Fashion needs to evolve to stay relevant

A Parisian fashion trade exhibition hopes to have demonstrated to the region’s retailers that they can deliver greater depth in terms of merchandise range and price points and when it concludes on Thursday.

The Middle East Fashion Days, which incorporates the Paris-based fashion and accessories shows Who’s Next and Premiere Classe as well asn Pure London, is a three-day event for the second year in Dubai, presenting over 120 international and regional ready-to-wear and accessories designers.

“When we were looking at coming here and did our initial research, we were surprised at the lack of brands operating in this market,” show manager Boris Provost tells Emirates247.com.

“All the luxury brands and the top high street names are here, but there really is nothing in between,” he adds, suggesting that there’s a yawning gap for creative, designer lines that cater to smaller budgets and less mainstream tastes.

On the surface, he’s certainly taken that strategy forward, roping in three of the UAE’s most fashion-forward labels to present their new lines at the show. These include the abaya designers Das, who showed their line on Tuesday, Ayesha Depala, who shot to fame recently when she designed the clothes for Bollywood actress Sonam Kapoor’s movie “Aisha”, and Essa, who has earned himself a reputation for fabulous, dramatic garments favoured by the country’s A-listers. 

Depala and Essa will close out the event today. Among the international labels showing, we were particularly taken by Jerome L’Huillier, whose signature “sexy meets rock ‘n’ roll” style looks well suited to Dubai, as do the creations of designer Jane Munro-Hall at the German label Kif.If.

Over 3,000 trade visitors are expected to attend, Provost says, double last year’s numbers.

After exhibitors last year went away with a 50 per cent success rate, partly because of the economic slowdown, the show was forced to adapt to the market, he says. As a result, this year organisers have laid on the catwalk shows, added networking cocktail events every day, and put on a series of industry forums and seminars aimed at tackling key questions affecting the industry, including brand strategies, local adaptation and the economic challenges ahead.

The region’s $12-billion clothing market is expected to post growth 15 per cent growth over 2010 over last year – well above the global figure of 10 per cent, according to a study by the Dubai arm of the French Fashion University Esmod.

Provost says he’s seeing evidence of that growth. “I really believe the market is growing – we have buyers coming in from all around the region including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, but retailers will need to offer greater variety to be able to leverage that effectively.”

Lorna Hall, a Senior Retail Editor of the fashion and style forecaster WGSN.com, who hosted a symposium with retail industry professionals at the event, focusing on how brands that are new to market could better serve regional customers, agrees that the industry needs more flexibility and faster response times when it comes to operating in the Middle East.

“It’s clear from talking to retailers, brands and young designers in the region that their customer’s expectations are changing and how they want to interact with their businesses, whether that is online or in-store, is evolving fast. It’s important for retailers attend events like these so their businesses move with the market,” she says.
 
The Middle East Fashion Days runs at the Madinat Jumeirah until October 21.