Tradeshows | Thursday, September 24, 2009

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Supima Continues To Impress At Première Vision

By Marc Lewkowitz

Supima was present again at the September edition of the Première Vision (PV) tradeshow in Paris from September 15—18. The show is a twice annual production that is recognized as the single largest show for apparel fabrics in the world.
The Supima booth, with real bales of Supima cotton on display, continues to be a magnet of attention for show visitors.

Supima’s booth is part of the Expofil Hall section of PV which is defined as the fiber and yarn area for PV. (See map below, with red box identifying the Supima booth location.) In addition to the Supima booth, a number of Supima licensees are also immediately present in the Expofil Hall area including Hermann Buhler/Buhler Yarns, Bros. Eastern, Huafu Group, Karsu Tekstil, Leinefelder Textilwerke and Somelos Fios, S.A. The location for the Expofil Hall this year was moved to the front of Hall 5A to a more preferred location as opposed to previously being in the location now occupied by the Indigo Hall. Being in the front of the Hall 5A allows Expofil exhibitors to play a larger role in assisting show visitors with specific sourcing initiatives.

In one of the many adjoining buildings, Hall 6, Cotonificio Albini S.p.A., another of Supima’s many licensees, had a booth displaying their luxury shirting fabrics. A long time user and supporter of Supima, Mr. Silvio Albini, C.E.O., was proud to show off a Supima wedding gown at the entrance to their booth.

Mr. Albini is seen in the photo above, on the left, along with Supima’s President, Mr. Jesse Curlee, in front of the featured wedding gown. A free-standing plaque beside the gown also proudly called out details about the gown noting the exclusive fabrics from Albini and Supima cotton being noted as “the purest in the world, and ideal for the production of white shirting fabrics.”

The wedding gown was created entirely from Albini’s premium Supima shirting fabrics and is an original, one of a kind creation. The gown was created by Israeli-born designer, Karen Sabag for the January 2009 Supima Competition for Emerging Designers.

As one of the featured designers from the competition, Ms. Sabag was presented with the selected fabric from Albini with which to bring her vision to life. The result was a stunning success and also led to Ms. Sabag to win the Best in Show award in the competition. (Ms. Sabag also just recently launched her women’s wear collection for Spring 2010 on September 13, during the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week.) The completed designs of the Competition for Emerging Designers were featured during a runway fashion show to close out Supima’s Premium Fabric Show PREFAB this past January.

Since the economic downturn of late last fall, foot traffic at the previous show edition in February was considered to have fallen off from previous levels. However, signs of a recovery were visible during the most recent show with an apparent increase in attendance. International exhibitors and show attendees were well represented.