Texworld / Apparel Sourcing back to pre-crisis level

By

Matthieu Guinebault

Published
Sep 12, 2013

Texworld, the trade show for fabrics, findings and accessories, will be held from September 16 to 19 at Le Bourget, again simultaneous to the manufacturing trade fair Apparel Sourcing.

The organizer has chosen to use Le Bourget's Hall 4 rather than the prior set-up of Hall 1 connected to Hall 2. The move means that for the first time, the two shows will be physically separated. Buyers will have to cross the exhibition ground's central walkway, guided by dedicated signage.

"With the development of Apparel Sourcing Paris and to provide a better platform for exhibitors and visitors to our shows, we decided to leave Hall 1 and opted for Hall 4, which offers technical advantages," said Michael Scherpe, president of Messe Frankfurt France. "Obviously, the three 'end-use' sectors of Texworld and Apparel Sourcing will be reorganized, based on the new space, to optimize the visit and purchases."

The men's, women's and casual/sportswear offerings have been organized into large families based on product types. And three new areas have been created. Functional & Sportswear, formerly Functional Fabrics, groups together products that use technical and functional materials. Cotton Attractive Spirit is now Cotton & Blends AS, hosting cotton and cotton-blended products for woman. Cotton Casual View has been renamed Cotton & Blends CV to include cottons and blends for mixed casual wear.

This session should erase any memories of the bad results in February 2013. That session had been largely handicapped because it ran parallel to New York Fashion Week and especially the Chinese New Year. For September, Texworld had already filled up the aisles at the end of May with the return of the Asian exhibitors who were absent at the beginning of the year. But there is also a growing interest among newcomers, resulting in the highest rate of exhibitor registration since the 2008 crisis.

"We received a lot of requests compared to other sessions, many companies are on the waiting list," said Michael Scherpe. "In addition, we noticed a good trend toward more upscale in the collections being offered. Our selection committee chose very creative weavers and quality in different ranges."

China, Turkey, South Korea, Taiwan and India lead the list of exhibitor nationalities. New exhibitors are again coming largely from South Korea, China, India, Japan, Hong Kong and Turkey. All totaled, 810 weavers from 24 countries will be exhibiting their products at this crucial session.

Indeed, it is a risk for Messe Frankfurt to give Apparel Sourcing an independent venue. Strengthened by a 12% increase in registrations for this session, the trade fair will bring together some 200 exhibitors, 50% from China and Hong Kong. The other exhibiting companies hail from Bangladesh, Egypt, Mauritius, India, Pakistan, Sweden, Turkey and Vietnam. India is also now the second most represented country.

The fair's offering consists of 52% of products for the women's market, versus 30% for men, 8% for children and 10% accessories. Newcomers include Indian shirt manufacturer SAP Apparel as well as compatriot BBK Textile Mills and Krishna Beads Industries, both accessories manufacturers. New companies will also be adding to the fair's knit products (Joytex Int'l Ltd., Nitto Knits); casual wear (Babysitters Brox, Abha Spintex); suiting (Createx Tekstil); and outerwear (Dun Huang Garment).

In September 2012, Texworld and Apparel Sourcing attracted some 14,400 visitors from 104 different countries — a "surprising result in a period of crisis," said Messe Frankfurt at the time.