The first show, called the Fabric Show at The New Yorker Hotel, displayed fabric from an era long ago or should have been left long ago. The entire show was three medium size rooms and only took a hour or so to see.
Several consulting firms were there convinced they could help get your designs manufactured. I will check the consultants out at some future time. Nevertheless, they want to play with your money.
One company was helping with an incubator and had courses on becoming an entrepreneur. Unfortunately, the time when a designer could do all aspects of a business is also over. Many young people still believe in doing everything. SOAR is about providing the back-office support so a designer can focus on design.
In any case, many people in the booth have lots of good experience I would like to tap their knowledge, so I collected email addresses for my newsletter.
The second show was at a midtown suites hotel and the people exhibiting were suppliers to the bespoke men's apparel industry.
I think wool and wool blend fabrics have improved over the last 10 years. I found mixtures of wool and alpaca to be very pleasant. Knitted apparel, besides leisure suits, are sneaking into the apparel scene with some very business-like jackets. Supposed to be very comfortable and knitted business jackets could become popular.
European mills had several interesting rooms of samples. Wools maybe old fashioned, yet they still look good. A denim manufacturer reminded me denim, especially in pastel colors are very fashionable. Custom denim jeans, jackets, and other apparel should be very popular. At a denim based show a few years ago Spain seemed to be good at denim colors.
Interesting enough, Japan was represented by both a mill and manufacturer. I'm always interested in Japan as they like perfection, which custom clothing can achieve. Japanese machinery for apparel can be very interesting, like Shima Seki full body-knit machines.
The keynote panel discussed customer service - hey, almost all the people were from the bespoke industry except for myself. Now I have a better grasp of customer service and how to avoid the problems of the bespoke industry.
The women representing the companies all liked the idea of apparel that fit. Even here the women really didn't dress stylishly or well.
I learned the complexity of men's suits is not for me. Good suits really take a lot of hand work and not very asaptable to automation.
Finally, the Texworld/Apparel Sourcing show at the Javit's Center,
In the past this was a much larger show. If you want boring, ugly fabrics or products, this is your show.
I even asked visitors if they found anything interesting. Not a chance. In fact, I think if you were a modern producer you probably weren't here. Maybe it was one of few shows that feature foreign manufacturing.
And even if I had time to assess whether a company was excellent, yours and mine contacts in China, etc. would want to use their own supply chain.
Not going to this show again.