ATLANTA — AmericasMart is treating its apparel buyers to nights out on the town.
With so many new attractions in Atlanta, it’s easy to see what put AmericasMart in the mood to throw private parties for its buyers. The Georgia Aquarium has drawn 3.6 million visitors since it opened downtown in November 2005. The High Museum of Art, which added three new buildings by architect Renzo Piano last year, is hosting rotating exhibits of hundreds of masterworks over the next three years in partnership with the Louvre in Paris. Atlantic Station, a city-within-a-city, full of new shopping and entertainment, is just a year old.
This year, AmericasMart is taking advantage of all the action by staging private events during every market. Direct mail and other communications will get the word out to buyers that AmericasMart is part of Atlanta’s new buzz.
On Saturday night during the recent October market, AmericasMart hosted a private party for all buyers and exhibitors at the High Museum, during its kickoff for the Louvre exhibition. The event featured informal modeling and drew more than 500 people.
“We hadn’t held an off-site event in well over a decade,” said Lawton Hall, AmericasMart’s senior vice president, apparel. “But we realized that after buyers get their work done, they’re curious about the city and all the changes going on. It’s also an opportunity for networking in a relaxed, casual atmosphere.”
The next event, to be held Feb. 1 during the first market of 2007, will be “Martinis and Imax” at Fernbank Museum of Natural History. The event will include a party and two screenings of the Imax feature “Hurricanes on the Bayou.”
During the April show, on Thursday, April 12, AmericasMart will host a party at the Georgia Aquarium, just a few blocks from the mart’s downtown building.
However, with plenty of updated products, new categories and showrooms in the AmericasMart apparel building, off-site events aren’t the only draw.
Premiere, AmericasMart’s showcase event, continues to grow. Boosted by a move last January to a more visible location near the second-floor buyer registration area, Premiere is the main attraction, the first thing buyers see as they enter the building. Also last January, Premiere grew from three to five shows a year, running with all five women’s and
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accessories markets.
With additional space and entrances, October’s Premiere show had 150 exhibitors, 30 more than last year. The contemporary decor, such as white shag carpet, silver hanging beads and fresh flowers, varies from show to show, and amenities include two full-time DJs, a cyber café and coffee bars.
“The look of Premiere evolves, but we want to keep it new and fresh, Mod and hip, like the clothing it represents,” said Kaye Davis, executive director of fashion at Premiere.
Approximately 50 percent of the show is contemporary product, with lines such as True Religion, Michael by Michael Kors, James Jeans and Anoname. Accessories have been a mainstay of the show and, lately, loungewear and intimate apparel has been a growing category.
“The show targets emerging designers that we can turn into permanent exhibitors,” said Davis.
Half of Premiere’s exhibitors show more than once, and around 200 of the lines that started out in Premiere have taken permanent showroom space in AmericasMart over the past four years.
To develop more contemporary apparel in permanent showrooms, AmericasMart recently hired Amy Janssen as executive director of leasing for apparel, a new position. Janssen has buying experience at Henri Bendel, Bloomingdale’s and Gucci in New York, and worked in sales and merchandising for BCBG and Joie in Los Angeles.
Janssen has brought high-end contemporary lines from both coasts into a new 4,000-square-foot collective showroom called NY/LA Co-Op West that will be launched at the February market.
The ninth-floor space will build on NY/LA Co-Op East, a nearby collective that bowed in 2002 with similar products. Around 40 new lines will be added to both areas, including Charlotte Ronson and Hatch from Los Angeles, as well as 12th Street by Cynthia Vincent, Miguelina and the lingerie line Eberjey. The open space will have a hip ambience, with cement floors and contemporary fixtures.
“Atlanta is a growth market, an untapped resource for high-end contemporary, and the Southeast is a fashion-forward region, with stores such as Blue Genes [in the Buckhead area of Atlanta],” said Janssen.
Shoes, a category that launched a dedicated space on the third floor last January, has grown from four booths and eight lines to 70 booths and 120 lines. In October, the third floor also added a designated swimwear area, with 110 lines. The first swimwear show in Atlanta in nearly a decade, it targeted all the resort and coastal stores in the Southeast. There are plans to add activewear to the mix in the next year.
“Our swimwear show, unlike the Miami industry show [sponsored by the Swimwear Association of Florida] in July, is positioned later in the year to be an actual writing show, not just an introduction to product,” said Hall.
Another growth area, young contemporary, or juniors, has increased from 20 to 100 booths in the past few years, and is getting a new look that may include a new name and signage.
Hall said the healthy Southeast economy had contributed to a number of new stores in the region, boosting attendance this year. With the building 92 percent leased, and traffic improving, Hall points to AmericasMart’s unique formula as the reason for success, one that will continue to evolve. “We have the most diverse product under one roof of anywhere in the country,” he said. “Our strength is in change, convenience and completeness.”