Copenhague: the great trade fair shake up

The season of all changes is being planned in Copenhagen, and to say there is a slight shuffle in the events scheduled for the end of January would be an understatement. Of the three shows we saw last season, one will disappear, a second one is changing name and shape, and the third one had to change its date and thus its organisation.

Last year, the three fairs had a difficult time agreeing on their dates. Consequently spread out over eight days, they caused rumours after recent performances in Bern. The latest, and most biting one is that Gallery is being cancelled, as a trade fair at least.

Nevertheless, backed by a stronger dynamic, this summer it brought together up to 400 exhibitor. But this winter, it will only serve as a relay station, a unifier of presentations that will take place in a showroom. Its organisers feel this is currently the most appropriate format and will thus propose services to rally buyers to the different spots.

Cause or consequence? The Gallery trade fair saw its artistic director abandon ship after the last edition only to disembark on competitor Vision's team.

Under his impetus, the latter's salon will be re-launched in a new format and under a new name: Revolver. The trade fair will once again be using two halls, as in the past, one aimed at more specific designers, among which we will inevitably find Gallery defectors, and the other at more commercial and urban brands.

Gallery's former exhibitors will certainly be called upon by the CIFF. The trade fair leader is also submitting modifications. At the beginning it had announced its willingness to impose its own dates, during the week at the beginning of February, but in the end decided to give in to the Copenhagen fashion week organisers who were fearing the overlapping of schedules with the English trade fairs and the New York fashion shows. Like Revolver, the trade fair will thus be held from 29 January to 1 February, from Thursday to Sunday.

Another change for the CIFF, a re-organisation will be made of its children's and men's segments. In the past, these two were dependent on the mostly women's part of the fair but that is set to change, with the two worlds gaining their independence. For the men's segment, the only problem with the scheduling was for the summer session, with dates in August that were too late in the season compared to the international calendar. A new autonomous model, CIFF Raven, will thus be launched "at the beginning of the summer", without any further specifics for the time being.

Finally, CIFF Kids, a European leader in terms of children's fashion trade fairs, will now be completely distinct from the global CIFF, for both summer and winter. CIFF Kids will therefore take up Gallery's former exhibition space, at the Forum Copenhagen, with dates that have been slightly moved forward: from 25 to 27 January 2015.

Copenhague: the great trade fair shake up

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