In 2009, EW reported on the Parisian fashion and design tradeshows that take place twice every year at Porte de Versailles, looking at what they were doing to move the events on for 2010. The events, which take place at the end of summer and winter, trade heavily on the international pull that Paris has for designers and fashionistas across the globe.
Together, the shows are seen as a hotbed of design excellence, with a proportionally higher number of overseas visitors and exhibitors attending these events than most international exhibitions, all keen to learn how to do it like the French.
Paris and the surrounding region is home to more than four fifths of France’s international tradeshows. However, for ready-to-wear fashion, lingerie, textiles and home furnishing, the French capital can consider itself Europe’s international home.
One year on, with fewer people making international trips, how have these shows been adapted for success?
Valerie Lemant the head of lingerie and swimwear tradeshow division at Eurovet, the organiser that manages Mode City and Interfilieres Paris. She has been going after first-time exhibitors to ensure numbers don’t slide. It’s a goal that is as much an attempt at selling the idea of exhibitions as a marketing medium to potential exhibitors, as it is making a booth at your show seem an attractive investment, she said.
“It is quite difficult to visualise for exhibitors who want to attend for the first time,” said the former Reed show director. “The promise we have to make to these companies is that it is easy to rent a booth; that it is easy to come to Paris and exhibit. We have to tell them that the material organisation is easy and the price is the right price under these conditions.”
Lemant claims that while she did not struggle to get rebookings in 2010 – a problem that for her was largely confined to 2009 – the demands of the market in 2010 necessitated changing the way her team markets the events.
Eclat de Mode and Bijorca international sales manager Sandrine Phileas claims the spring 2011 edition of the jewellery show has won around 100 first-time exhibitors, an achievement that ameliorates the increased difficulty she faced in securing rebookings throughout 2010.
It comes as a result of overseas campaigning, and the increased profile of her role as the domestic French accessories market weathers the economic storm. “In the past we made more turnover from French exhibitors than the internationals. Now French exhibitors are suffering, they take a very long time to rebook,” she said. ”Even if we make specific offers, they prefer to wait and pay later at the standard rate.”
Phileas has worked with the Eclat de Mode team to introduce a series of packages aimed at ensuring exhibiting at the show is a viable offer for anyone considering attending the exhibition.
Another method of ensuring return overseas visitors is to go abroad and get them yourself. Boris Provost, communications director at Paris streetwear shows Who’s Next and Premiere Classe, worked hard last year to ensure a constant stream of international exhibitors by forming partnerships with the organisers of fashion weeks in Sao Paolo and Montreal. It served both to give French designers a presence in those countries, and offer a window to the Paris events for potential exhibitors in their local markets.
Exporting the show to the right market will also help the original show’s branding. Dubai for example, a place occupied by people with a proportionally higher level of disposable income than most, makes an ideal place to launch a fashion show. “We believe in the Middle East [fashion exhibition] market place, but in order to set-up your brand by yourself you need a strong relationship with a local partner,” said Provost, who is also manager of the recently launched Who’s Next and Premiere Classe Dubai. “When you meet someone from the Middle East in Paris, you have to go to the country and set-up an interview for relationships to make good business and develop the brand.”
Phileas, too, saw Eclat de Mode launch in another territory – this time the US – not only to exploit the local market but to promote the brand and bring fresh overseas business to the flagship event in Paris. However, standards in the US were not what she expected and the venture risked dragging the name of the brand down, so they withdrew. After all, it makes no sense to push your brand internationally only to see it devalued in a market you have singled out to bring you more business.
Provost has other partnerships abroad, but primarily as a way to help the French industry export through the use of pavilions. He is also looking to launch an area dedicated to beachwear with Eurovet in September, a partnership that could see him working quite closely with Lemant.
It’s by working together in this way, presenting a unified front and creating an air of collaboration that these co-located Paris events hope to keep their stock high with the international crowd throughout 2011. “We want to speak only with one voice. Not to show that Paris is the strongest, but that in Paris there is a huge offering offering of fashion,” said Provost.
Lemant attributes some of Mode City and Interfiliere’s success to an almost missionary approach to gaining support, winning new overseas exhibitors one region at a time, a method that Eurovet adopted the year the recession set in.
“We have been on a mission around the world to secure the business,” she said. “The Japanese market comes to Paris to catch a designer; it’s important to be there to be current. We choose to introduce European talent to come and shop in Tokyo and reach a different buyer, the domestic market that does not come to Paris. It’s about giving them the confidence to attend.
“To be present in Paris is to secure the international credibility and be recognised as an international designer, but it is not enough. We have to develop, and to expand the business.”
Of course it’s crucial to ensure that once you’ve got them, they are inclined to return the following year. As Lemant said: “If one has a problem, on their first time in Paris, they will not be back. It’s really important to help them find their way.”
