket is a showcase of contemporary, traditional and better men’s ready-to-wear clothing, sportswear, footwear, accessories and outerwear from the US and overseas. MRket is the property of Business Journals Inc. that also puts on the Moda and Accessories shows in the same massive space at the Sands Convention Center.
It is an extensive show that includes an emerging designer section branded Vanguards Gallery, and an Italian designer section.
There are a number of brands that I like to check out each time – New Zealand’s Rodd & Gunn and French Laundry among them.
Rod Williams, the EVP North America for New Zealand’s Rodd & Gunn told me that they had another great show. Rodd & Gunn’s soft launch in the US for Spring12 opened 20 doors “without trying”, in Rod’s words. The full launch for Fall12 yielded another 70-80 retailers including 3 in Japan and 6 in Canada. They expect to add another 50-60 stores by the time Spring/Summer13 has finished selling. Their knitwear has been their best seller. Linens are doing well, along with tissue weights and seersucker. I noticed R&G are doing contrast colors and prints on the inside cuffs and sleeves to give an interesting sleeve roll-up look. This was popular with many brands.
English Laundry are rocking awesome jackets in the smaller 28″ shrunken look. The shiny paisley jacket in viscose and rayon really stood out. Solids were also popular. The silhouette being the most important aspect. They have also brought back the double breasted.
It seemed to me that the metrosexual look is filtering over into traditional men’s. Lots of preppy and country stripes and checks in shirts and blazers, the fit is slimmer across the board, slim knee length shorts and capris, denim and chinos, with lots of color in soft brights and neutrals.
Things continue to look up and look good for menswear.
CurveNVThe CurveNV show continues to grow in size and reputation.
Attendance held about steady compared with last August with the good news being the show reported 30 percent new buyers from not only the United States, but Argentina, Australia, Canada, Caribbean nations and Japan.
CURVExpo runs the designer lingerie and swimwear shows in New York and Las Vegas. CurveNV includes swimwear, lingerie, underwear, sleepwear and activewear. Women’s and men’s brands are represented.
With the increasing interest that I have been getting from Australian swimwear collections wanting to launch in the US, I wanted to compare CurveNV with the ISAM swimwear show that is part of WWD MAGIC.
I bumped straight into the successful Australian swimwear brand, Seafolly. Many other big names were there – DKNY, Michael Kors, Betsey Johnson, Juicy Couture – to name a few.
The buyer traffic was slow on the last day.
My time was up. The tremendous energy and activity of the Vegas fashion trade shows quickly dissipates on the last afternoon. However, all that energy and activity leaves the impression that the industry is in good shape and leaving the very difficult last 4 years behind.
As I said at the beginning my Day 2 blog, I wanted to come away from Vegas with the confidence that the industry is really, finally on a sustainable upward trajectory towards recovery. It didn’t happen. I had been upbeat about the industry’s prospects after the last 2 Vegas fashion weeks to no avail. This time, I left certain that we won’t see any significant upturn at least until after the November elections. The economy will continue to chug, and so will the wholesale and retail sections.
However, with the right (or left) result in November, things will be very different when we are back in Vegas in February.
I know what’s going to happen. Do you?
Paul Brindley
paul brindley consults
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