Fashion Trade Shows & Showroom Appointments

Someone on the fashion spot once told me that all your buying plans pretty much go out the window once you actually get to the showroom.  That could not be any more true.

So this weekend is market week, and the Los Angeles Fashion, Gift & Home show at the California Market Center.  Actually it got started on Friday and it ends tomorrow on Monday.  I’m glad I only live 1:30 from LA so I was able to drive down for the day instead of spending $150 or so on a hotel room.  I got to my old stomping grounds, downtown LA, around 12:00.  There was a big war protest right down the street which caused the traffic to be back up and a lot of commotion.  Great timing!

My first appointment was at 1:00 with the Agent Icon Showroom.  The sales reps were super nice, helpful, and most importantly honest.  I ended up spending about half of my budget on two amazing up  and coming lines.  For one of them, I had seen the line sheet and planned out what I would buy ahead of time, but I ended up spending quite a bit more!  It wasn’t a problem since I ended finding more pieces that I liked.  And I’m really confident about what I chose.

I was a bit bummed though because my absolute favorite piece from the line sheet looked quite different in person.  Always see the clothes in person before buying!

Meeting with the showroom pretty much went down like this:

• We came in, the sales rep introduced herself and showed us which lines they had available.  Usually, the sales reps will either present the top selling pieces to you or you can look through the samples on your own and set the things you like aside.
• Collections are usually broken up into three deliveries; one for each month.  Since my orders are small, I’m anticipating that my order will come at the last possible date.  The samples usually have at tag that shows the color ways, delivery and whole sale price.
• I did ask the sales reps which pieces were doing well and which colorways were doing better for each piece.
• After I pulled all of the pieces I liked, I sat down with the rep, went over everything one last time and chose my color ways.
• The labels I chose had minimums such as 5 pieces per style or $1000 per delivery, or 3 pieces per style.  I also found out you can’t buy just one piece from a collection (and I don’t hold this against the designer!).
• The rep filled out an invoice for me, which didn’t have a total so I had to be very careful about how much I was spending.  I won’t be charged for the clothing until they ship (which is next year) and I was given the choice of COD or Credit.

That was pretty much it.  I was in the showroom for about an hour (I like to look at everything several times before making a final decision).

I also got a chance to look around the trade show.  I wasn’t sure how that was going to work; I think basically, anyone who doesn’t have a showroom on the West Coast (or a few who aren’t located in the CMC) are set up in the trade show area, where you can just walk around and browse through the collections as you wish.  I didn’t buy anything but I did pick of up several line sheets and business cards and there are at least two more collections there that caught my interest.

After that I was pretty much done…..it was 3:00.  Yeah, well, I’m not used to getting up early!