The Who’s Next Show and Tranoi Preview
Paris
January 25 – 28 2014
Who’s Next Prêt à Porter Paris continues to be a major international trade show for:
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Contemporary, mainstream and designer womenswear
Accessories, fashion jewellery, footwear and luggage (designer to mainstream)
Casual menswear
Mid-market ladieswear, including eveningwear
Held twice a year (January and July), the majority of exhibitors show at both editions of
Who’s Next, with the exception of some knitwear companies opting only to show in January
and some resort wear companies showing only in July. The show takes place at the same
time as the Salon de la Lingerie and Bijorhca (jewellery and findings) and all are located at
the Porte de Versailles exhibition centre in South West Paris.
July 2014 was the fifth edition of the merged Who’s Next and Pret à Porter Paris shows and
the event is now fully rebranded as “The Who’s Next Show”. In terms of dates in the
international calendar, Who’s Next always positions itself between Pitti Uomo in Florence
and Bread and Butter in Berlin. The Who’s Next Show theme this season was Toy, with
interactive fun features appearing throughout the various halls of the show for visitors to
enjoy, including table football, games machines, an Etch-a-Sketch parlour and live radio
station streaming.
Attendance at the show was good, with the organisers’ official figures confirming that 58,234
international buyers and Press attended the show. Around 60% of attendees come from
France but the show remains popular with buyers and press from Northern Europe (with a
strong contingent from the UK) and with those from Russia, Korea and Hong Kong.
Who’s Next Prêt à Porter Paris is an attractive show for buyers to visit, offering around 1,300
brands every season, together with Trend Forums (from which free trend information can be
gleaned) and two major fashion shows every day (with free entry to all visitors to the
exhibition). The leading countries represented were France, Italy, Japan, Belgium, Korea,
Russia, Hong Kong/China. Almost 100 companies from the UK took part in the show , which
is a similar number to January 2013 and of these 26 were in receipt of grants (through
UKFT) from UK Trade and Investment.
The Tranoï designer womenswear and accessories exhibition has its pre-collection edition at
the same time as Who’s Next and this season it moved to Garage Turenne in Central Paris.
Seven designer womenswear and accessory brands from the UK exhibited and reported
steady buyer and press traffic at the new location. This season the Playtime Paris
(childrenswear) show took place simultaneously at the Parc Floral in Eastern Paris. This
depth and variety of trade shows demonstrates the continuing strength of Paris as an
international trade exhibition centre.
The Who’s Next Show occupies Halls 7 (levels 1 and 2), 3 and 4 of the Porte de Versailles
exhibition centre. Première Classe and Who’s Next Accessories occupy the whole of Level 2,
Hall 7. This season Premiere Classe (traditionally for “Designer” accessory companies) was
positioned at the back of the Hall, with the Who’s Next Accessories section around it,
ensuring that buyers walked the floor in depth even if only heading for Premiere Classe.
Overall, good business was done here.
Elspeth J. Walker, designer at jewellery company Sweetlime comments “This is the third
year we have exhibited at Who’s Next. Each time we show, we gain new clients and our
orders have increased with every show. We always make new contacts and following up
really does pay off. I can see that customers are encouraged by the fact that we are repeat
exhibitors. This gives them more confidence to buy. We will show again in July 2014.”
FAME (Hall 4) worked very well for a contingent of ten new international designers on the
new The Future of Fashion Program (sponsored by Not Just a Label, Koka Consulting,
Fidancia and Lambert & Associates) stands for January 2013; five of these will be invited to
participate again in July 2014. Other newer designers from the UK benefited from the Who’s
Next Young Designer initiative group stand, and still more new designers showed
independently in FAME. Good international business was reported from participants in this
section, which benefited from a diagonal layout and plenty of refreshment areas, which
always attracts the buyers!
David Longshaw said, "We showed for the first time at Who's Next in January 2014, adding
this to our show calendar (we already do Paris Fashion Week in February and September). It
was a very different show, far larger and with a much larger audience of buyers. We were
busy pretty much for the whole show, and FAME in Hall 4 was definitely the right hall for us.
We met many interesting new potential buyers."
Nicola Woods of Beautiful Soul was very happy with the show, and said "We have just shown
at Who’s Next for the first time (AW14) and found that it worked really well for us. We met
so many new buyers, as well as existing contacts. The show was great for international
buyers, we saw people from all over the world; but we also found that lots of UK buyers
attend. We have confirmed orders and are already working on producing these for new and
existing stockists. We’ve booked for next season (SS15) and also for Paris Sur Mode in
September 2014, so we are looking forward to building on these relationships and starting
new ones. The Fame section in Hall 3 was a great fit for Beautiful Soul London; the buyers
enjoyed the atmosphere and the variety of designers was well selected”.
Ready to wear and womenswear brands, in addition to some unisex lines are shown in Halls
3.1 and 3.2, where stand design and layout is more traditional. Evening wear is showcased in
Hall 7.1, which is the second entry point to the exhibition and attracts many visitors.
All UK companies at the show featured in the UKFT promotion on the UKFT stand, which
was well located in Hall 7.2 and a good representative selection of companies provided to
images and a logo for the UKFT Brits in Paris video Loop. The Loop was shown on the UKFT
stand, and also on YouTube on the Brits around The World section of the UKFT website. The
Loop and promotional postcard, listing all the exhibitors, will remain on the UKFT.org until
the next edition of the show, acting as an essential information point to buyers, press and
potential exhibitors.
Dates for the next edition: Friday 4th - Monday 7 th July 2014
(NB - this season a Friday start, as opposed to the normal Saturday)
UKTI TAP Grants are available for eligible UK companies through UKFT, please email
[email protected] for details.
Laurian Davies, February 2014