This Sunday I went along to the first day of the Pure London trade show.  Having never been to a trade fair before it was certainly over-whelming, but fantastic.  I can see why they recommend you need more than one day to get round –  if I’d been wanting to look at every collection I would have struggled in a day.  However, I was only interested in those stands classing themselves in the “ethical” camp.  Pure has been promoting their increased coverage in the ethical arena this year, with around 50 brands present out of the 800 showing – not at all bad, and certainly a great opportunity to get to see lots of new collections in one place.

I still didn’t have time to meet everybody, but having splashed out a fiver on the show directory I have all the contact details to follow those I missed up over the coming weeks.

For those I did get to meet it was a lovely opportunity to discuss my fledgeling outfit with people in the business.  Looking at items up close is essential in order to assess quality, and I found I was instantly drawn to some brands as being a perfect fit for EmmieJay.  Unfortunately, cash-flow doesn’t allow me to run wild and buy everything I liked, but I will certainly be placing a few orders, and feel I have made contacts that I’ll be able to pick up with in the future as my business grows.

Anyone starting out in an industry new to them should definitely get themselves along to a relevant trade fair.  It may seem a bit intimidanting from the outside but it’s a brilliant source of information and contacts.  I found everybody friendly even though I wasn’t in a position to place orders that day, and it’s incredibly motivating to be submerged in the world you want to be in.

Pure seemed to cover a broad range of brands and is certainly worth going to pick up on emerging trends and see what everybody is doing.  It’s run twice a year to tie in to the coming forward order seasons and I’m already looking forward to seeing more ethical brands at the next show.

It’s also a great excuse for a weekend away in London, which is always good fun even when it’s raining.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 4th, 2009 at 10:13 pm and is filed under Ethical Fashion, Starting the business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.