Festival of Fashion, Pure London closed its doors yesterday after a successful three days of business and inspiration welcoming visitors from over 80 countries. Despite hurricane Ciara, buyers from stores including Selfridges, Debenhams, Next, Galeries Lafayette, Pamela Shiffer, Sunday Best, Asos, New Look, The Dressing Room, and Jules B flocked to Olympia for the AW20/21 presentation of over 1,300 collections along with a three-day programme of stimulating content. The show maintained a high level of visitors throughout the three days, with exhibitors commenting on the quality of the buyers and a continued interest in buying ahead for the new season.
Martin Arnold, Fashion Portfolio Director of Hyve Group plc said: “Buyers really made the effort this season highlighting the importance and relevance that Pure London has in the buying calendar. Even with trains and flights cancelled due to the weather they showed the true grit of UK fashion to keep it business as usual, demonstrating the resilience of the market.”
The appetite for information and trends content saw no signs of abating. The AW20/21 catwalk shows and Unique Style Platform trend presentations were standing room only, whilst talks on the Nomad and Origin Stages were delivered to packed audiences with record numbers attending. Over 2500 people digested topics focused on sustainability, authenticity, visual merchandising, textile production and fabric life-cycles, garment marking, sourcing advice, industry standards, fashion-tech innovation, forecasting, inclusivity and empowerment, as well as a daily morning briefing outlining the unexpected benefits of Brexit and a workshop session on building business strategy to be Brexit resilient.
Trend partner Unique Style Platform outlined the macro trends for the AW20/21 season, highlighting a younger generational divide of Greta Thunberg vs Love Island groups – those fighting fast fashion opposed to those over-consuming it. The four key trends, Hibernate, Attune, Opulence and Nu-Tech were brought to life on the catwalk with a showcase of exhibiting brand collections.
Show organisers, Hyve Group plc, announced a number of changes for the July 2020 show. As it powers forward with its commitment to sustainable fashion in partnership with the Conscious Fashion Campaign and the Sustainable Development Goals, Pure Conscious will move from the National Hall to the front of the Main Hall, making it the first stop for buyers as they enter the show. Pure Jewels launches for 2020 providing an area for fine jewellery and watches as well as jewellery components and gems.
As Pure Origin outgrows its current space, next season sees it take over the entire National Hall and introduce manufacturing machinery. A dedicated space for machinery and manufacturing providers will showcase the latest and most innovative solutions for pattern cutting, trimming, sewing, printing and more. The new Speed Networking area matching and connecting buyers and sourcing managers with exhibitors was hugely successful with over 500 meetings and will return for July 2020.
