Madrid International Fashion Fair, a successful event

14 Sep '11

5 min read

The sixty-sixth edition of the Madrid International Fashion Fair, SIMM, which took place between 1st and 3rd September at Feria de Madrid, closed its doors with some highly favourable results. This excellent performance is not only confirmed by the rise in trade visitors (+ 14%), but also by the majority opinion expressed by the exhibitors that the Spanish market has begun to gain renewed confidence.

In total, throughout the fair's three-day duration, SIMM welcomed some 10,783 professionals, which represents an increase of 14% compared to the edition that took place in September 2010. This increase was the result, above all, of the rise in the number of buyers from Spain, whose attendance level increased by 16%. According to region, we might highlight the significant growth regarding the number of visitors from the trade in the Madrid Region, Catalonia, Valencia, Andalusia and the Basque Country. Most of these regions are coastal areas.

With regard to the fair's international dimension, the attendance of foreign buyers witnessed a slight decrease of 3.7%, although the number of countries increased from 50 at the edition in September 2010 to 62 at this edition. In this respect, the countries that witnessed above-average increases regarding their numbers of visitors included Mexico, Argentina and Colombia, all from Latin America, and the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland from Eastern Europe. Furthermore, this sixty-sixth edition of SIMM witnessed a recovery regarding the numbers of visitors from Italy, the United Kingdom and Greece, which had all declined at recent editions.

According to the Director of the fair, Pola Iglesias, these figures demonstrate the fact that "the Spanish market, with the announcement of the forthcoming general elections, is gaining confidence in an imminent economic recovery and expects that by spring 2012 - which is when traders must pay for the purchases they have made at this fair - domestic demand will have already emerged from the current recession. This sense of optimism and confidence has yet to be detected among the foreign buyers".

This last edition of SIMM, in addition to featuring a larger number of participating companies (755 brands, a 16.5% increase compared to the last edition) and trade visitors, was also characterised by its intense trade activity, which remained stable throughout the fair's three-day duration. This much is confirmed by brands such as Strenaand Derhy, both of which have stated that they achieved excellent results regarding their numbers of visitors, new clients and volume of orders, in spite of their initially unoptimistic expectations, based on the current economic climate in Spain. Other brands such as Divina Providencia and Scripta were also pleasantly surprised by their first-time participation at SIMM, where they were able to establish new and important trade contacts.

On this occasion, swimwear fashion exhibitors enjoyed their own space at SIMM, including brands such as Phax and Tartaruga, who also recognised that they had fulfilled their expectations way beyond their -initial forecasts,-in spite of the fact that the fair is not exclusively devoted to swimwear items. In this respect, Patricia Chao, the designer at Tartaruga, stated that the company had increased its orders by 50%.

More IFEMA - Feria de Madrid News... More Fashion News - Spain...