Pure London returned to the English capital this week, taking place from 12th to 14th February at its usual venue at the Olympia London Exhibition Centre. The three-day event focused primarily on womenswear, but also offered menswear, shoes, accessories and a separate area for manufacturing companies.
“I’m overwhelmed by the excitement, energy and positive feedback we’ve received from brands, exhibitors and buyers,” organizer Gloria Sandrucci told FashionUnited. “It’s like a new world – amazing to see how the Pure has returned and evolved since we were here last July.”
As a reminder, this FW23 edition was only the second physical Pure London to take place after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic. While the physical event returned in July, it was held in a scaled-down format to coincide with Scoop, also owned by Pure’s parent company Hyve Group, and held at a neighboring location.
The first thing that struck you when entering London’s sprawling Olympia Hall on Sunday – apart from a nice selection of mini Prosecco bottles to welcome visitors – was an excited hubbub of voices and constant coming and going in the exhibition halls.
While a wide range of brands and styles were on display, bright colors and bold patterns stood out throughout the show. “People want to show color again, which is fantastic,” Sandrucci said. “You want that chic and that sophistication; they want to go out and celebrate their freedom again after years of lockdowns.”
Speaking of trends, for this edition Pure London has teamed up with Paris-based trend research firm Promostyle to give brands and shoppers a more nuanced and informed look at current and future trends. Sandrucci was pleased to point out that Pure is the first fashion fair to have secured such a partnership.
Optimistic mood
More than 250 brands attended this year’s Pure London and many of them were excited to be back and meet new and existing business partners.
“We had a really great show with a lot of traffic and a mix of new and existing customers,” commented Estelle Frelâtre, who represents French fashion labels La Fée Maraboutée and Humility. They have been taking part in Pure for over six years. Frelâtre said La Fée Maraboutée had a “really successful” show, taking 40 per cent more orders than last spring/summer season.
She said British consumers value the appeal of the brand for its versatility and ability to mix and match outfits, and the fact that 95 percent of the products are made in Italy. “British customers really like this as a sign of high quality,” she explained. Overall, the brand met mostly returning customers, but also took orders from 12 new customers during the three-day event.
Equally positive was Vali Cioban, chief designer and founder of Romanian brand Chic, which attended the fair for the first time, saying she received many orders during the event. One notable benefit she mentioned was that her products were worn on the Pure Catwalk – a special runway show that took place several times a day at the heart of the event, where models wore items from a variety of participating brands. “People came to us right after the fashion show,” she reported.
Another brand to showcase their collection on the runway was Dipii Stark, a London-based brand that sells luxury silk sleepwear and accessories like scarves and pocket squares. Founder Amardip Khosa-Stark was positive about the show, the choice of brands and the general energy, saying that the decision to participate in the runway show has put the brand in the focus of shoppers, leading to a steady flow of visitors during of the event. This positive sentiment was shared by many brands, who said they saw a good mix of returning shoppers and new faces.
However, other brands noted that they networked more than taking orders, including Loreto Martinez, a brand launched in 2020 based in Almería on Spain’s south coast. A representative said the company had “so far been very successful in Spain, so we wanted to see how British consumers react”. While the show was “positive” overall, she said she would have liked to have landed some more orders, but as a newer brand she hopes some of that could come later through the contacts made at the show.
Market uncertainty remains
As with all current fairs, retailers and buyers felt the general backdrop of rising inflation and cautious consumers. While many exhibitors were happy to see a high number of orders and a constant number of visitors, others cited the uncertainty of the market as the reason they mainly made contacts instead of accepting orders.
A representative from Palme, a Paris-based brand that has attended Pure for the past six years, said the show has been a little quieter than she had hoped, but also pointed out that her brand focuses primarily on summer and beachwear and therefore perform better in the spring/summer issues. She said while the company has received a significant number of orders, she also notes that rising inflation and general market uncertainty are making buyers more cautious. She added that Brexit makes attending UK trade shows more complicated and costly for a French brand.
Another brand owner, who asked not to be named, also noted that inflation is “affecting business and trade shows in general” but noted that Brexit bureaucracy is a particular frustration for events taking place in the UK . It was also one of several participating brands to note that given the relatively fragile state of the retail industry and buyers’ slightly more cautious budgets, networking at events with subsequent orders is becoming more common.
Regardless, the general mood on the Pure was undoubtedly positive; attendees were excited to see each other again in person, and there was a reassuring optimism that the current market headwinds would soon improve.
What’s next?
Event organizer Gloria Sandrucci said she was “proud to have international visitors returning to Pure” after disruption and uncertainty in travel around the world in recent years. While Pure doesn’t provide exact attendance numbers, Sandrucci noted that this edition featured over 22 countries, including Italy, Portugal, Turkey, France and Australia.
As with every trade fair these days – and for good reason – the focus at Pure London was also on sustainability. And according to Sandrucci, this focus will only increase in the future. The show now has a dedicated ‘Sustainability Hub’ offering retailers access to free expertise and advice on their sustainability journey.
In this context, Pure has launched a Sustainability Toolkit for Independent Fashion Retailers, a “step-by-step guide” for retailers to find “practical and tangible information on everything from reducing carbon footprint and energy consumption to sustainable packaging to help them make sustainability a reality in their business”.
Sandrucci expressed the wish that the area of sustainability and the number of participating brands that can be classified as “sustainable” increase in the future because “this is the direction in which the industry is moving”. The next edition of Pure London will be held at London’s Olympia Exhibition Center from 16th to 18th July.
This article originally appeared on FashionUnited.uk. Translated and edited by Simone Preuss.