Steady attendance at Paris' second-round trade shows

By

Anaïs Lerévérend

Published
Mar 11, 2016

Attendance at January's Paris trade shows was hit by the post-attacks climate, but the March editions apparently enjoyed a return to normalcy. The shows altogether welcomed the number of visitors that were expected, recording attendance numbers pretty much level with March 2015. And as usual, given the upmarket positioning of the shows, organised in parallel with the Paris fashion week, there was general praise for the visitor quality.

The Tranoï show published an attendance figure that was up 3% compared with last year. The most represented country was still France (29% of buyers), which was also the most dynamic, with an attendance increase of 9%. The rest of Europe accounted for 43% of total visitors, ahead of Asia (15%), North America (7%), the Middle East (3%) and Africa-Oceania (3%).

As for the Tuileries-based Première Classe - Paris sur Mode - Don't Believe The Hype shows, their attendance was stable. However, an upswing in Asian presence was remarked, as well as increases in the number of visitors from the USA, Spain and Germany.

Show organiser WSN Développement noted that one of the factors that certainly contributed to the stability in attendance was the presence of menswear buyers, even at a womenswear session. Some menswear buyers were perhaps forced to skip their own industry's events last January.

Leaving aside the show attendance's quantitative dimension, the organisers were all agreed that, in qualitative terms, this season's edition was up to standard. The shows managed to attract to their halls some of the most directional buyers present in the French capital for the fashion week, with a rise in 'VIP' professionals.