The Copenhagen International Fashion Fair (CIFF) starts tomorrow in the Danish capital. One visitor who will definitely not miss the trade fair is the former Gerry Weber managing director Angelika Schindler-Obenhaus.
Schindler-Obenhaus is traveling to Copenhagen with great excitement given the profound transformation in the textile industry, as she wrote in a post on the career network Linkedin on Tuesday. “Now that Germany has unfortunately said goodbye to an internationally recognized fashion trade fair, Copenhagen will probably be the place to be for womenswear.”
The former Gerry Weber boss, who worked for the Halle-based clothing manufacturer for just over three years, emphasizes the unexpected opportunities for stationary retail that the current disruption in the trade fair landscape could bring.
Use the current situation as an opportunity
“If the industry giants, department stores, collapse with their budgets but also with their conditions, that could not only mean relief, but also an opportunity for stationary specialist retailers,” says Schindler-Obenhaus. But in order to fully exploit this opportunity, a sustainable dialogue between trade and industry is essential. It’s no longer just a matter of “business as usual”, but rather a real dialogue that enables increased margins on both sides and at the same time significantly increases the inspiration for consumers in the product ranges.
The dwindling German trade fair landscape has been a highly topical topic since the end of the Berlin Trade Fair Premium at the latest. According to Schindler-Obenhaus, the mourning for those trade fairs that no longer have a future is accompanied by the realization that there is strength and space for new things in the cleanup. A fact that was already apparent at Modefabriek, as the Amsterdam trade fair recorded a significant increase in Germans this season and visitors from Germany also topped the international rankings at Pitti Uomo.