Visitor numbers at SIMM surpass exhibitor expectations

This edition of SIMM featured a strong international dimension, based on the presence of a total of 190 companies, including various well-known brands from the United States and Canada. Once again on this occasion, France, Portugal, Italy and Germany were the European countries that were most strongly represented at the fair.

From Spain itself, Madrid, Catalonia, Andalusia, Galicia, the Basque Country, Valencia, Castile-Leon and the Balearic Islands were the regions that featured the highest levels of participation at this edition, in which fifteen Spanish Regions were represented in total.

Coinciding with the sixty-ninth edition of SIMM, the IFEMA Fashion Showrooms were a great success, based on the participation of more than one hundred international fashion companies and retailers from the medium-high segment. These participants presented their collections at the North Convention Centre at Feria de Madrid, the habitual venue for this event.

For its part, the Speaker's Comer Forum provided a key source of interest for the thousands of professionals who attended SIMM. In this respect, throughout the fair's three-day duration, a number of leading experts in fashion retailing, clothes manufacturing and textiles took part in a series of conferences and debates regarding themes such as the present and future of the industry, new marketing and sales tools, key aspects of new consumer habits, etc.

Furthermore, different trends experts introduced professionals to the latest new developments regarding lines, colours, fabrics and designs for the new season.

Another of the main points of interest on the programme of coinciding activities consisted of the different exhibitions that were staged within the framework of the fair. In this respect, The Woolmark Company presented "Wool and Imagination: The Four Seasons", an initiative that evoked aspects that are representative of the four seasons of the year, based on a series of installations featuring three-dimensional figures, all created by hand by weavers working throughout the country.

We might also mention the project known as ESNE EXPLORES FASHION, headed by Juan Duyos, consisting of an exhibition of twelve pieces of work created by first-year fashion design students, based on designs created by the architect, Zaha Hadid. Furthermore, the Higher Centre for Fashion Design of Madrid presented an exhibition entitled Arquimoda.

Favourable Ratings on the Part of Participating Brands

Among the exhibitors at this sixty-ninth edition of SIMM, the majority opinion was that the event managed to surpass its business expectations. In spite of the adverse economic climate at present, various exhibiting companies who were consulted declared that they had increased their orders compared to previous editions and that they had also made contact with new buyers. Nevertheless, the companies consulted also agreed that, although orders were up, they continue to be lower than they were before the crisis hit.

The exhibitors also offered a favourable evaluation of the joint staging of SIMM and MODACALZADO+IBERPIEL next September under the umbrella brand of MOMAD-Fashion Events in Madrid. In this respect, they believe that this new initiative will provide a boost for both fairs, given that it will help to attract a larger number of trade visitors and endow the event with a more prominent international appeal.