Intertextile, soon to be the world’s leading denim trade show?

By

Matthieu Guinebault

Published
Oct 23, 2014

While the Chinese textile trade show previously divided its denim range between fifteen exhibition halls, Intertextile will now set aside one single hall for the sector. With 160 or so exhibiting companies so far, the show could become the world’s leading denim trade show, according to its organizer.

Put on in the Shanghai New International Expo Center’s W5 hall next to two of the show’s main entrances, the space Beyond Denim includes a largely Chinese range, supplemented by twenty foreign exhibitors from Pakistan, Turkey, Italy, Spain, the United States and Brazil. 

"We had the potential, but we hadn’t yet consolidated our range, thereby preventing a high degree of visibility,” said Michael Scherpe, president of Messe Frankfurt France, happy to find the influence of the organizer’s Parisian trade show “Texworld” at Beyond Denim. 

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With new advances in sustainable development and design, denim is now one of Intertextile’s priorities, according to Olaf Schmidt, head of textile trade shows at Messe Frankfurt. Smiling, he hints at his ambitions for the space. Roaming an event that draws 70,000 visitors and that will soon benefit from an expanded exhibition center, foreign specialists should quickly be satisfied.

There is no question, however, of making Beyond Denim independent. The event will remain part of Intertextile. It will nevertheless benefit from the special attention that the sector requires.

“In order to organize the hall, we’ll first have to place the exhibitors,” said Michael Scherpe. “We’ll also have to keep in mind the sector’s specific needs and ways of doing things so that professionals will feel at ease. I think that it will become the leading international denim exhibition."  

Understanding all this has taken Messe Frankfurt longer than its main rival, the French organizer Première Vision, whose trade show Denim by PV has seen a great deal of success in Europe. 

Its Chinese edition, which is held at the same time as Première Vision, sharing the same dates as Intertextile, will also be overhauled in 2015.