IGEDO DESSOUS PARES DOWN
Byline: Melissa Drier
DUSSELDORF, Germany — Now in its fourth season at earlier dates, Igedo Dessous, the Dusseldorf trade show for lingerie, sleepwear and swimwear, is striving to retain its international orientation in a more compact and concentrated form.
The Feb. 4-6 Igedo Dessous show, which runs parallel to the Igedo Co.’s main ready-to-wear fair, CPD, will now be housed in one rather than two halls of the Dusseldorf fairgrounds. Half of the show’s 180 exhibitors are from abroad, and together represent more than 400 collections. This is a slight increase over the February 1995 show (about 150 exhibitors), but many booths have gotten smaller, as manufacturers try to control show expenses in an ever-expanding network of regional and international fairs.
Nevertheless, although the show is reduced in size — and the fall edition, even when previously held in March, has always been significantly smaller than the spring/summer event — Igedo Dessous remains the key to the German intimate apparel market. And as several European manufacturers pointed out, Germany is their most important export market.
“As a manufacturer, we find the earlier timing positive. We get our orders earlier and that’s better for our deliveries,” said Hans-Rudolf Castiglione, sales director for Hanro, Switzerland. “And a fair only makes sense when it’s early enough.”
Igedo Dessous, he continued, is Hanro’s “most important market event.” Hanro takes part in “all the regional fairs,” but he said the firm continues to write as much business in Dƒsseldorf as before. The Paris intimate apparel fair, he acknowledged, “has made great progress,” but he maintained Igedo Dessous is “still an important international fair, especially in conjunction with CPD, which has tremendous international impact.” For Hanro, the fair remains a must, Castiglione stressed. If Igedo Dessous didn’t exist, he concluded, “someone would have to invent it.”
Gruppo La Perla has been active in Germany for 25 years, according to Giovanni Barzog, salon director for La Perla in Munich. The group’s signature line is not available at the fairgrounds, but is instead sold in the company’s Dƒsseldorf showrooms as well as a suite in the Hilton Hotel. An expanded group stand, however, incorporating women’s collections such as Marvel and Occhi Verdi as well as the men’s line, will be housed in Hall 15.
Barzog said he expected good buyer attendance in Dƒsseldorf, especially among German and Austrian retailers. But he’s not too thrilled about the show’s timing. “Personally, I think this trend toward earlier and earlier dates is crazy. The whole German system forces manufacturers to be ready much earlier, and just for the German market.”
But since Germany is the group’s largest market outside Italy, he said, “it’s unthinkable not to participate in a fair like Igedo Dessous. People come here to buy, so we have to be ready.” He added the La Perla team may still be opening cartons the first day of the show.
American participation at Igedo Dessous will be a bit more sporadic this season. Veteran exhibitors like special occasion sleepwear specialist Flora Nikrooz now rely on a German distributor to represent them at the show. “I won’t be at the February show, but I’ll be back in August,” the company’s vice president, Marvin Backer, commented. He noted his main distributors generally go to Paris in January and the Igedo show in August, and since he uses the Dƒsseldorf show primarily to work with his distributors, he will pass up the upcoming fair. Flora Nikrooz’s distributor (Lauer & Haufschild) will handle local clientele, selling early fall merchandise at the fair.
Maidenform’s international division will again participate at the February show, presenting the Oscar de la Renta, Maidenform and Trueform fall ranges. Selling to about 100 active accounts, the “fashion elements of the Maidenform line continue to drive the business,” said David J. Deutchman, senior vice president of international sales. “In our Trueform range, shapewear and specialty bras are growing very rapidly.”
“We meet a lot of people in Dƒsseldorf from all over Europe,” he noted, and while the Lyon fair has “diluted some of the traffic [in Dƒsseldorf], we intend to maintain a presence in both fairs.”
Manufacturers from 20 nations will be represented at Igedo Dessous and the accompanying Body & Man men’s underwear section. On the domestic front, German cult company Bruno Banani — as of January ’96, the first underwear manufacturer here to brave the Internet — will introduce a reportedly “wild” new women’s range, “Funtastic,” at the fair. The Dƒsseldorf show will also be the launch site for two other eagerly awaited German designer underwear ranges: a 40-piece collection from the Dƒsseldorf-based rtw house Cartoon and a signature women’s and men’s line from S. Oliver, a junior and young men’s fashion maker.