Member Article

London menswear takes on New York with UKTI

Last month, eight London fashion companies travelled to Liberty Trade Fairs to meet with buyers and media from the US and across the world, including Bergdorf Goodman and Saks Fifth Avenue. The initiative is supported by UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) London on the back of Exporting is GREAT, which aims to inspire and support 100,000 additional UK exporters to sell their goods and services overseas by 2020.

Reanna Bowman, trade advisor for fashion companies at UKTI London gives a rundown of the mission and the opportunities available to UK fashion companies looking to grow aboard.

I joined UKTI London Fashion team in October and thought it would be a great idea to bring London menswear brands to New York to show at the Autumn/Winter New York tradeshows. Having joined UKTI from menswear wholesale, I know only too well that the New York shows attract global customers and the US is viewed as key market for emerging brands but often out of reach due to the higher costs involved. This would be the Fashion team’s first trade mission to New York and a great opportunity for the companies involved to receive a support to attend.

The US is the first largest national economy in the world and first in terms of purchasing power. Apparel and footwear contributed $361 billion to the US economy in 2014 – a bigger contribution than new cars, alcohol, toys, or practically any other industry. Naturally, most international fashion brands are keen to tap into this.

The objectives for this mission were to partner with an existing tradeshow platform, Liberty Fairs, where the brands would exhibit their collections to the trade buyers and press. In addition to this we aimed to generate a buzz around British fashion in New York by creating a bespoke event for the brands to network with buyers and press.

A criterion for selecting the brands was based on the companies having no previous experience exhibiting at a New York tradeshow. We offered a high level of guidance and preparation for the mission, with pre-mission meetings and a briefing to provide key contacts in the US and tips on the basics of doing business in the USA, such as how to ship samples and pricing of products. The final eight brands selected represented the broad variety and uniqueness that British design has to offer. They included an apothecary brand Haeckels; a sustainable denim brand Story Mfg; hat maker Tom Smarte; traditional and artisanal shoe brand Marcus De; sunglasses brand Eye Respect and three new-gen clothing brands, Sarah Hellen, Clara Martin and La Menta.

Despite New York undergoing ‘snowmaggedon’ hours before the set up day, Liberty Fair provided a unique opportunity for the brands involved to meet with buyers and press from across the US and international markets. Success stories for the brands included Haeckels writing numerous orders with US speciality stores from the East and West coasts, Story Mfg having interest from key US concept stores and Marcus De beginning a serious dialogue with Saks 5th Avenue, GQ Japan and Chanel. All brands had meaningful introductions to key buyers and gained a deeper insight into the US marketplace and the commerciality of their offer, ultimately learning what is needed to drive the business forward and increase export sales into a key market.

As well as the tradeshow platform we partnered with Spindle PR and UKTI New York to create a press event on the Wednesday evening at Soho House. There was an unprecedented response to this event with over 320 guests filling out a 150 capacity room. We displayed video content of our British brands and created an installation around British fashion, which was widely covered on social media. There was attendance from media titles such as GQ, Fox, CNN, Fashion Edits, and department stores such as Barneys, Bergdorf Goodman, in addition to brands such as Stanley Korshak, Chanel, Burberry, Johnsons of Elgin, Orlebar Brown, Alice Made This, Troubadour. Both Spindle PR and UKTI New York were invaluable partners in delivering such a successful event. Much valuable networking was done and it was a proud night to be a Brit in New York.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by UKTI London .