Buyers get down to business at Pure London

12 Aug '11

6 min read

The 'who's who of fashion buying' attended Pure London this weekend and the show closed its doors on Tuesday with a record number of exhibitors already committed to the show next February.

On track for another increase in total visitor numbers the riots in London affected the last day's attendance resulting in the overall unique visitor numbers being down by 3%. Not deterred key buyers were committed, writing orders and spending up to 3 days at the show. 13% more visitors' year on year returned for a second day of buying.

'Pure London is amazing, it is very well organised and there is so much to choose from. We need more than 3 days to get around! It is my first time at the show and we will definitely be coming back.' ommented Loubna El MKaour owner of Primrose boutique in Morocco.

Visitors included Fenwick, Harrods, Selfridges, House of Fraser, John Lewis, Debenhams, Urban Outfitters and Hoopers; as well as key independent retailers such as American Pie, Choice, Sarah Coggles, Sunday Best and Village Bicycle. Online stores included Amazon, ASOS, Figleaves, My Wardrobe, Net A Porter, Play and Very. International attendance was up by 3 % with visitors from Ireland, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Scandinavia and the US with buyers visiting from over 70 counties and from as far afield as Australia, Brazil, Japan, Hong Kong and UAE.

Mark Ashton, Managing Director of Little Mistress commented 'The show has been fantastic for us we've seen lots of new customers and we've opened 90 new accounts across 6 countries – UK, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Canada and Germany. Our clothes are going to be stocked in 500 shops in Canada which is amazing! Bank, Littlewoods and USC are all stocking our products across 36 stores so we've done incredibly well! Footfall has been quality not quantity but we still ran out of order pads and had to get more staff in!! We will definitely be rebooking.'

Celebrating its 30th season, Olympia saw the biggest selection of womenswear, footwear, accessories and premium brands while Earls Court 2 was home to the energising young fashion section, Spirit. This season over 1100 brands exhibited across both venues. Womenswear brands included Olivia Rubin, YaYa, Almost Famous, Sandwich, Ian Stuart, Selected Femme, Darling, Charming, Fenn Wright Manson and Anoushka G alongside top young fashion brands Quiksilver, Day 22, Desigual, Yumi, Molly Bracken, Only, Vila, Dahlia, Lavand and Mina. Footwear and Accessory brands included Celo B, Love from Australia, Fly London, French Sole, Sam Uhbi, Matt & Nat, Zandra Rhodes, Patrick Cox and Adele Marie.

Stitch co-located with Pure London for the second season, with brands such as Pretty Green, Original Penguin and Duck and Cover.

Mindy Dully, Sales Agent for footwear brand Redfoot commented 'The show has been really busy! We have been very successful and found lots of new customers. It has been nonstop all day and we have seen a broad mixof buyers from a range of countries.'

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