After the upcoming show in Paris, May 23-24, Denim Première Vision is splitting its time between the City of Light and a new European city each year. First stop? London, Dec. 5-6.
Guglielmo Olearo, Première Vision S.A. international exhibitions director, shares why they’re taking the show on the road and how Denim Première Vision is evolving to match the needs of the ever-changing denim industry.
Rivet: How is Denim Première Vision supporting the denim market?
Guglielmo Olearo: Over the last 10 years, Denim Première Vision has adapted to the transformation and innovations in the denim industry, carving out a place for itself as one of the international leaders in the sector.
Denim is now a multi-community product, far removed from its historic vintage codes, and has re-joined the seasonal fashion market in terms of creation and product development. The pure players, still extremely important, have seen their leadership on the market and their innovation be outpaced by fashion and luxury labels and retailers that have integrated denim into all their creative collections by exploring the new facets of this precious material.
A shorter time to market, a continual development process, the generalization of updates, injections and capsule collections are typical of fashion brands and these ways of working now apply to the denim industry, with a much tighter creation and production schedules. In this changing market, Denim Première Vision sets out new ambitions with an event format that has been completely overhauled to take into account the needs of the entire denim value chain and its players.
Denim Première Vision will become a roving international event. From now on, our show will be organized alternately in Paris, the global capital of fashion, and in a European city with a strong fashion influence. The aim is to encourage proximity with fashion and design markets while offering the sector new sources of inspiration and creativity.
The new show calendar (end of May and early December) fits with all the supply chain needs of fashion brands as well as with the right time when pure players are making final adjustments to their collections and launch pre-production.
The products will remain the heart of our events with an international selected offer that is very high quality and complementary in terms of savoir-faire and organized by profession for greater clarity and optimize the time of visit from our buyers: weavers, components and accessories manufacturers, clothing manufacturers/denim washers/finishers. A unified stand will showcase creative developments and the technical and technological innovations of exhibitors and new, more contemporary scenography will result in a simplified buyers’ circuit that is inspiring and more efficient.
But Denim Première Vision is also a platform of content: the fashion tools have been redesigned and are more instructive and emphasis will be highlighted on the experience side of the event: speakers, conferences and debates about the challenges facing the sector, (eco-responsibility, changes in consumption patterns), events and happenings to facilitate encounters, exclusive collaborations with designers that we are going to disclose in the next weeks.
Rivet: Why is London the first city for the show’s new roving format? What is unique about London’s denim and design scene?
GO: London is a vibrant place—it is a place with history, a place to welcome different cultures and people and it is unique because it is a city open to innovation. London has a huge list of brands working with denim. We decided to move to London to have a kind of better proximity with the market. London for us was a natural choice and we are very glad that people accepted our choice with positivity. People are so excited about doing the show in Paris and London. We always move to fashion capitals where there is business because we need to provide this immersion and be something extremely inspiring every time.
Rivet: Will a change of scenery excite creativity and innovation?
GO: Creativity, innovation and proximity are the main reasons pushing us to organize a roving show…Being in creative, vibrant, cultural hubs like Paris and London encourage designers to think and work in a different way pushing forward the limits of their creativity. Being a roving show obliges us to imagine and design Denim Première Vision in a different way every season playing with designers, artist, schools that the proximity will offer us.
Rivet: How is the industry responding to Denim Première Vision’s new traveling concept?
GO: The industry, generally speaking, and exhibitors and bands visiting our show are responding in a very positive way. More and more they understand our new concept and they are showing a point of view. Denim is not just limited to a certain number of brands; it is a common and fantastic product. People understand perhaps that there is a new way of doing denim and there has been a great positive input from the denim world.
Rivet: How is the role of the denim trade show evolving?
GO: The denim fashion industry is totally changing. The consumer behavior, the acceleration of the production as well as the numbers of collections have a huge impact. And I am still persuaded that trade shows have a major role to play. But, to play a major role a show must have the vision, humility, resources and capability to adapt to the today trends and needs, keeping its D.N.A. and values. This is what guided us to develop the new concept of Denim Première Vision.