ENK International is closing its Brighte women’s contemporary show at the California Market Center in Los Angeles to concentrate on ENK Vegas, the company said Tuesday.
“Our strengths are now in Vegas,” said Coleman McCartin, an ENK spokesman. “The market has changed, and there are a lot more shows both in L.A. and Vegas. Both retailers and designers have to make a decision about where to put their dollars. It seems like everyone is moving toward Vegas.”
Brighte has been held five times a year since November 2003 in conjunction with Los Angeles markets. The edited show in CMC’s Fashion Theatre had about 100 exhibitors, McCartin said. ENK also experimented with biannual Brighte shows in Las Vegas in 2005.
CMC plans to replace Brighte with a similar show called Select, which will start in January, said Joanne Lee, CMC senior vice president.
“We are trying to keep the change as seamless as possible for the Brighte exhibitors,” Lee said.
ENK Vegas, which started in 2008, features several-hundred exhibitors of men’s and women’s vendors and coincides with MAGIC shows in February and August. “If our designers need to be in Vegas because that’s where the buyers are going, then we follow suit,” McCartin said.
Another trade show, ASR Marketplace, a 29-year-old semiannual trade expo in San Diego dedicated to action-sports brands, also closed this month. ASR, owned by Nielsen Expositions, was hurt by the recession and the sluggish recovery, among other factors.