China International Clothing and Accessories Fair (CHIC) 2013, organized by China National Garment Association, China World Trade Center Co., Ltd, and The Sub-Council of Textile Industry, CCPIT, kicked off successfully from March 26^th to 29^th, 2013 in Beijing.  

 

Comparing with last edition, overseas fashion brands, both the overall quality as well as quantity, witnessed a largely upgrading and increasing. Most of the national and regional pavilion saw a growth of 30% in exhibition brands. Visitors could conveniently get in touch with top-end brands from Canada, U.S., France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Korea, Turkey, Scotland, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau, and appreciated the exhibited products including men’s wear, women’s wear, kids’ wear, fur, knitting, shoes beachwear and accessories.

 

Chinese market is attractive. More and more overseas exhibitors joined the CHIC Fair with their selective products and resource into China, aiming at realizing and expanding into the booming Chinese consumption markets. Equipping with the culture tradition, innovation, high quality and find design, overseas exhibitors would like to showcase Chinese visitors their best fashion brands characteristics.  

 

Germany: more confident in Chinese market
In the year of 2012, the sales value of German garment industry reached 12 billion Euros, with an average growth of 2% for each apparel company. According to German Fashion Association, it is estimated that in 2013 the sales growth speed of the whole fashion industry in Germany could rise to 2.7%, and apparel enterprises possess growing confidence towards the fashion industrial development in Germany. Of them, consumption markets in China took a comparatively large proportion, and will witness an increasing uptrend in the following years.

 

“As the statistics indicated that recently the export of German apparel industry to Chinese market nearly preserve a total value around 85 million Euros. Although the total export in Germany saw a slightly decrease, the export to China still represented a growing trend. Among the Germany fashion industry, they share the common idea that in the following ten years, Chinese fashion market would experience a fast development, and play an important role in global apparel markets. For our German apparel companies, we will make effort to further promote the cooperation and communication with Chinese enterprises to jointly explore the potential Chinese markets, and bring Chinese consumers more high-level qualified fashion products”, remarked Thomas Rasch, Executive Director of German Fashion Association (Koelnmesse).

 

In CHIC 2013, the Germany Pavilion gathered more than 30 garment enterprises to participate the trade fair, of which the number increased by 30% comparing with the 2012 edition. Brands, just like Marc Cain, Laurel, Gerry Weber, etc., with renowned fames in worldwide, took part in the CHIC fair in order to gain the first market share in China. Besides the main apparel products, German exhibitors also brought their accessories, shoemaking, and bags products to Chinese visitors.

 

Ms. Bianka Toepper, Director of Germany Pavilion, said: “Most of our German brands are the first time to show in China. CHIC is an open platform, where our fashion companies could be easier to find their most suitable Chinese local cooperators. Chinese fashion markets is the market with fast changes and sufficient opportunities, so that we believe that it would be a smart and effective choice for German apparel companies to cooperate with Chinese cooperators to enter the markets in China.”

 

Italy: top fashion show, along with professional beachwear pavilion
Gucci, Miu Miu, Prada, Salvatore Ferragamo, Tod’s, Versace, Valentino, Dolce&Gabbana, Emilio Pucci, Ermenegildo Zegna, Fendi, Giorgio Armani, Marni… This is not the list names of the Milan Fashion Week, but an exhibitor handbook of CHIC 2013.

 

The Italian Top Fashion Pavilion, organized by Class Editori, a publishing house leader in business and financial news, fashion, luxury and lifestyle information that enjoys a high reputation in the fashion fields in Italy, especially set up an exclusive display district in Hall E1, showcasing the most outstanding and latest designer fashions with strong brands features and promoting the premium Italian fashion culture.

 

Furthermore, Italian exhibitors also brought their hot beach wear brands to Chinese domestic visitors. According to the cooperation agreement, since the year of 2013, Mare d’amare, the only beachwear and underwear exhibition in Italy, would participate in the CHIC Fair in Beijing continuously. 

 

According to introduction, this time, the exhibitors were the Italian brands with a history of over 20 years, and the exhibited products covered a wide range, including middle and up level swimsuits, underwear, bathrobes, sandals and so on.

 

“Each year, our brand would take part in the professional beachwear exhibitions in Italy and Europe, where people love beach holidays and water sports, leading to a growing market demand for beachwear,” Federica Papotti, Brand Manager of Chrities, expressed, “Due to economically influence, our middle and small sized Italian enterprises would like to, through the hand of national and regional exhibitions, enter and expand into Chinese markets and enhance the recognition of Italian beachwear brands, so as to increase our market orders in China.”

 

Furthermore, the Italian National Pavilion, organized by Italian Trade Commission (ICE), was another importance exhibition district of “Made in Italy” products.

