Who’s Next and Premiere Classe- Two Fashion Exhibitions for Spring

Photo Mark W. Suits

by Jane Rosenstein

With 41,198 visitors and about 2,000 exhibitors , Who’s Next and Premiere Classe at the Porte de Versailles convention center in Paris, France was an important, interesting fashion exhibition. The focus was on the new clothes and accessories for spring/summer 2016. Both shows occur twice a year.Who’s Next focuses on clothes while Premiere Classe is focuses on accessories. This year there were over 800 brands at Premiere Classe. These included high quality and specialist collections of which there were over 250 jewelry, 200 footwear, 200 leather goods and 150 multi-accessory brands. I found the accessories to be a very interesting part of the exhibition.

There was an increase of 12% of visitors from the July exhibition with an increasdeof 9.5% for international visitors. Buyers came to see the new collections and place orders while sellers looked to attract new buyers.The change of the dates to the first weekend in September appeared to be good for attendence. Also placing Fame the section with ready to wear clothes and Premiere Classe in the large Hall 1 was a good idea. There were fashion shows highlighting new collections as well as new concepts.

Adrianne, my friend, invited me to visit the booth of the fine leather products company Fuchsia. She showed me their new collection of handbags and clutches in leather. Adrianne told me that the company is fashion forward and showed me the new handbags with colors of pink/gray and orange/taupe for spring/summer 2016. She explained that accessories help create a fashion statement. Fuchsia is the company’s woman’s line while the leather goods for men are in their Wylson line. Both lines are good value for the quality. www.fuchsia-paris.fr

Babash Design, a company producing handbags and clutches was created in 2013 by Catarina Feio and Vanessa Garcia-Agullo. I met Mariana from Portugal who showed me their collection for spring/summer 2016. I saw that fringes are continuing to be popular. She said that when the two ladies created the company they said that in 2013 a time of economic depression they adopted the slogan “depressed but well dressed.” Their collection of clutches and handbags are designed for the woman with a bohemian spirit. The products are produced in Portugal with unique and original designs inspired from countries around the world and are produced by leather craftsmen, artisan jewelers and weavers www.babashdesign.com

A tea company Lathébox offered free samples of delicious tea to visitors.Tamia and Julia decided to reinvent the tea and present special teas that can be ordered onine. Each month they select a special tea that comes in a box that customers can order online and have delivered to their doors. Teas include yuzu, pear onloong and carmelized apple. www.lathebox.com.

As is their custom, Who’s Next and Premiere Classe provide entertainment for exhibitors and the press. For this show, the weather permitted outside entertainment by a dj playing rock music which we enjoyed listening to and dancing. Also there were free rosé drinks. Other food and beverages for sale were available.

While heading to the entertainment, I was surprised to see a pianist performing and a lady singing popular music. Alexandre Eghikian is an accomplished pianist and Florence C. is a great singer.

Who’s Next and Premiere Classe was a very interesting fashion and accessory exhbition.

Jane Rosenstein

Jane Rosenstein is a U.S. citizen living in Paris, France. She is a professional translator/interpreter. She is the owner of The International Connection which does international marketing consultation including sales of wine, interpretation, and translation.

She enjoys the cultural life that living in Paris offers and has talents in organizing events. She speaks English, French, and Spanish. She has a B.S. degree in mathematics from the University of Pittsburgh and an M.B.A. degree from Georgia State University in Atlanta, GA.