New records all around for Intertextile Pavilion Shenzhen

Edited by Flora, Photo by Zhang Zhenxiao

Growth in the fair and growth in the market:exhibitor and buyer increases at Intertextile Pavilion Shenzhen, which concluded on July 7th, reflected the strength of the Southern China fashion sector. The fair welcomed a record 971 exhibitors from 12 countries ®ions (2017: 721), and 17,664 trade buyers from 35 countries & regions (2017: 15,608). Accommodating these extra exhibitors, the fair occupied one more hall this edition, and covered 37,500 sqm. (2017: 30,000).

Shenzhen is fast establishing itself as China’s fashion capital – with some 1,000 fashion brands, 2,000 garment companies and 30,000 fashion designers based in the city – and this year’s strong growth confirms Intertextile Pavilion Shenzhen as the industry’s platform of choice for suppliers to connect with leading brands from this sector. 35% more exhibitors took part this year, which in turn attracted 13% more trade buyers. Some of the big domestic brands sourcing at the fair this year included Bosideng, Elegant Prosper,Heilan Group, Marisfrolg, Peacebird and Purcotton,while the fair’s strong exhibitor profile and Shenzhen’s location adjacent to Hong Kong attracted global fashion labels such as Debenhams, Evisu, Giorgio Armani,Givenchy, Ralph Lauren and Triumph to source at the fair.

Mainland China, Germany, Chinese Hong Kong,Italy, Japan, Korea, Chinese Taiwan and the UK were represented by exhibitors again at this year’s fair,while India, Indonesia, Thailand and Turkey were new faces in 2018. This year’s top 10 buyer countries and regions, excluding Mainland China, were Chinese Hong Kong, Chinese Taiwan, the U.S., Korea, India,Japan, Brazil, Australia, the UK and Macau.

Exhibitor experiences

“The reason we exhibit here is there are many young designers and small brands in Shenzhen that have high potential to become big in the near future.We’ve already met around 20 that we can work with that have a lot of potential.Our company has been in China for five years now, and we’ve seen a big improvement in the quality of buyers. This fair is effective for us to meet existing customers as well as new ones, and to increase our sales. We can find big opportunities to grow here.”

— Mr. Atsushi Yamazaki, President, Crystal Cloth Co., Ltd., Japan

“On the first day morning, there were already many buyers packed into our booth – both old and new customers. They were highly interested in our products.We’ve had mills and fashion designers visiting us, and they’ve been highly interested in our products. We’ve got very great results so far. I’ve been really impressed by the quality of the buyers as well, but not only this, the quality of their fabrics our designs will be printed on is also very good.”

— Ms. Alex Poyner, Print Designer, Fairbairn & Wolf Studio, UK

“We’ve met many new customers who were strongly interested in our products, including Mainland Chinese, Hong Kong and European buyers, and some have even placed orders already. The buyers who showed immediate interest were mainly top management and designers of fashion brands as they can see our software’s benefits in terms of reducing production and design costs and time. Overall,this fair is very beneficial for us. Shenzhen is China’s fashion capital where most of the successful brands and market leaders are based, and this fair has attracted high-quality buyers that makes our participation effective, and even better than our expectations.”

— Mr. Jacky Lam, Sales Director, UPW Ltd., Chiaese Hong Kong

“The South China market is still going strong. Buyers here have had strong buying power for the last five years,and we expect this to continue. We always find new buyers every time we come here, and we always get buyers placing orders each edition. We’ve been very busy once again this year. Shenzhen is a very good market to be in at the moment, and people from all over China come to source for ladieswear at this fair. This is the best fair in China for ladieswear.”

— Mr. Cliff Yau, Sales Department, Takashima Orimono, Chinese Hong Kong

“The Chinese market is rising at the moment, especially here in Shenzhen. Lots of buyers come to this fair, including garment manufacturers and fashion brands, and we’ve had buyers from all over Mainland China as well as Hong Kong visit our booth. We can find high-quality buyers here that are willing to pay higher prices. A lot of them export garments to the US and Europe, so they need quality fabrics. This is a fair you can definitely generate business at.”

— Mr. Brandon Wu, Sales, Prime Textiles Business Div, Li Peng Enterprise Co., Ltd., Chinese Taiwan

“Shenzhen is China’s fashion capital, so we can find a lot of opportunities at this fair. We are very satisfied with the visitor flow so far, and we’ve had a good mix of agents and fashion designers visit us. We expect to receive good business after the fair from the enquiries we’ve collected.”

— Ms. Anna Lee, Manager, Evertrue Co., Ltd., Korea

Buyer experiences

“I’m sourcing for our high-end, luxury collections, and this fair definitely has enough range here to match our needs. It’s one of the best fairs I’ve been to.There is everything you could want here: from synthetic to natural, man-made to machine-made, and fabrics to accessories. Just for embroidery products alone I saw so many potential items to source. I’ve found it useful having the international exhibitors here, and have visited some from Taiwan and India so far, as well as Chinese suppliers. It’s definitely worth to come here as an international buyer. It’s useful to see the fashion trends from other parts of the world; it’s quite different here to Europe. This has been one of the best fairs I’ve been to in terms of fashion.”

— Ms. Gabriela Pardo De Andrade, Fashion Designer, Gabii G Fashion,Spain

“Over these two days, we’ve already found some potential suppliers from Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and Mainland China to work with. In fact, I think the quality of the Mainland Chinese suppliers is much higher nowadays, and I’m impressed by their product quality. This fair successfully gathers high-quality suppliers with inspiring products that match our sourcing needs.”

— Ms. Anne Chou, Creative Director, Design Esta Studio Ltd., Macau

“I’m a lingerie designer for a local brand, and am sourcing new fabrics from overseas exhibitors because we want to follow the international trends. I’ve found some potential exhibitors from Taiwan and Korea so far. This fair is important for us to visit because, nowadays, we are always looking for new materials and doing new designs throughout the whole year, so we visit here as well as both Intertextile Shanghai editions.”

— Ms. Ashley Lin, Designer, Shenzhen Huijie Group Ltd., China

The next Intertextile fair in the apparel fabrics sector is Intertextile Shanghai Apparel Fabrics – Autumn Edition which takes place on the earlier dates of September 27th – 29th. The next Intertextile Pavilion Shenzhen will be held from July 4th – 6th, 2019. This fair is organized by Messe Frankfurt (HK) Ltd.; the Sub-Council of Textile Industry, CCPIT;the China Textile Information Center; and the Shenzhen Garment Industry Association.