 

ICE, as the government organization which promotes the internationalization of the Italian companies, is increasingly engaged in introducing Italian Fashion into China. In CHIC 2013, ICE organized the official Italian Pavilion that consisted of 89 brands covering a total exhibition area of 2290 square meter. The exhibits of Italian garment producers represented visitors the medium and high level of Italian garment industry and some of the latest design concept in global fashion industry. According to introduction, the exhibited products mainly were woven, knitting, leather and fur garments as well as accessories, shoes, and bags, unfolding the fashion trend for A/W13/14.

 

“For years, Italian garment, with its fashionable design and high quality materials as well as fine workmanship, has enjoyed a very high reputation in the world, which also could contribute to the upgrading of Chinese consumption markets,” remarked Antonino Laspina, Trade Commissioner and Coordinator of ICE’s offices in China, “The active participation in CHIC fair of Italian exhibitors shows that Italian garment producers are very interested in Chinese market and the cooperation with Chinese partners in garment fields. I truly believe that the cooperation between both sides would be developed deeper and further.”

 

Style Hong Kong Pavilion, hosted by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), was as always the largest pavilion in overseas halls, which nearly took half of the whole Hall W1 with 3,300 sqm wide exhibition spaces. Products exhibition, catwalk shows, along with design and brand management lectures offered both domestic Chinese and overseas visitors an chance to appreciate the unique Hong Kong style.  

 

More than 50 exhibitors from Hong Kong participated into this fair with their high-quality products, including clothing, handbags, leathers, accessories and shoes etc, providing a sourcing platform for fashion professionals, department stores representatives, franchisers, retailers, agencies, and so on.   

 

Visitors could find the brands here, for example, Shoe Fountain, Punto Blanco, Thomas Dean, odm, Eastpole, Moreline, Homage, BLEUFORET, Vincelle, Dare to Dream, Nishe, Magnina, VINO&ROCCIA, OIVIO, SOLENE etc, with specific Hong Kong fashion design taste and trend. Besides, the award-winning shoes in the 13th Hong Kong Footwear Design Competition were also displayed in the Pavilion, visitors as well as buyers could enjoy the original and ingenious inspirations of these newly-emerged Hong Kong designers.

 

Meanwhile, HKTDC especially set up Design and Brand Management District in the pavilion. Insider experts from Hong Kong fashion industry shared with the attendees their experience and information on the aspects of Hong Kong design, brand management, retail store design, market promotion and other professional services.

 

In CHIC 2013, buyers not only could get in touch with the Hong Kong design products, but also could, through HKTDC, find their cooperation partners, establish commercial connection and communication with Hong Kong enterprises, and explore the new fashion retail development method markedly.  

 

Korea: ‘Preview in China 2013’ 
KOFOTI (Korea Federation of Textile Industry), cooperated with CHIC, launched the 4^th ‘Preview in CHINA’ at Beijing to promote the excellence of Korean fashion brands and provide domestic companies with various distribution networks such as department stores, wholesalers, shopping malls and licenses.

 

In accordance to the increasing needs of Korean textile and apparel industries to advance into China, KOFOTI have supported Korean fashion brands’ marketing operations to enter into the Chinese market by hosting ‘Preview in China’ in Beijing since the year of 2010.

 

This year, covering a total exhibition area of 3,000 sqm, ‘Preview in CHINA’ mainly introduced Chinese visitors their 71 companies in 714 exhibition booths, highlighting women’s fashion brands, inner wears, high fashion brands, fur, and fashionable accessories, showcasing the unique ‘beauty’ and ‘sentiments’ of the Korean fashion in various ways.

 

Additionally, for expanding the commercial communication and exchanges between Korean and Chinese companies, various entertaining events including brands’ fashion shows and business math-making workshops also were held concurrently.

 

“The ‘CHIC’ Fair could be considered as the hub of Asia’s Fashion industry. And our ‘Preview in China’ will be the place for business cooperation and information exchanges for both Chinese and Korean fashion industries,” Dong- Su Kim, vice president of KOFOTI said, “We will focus our capacity to showcase the unique Korean fashion brands’ characteristics and help them enter into the Chinese domestic markets.”

 

 

Furthermore, as the co-organizer of CHIC fair, the French Pavilion has already participated in CHIC for continuously 21 years. In CHIC 2013, the Pavilion enlarged the exhibition products categories, including shoes, gloves, scarves, cashmere products, etc., aiming at proving more business options for Chinese cooperators.

 

It was the first time for Scotland Pavilion to join the CHIC show, with12 brands fearing their distinctive regional culture. Men’s Scottish skirt, classic plaid and manual knitted cashmere products were the highlights of Scottish fashion brands in this Pavilion. Most of the exhibitors are family enterprises, with traditional exquisite manufacture techniques, competitive design innovation ability, excellent quality and the right products price. Though the CHIC fair, the Pavilion would introduce more find Scottish fashion brands in Chinese markets, and explore more cooperation in the future.