Fashion Buying Goes Digital: Is the traditional fashion trade show a thing of the past?

fashion trade show
With traditional tradeshows coming with hefty costs for travel and attendance, buyers and press are limited to attending only a few, key events per year. What’s more, their time at these events is spent tirelessly wandering huge halls trying to find brands that suit their buying needs.

SOURCE Brand Preview is an online showcase of fashion brands that is turning the traditional tradeshow format on its head. Held completely online, this two-day event showcases brands to fashion buyers and press from around the globe, who are searching for the next big thing.

This innovative online event consists of twelve webinar-style sessions over two days, each one lasting just one hour and curated specially to meet a specific buying need. Whether it’s the fresh, innovative brands of tomorrow, or high-end bespoke pieces that attendees are looking for, Brand Preview exhibitors are some of the world’s most exciting designers to discover.

With traditional tradeshows coming with hefty costs for travel and attendance, buyers and press are limited to attending only a few, key events per year. What’s more, their time at these events is spent tirelessly wandering huge halls trying to find brands that suit their buying needs.

This online format is a welcome reprieve – giving them the opportunity to discover new brands that consumers want to buy from the comfort of their desk.

With the huge increase in fashion brands using online channels and social media platforms like Instagram and Snapchat to reach buyers, press, and consumers – it makes sense for tradeshows to happen online too.

Membership Director, Mallory Giardino says “We want to make these exciting fashion brands accessible to as many people as possible, and taking the buying experience online expands the reach enormously.”

Sustainable brands: Defining the future of fashion

Not only does Brand Preview showcase some amazing fashion-forward collections, all exhibitors also have ethics and sustainability engrained into the heart of their business. To be eligible to showcase their work, brands must meet the Ethical Fashion Forum’s ‘ethical mandate’, setting out key social and environmental factors that must be addressed by the business.

With over 50% of global online consumers now willing to pay more for products and services from companies that are committed to positive social and environmental impact*, retail buyers and fashion press are responding by embracing more products that are made with a social and environmental conscience.

SOURCE Editor-in-Chief, Sarah Ditty, curates the lookbooks and trend reports for Brand Preview and has seen the quality increase dramatically year on year. “Sustainability is becoming a license to operate in today’s fashion world and the next generation of emerging designers are doing some incredible things in this area, using sustainability to their advantage with innovative materials and techniques,” she says “all while maintaining the highest quality design and aesthetics.”

Curated brand lookbooks are presented at the online sessions and then shared with all event attendees afterwards. In 2015, the lookbooks were viewed over 16,000 times by buyers, press, and consumers in all corners of the world.

For more information, please see the website.

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