Attracting more than 15,000 visitors to see over 600 fabric, trim and surface design exhibitors, Première Vision is one the most respected textiles industry trade shows in the world. But back in 1980, the small, exclusively French show was still young. In February of that year, the fair’s chief organizer, Bernard Dupasquier, announced its members had agreed to reserve 30 percent of the available exhibitor space for foreign manufacturers.
PV was generally the earliest of the major European fabrics shows. Its “internationalization” had been demanded by a number of buyers and foreign manufacturers who all thought it had value as an early sample of fashion trends. But bringing vendors to France wasn’t enough. The French Textile Federation told WWD it was working on a strategy to focus on markets in the U.S., West Germany, Italy, Britain and Japan and was even considering launching French textile fairs in the individual countries. Its investment (a promotional budget in excess of $12 million) certainly paid off. Today, the Première Vision exhibition in Paris is truly international with non-French vendors making up roughly 87 percent of the exhibitors. There are also six global PV “previews” — in New York, São Paulo, Moscow, Shanghai, Beijing and Tokyo — that many in the world’s design communities find indispensable.