At the first Fashion Coterie in March 1986, show organizer Elyse Kroll rounded up 26 designers to exhibit their collections at New York’s Plaza Hotel. Kroll’s mother was the acting registrant, seated at the door, welcoming visitors, and her father and sister were on-site, lending their support. Thirty minutes into the show, The New York Times and Women’s Wear Daily arrived.
“I remember thinking, ‘Oh my God,'” Kroll said.
Twenty years later, the Fashion Coterie has grown into one of the most influential trade shows on the fashion calendar, attracting more than 15,000 visitors from around the world over a three-day period. Year after year, the show remains an integral part of retailers’ and exhibitors’ business plans. Not only do they rely on the orders signed during the show, but the Fashion Coterie is a keen indicator of trends that hit and those that miss.
In the early Eighties, Kroll was working at a public relations firm helmed by Gabriella Forte, who had built a presence in the U.S. for Italian brands such as Dolce & Gabbana and Giorgio Armani. Kroll was working with a client who was interested in attending an American trade show, so she set out to find one that suited her client’s needs.
“I went to a show at the New York Coliseum called The Boutique Show and it was a mixed bag,” Kroll said, seated in her corner office in ENK International headquarters in midtown Manhattan. “Then there was a show called New York Pret, which was a very anonymous, large show of all products. There was no editing. I wasn’t a buyer, but when I went there, I thought, ‘How can a buyer function here?’ They gave you a little golf pencil and told you to fill out your registration card and you were on your own.”
It wasn’t until Kroll attended the men’s show, The Designers’ Collective, that she realized a show of this caliber was missing from the women’s market. She began working for the men’s show with the goal of making it more upscale and focused. Five years later, in 1986, Kroll launched the women’s show, Fashion Coterie.
Bud Konheim, chief executive officer of Nicole Miller, said he first approached Kroll when the company was developing its line of neckties.
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“At the time, we just had a tiny little tie business and someone told me, ‘There’s a woman named Elyse Kroll who gets the best specialty stores in the country,'” Konheim said. “We applied to the show and she turned us down, but we got stronger in the tie business and we worked our way into the show. She helped us launch the business, and it was a $12 million tie business.”
Konheim credits Kroll with establishing Coterie as a must-attend show. “She is very careful about where she places people and she’s careful about who she takes in,” he said. “It’s been one great show. We’re always increasing our business with every show. We’ve never gone backwards.”
Kroll credits such successes to her business plan. “I’ve been doing this a long time,” Kroll said. “I’ve been very vigilant about growth, meaning ENK is not about greed. It’s not about filling space and getting more booths, because then I would have become that show that I went to [20 years ago],” she said. “I try to merchandise so that it’s clear for a retailer, because our job has always been to try to edit the market so that when buyers come, they can find the appropriate product and not have to do all the legwork.”
Part of Fashion Coterie’s success has been in Kroll’s ability to spot new talent. A number of designers have used Coterie as the launchpad for their collections. For Kroll, the future lies in young, undiscovered talent.
“I don’t need to introduce Donna Karan to anyone,” Kroll said. “I need to introduce the new, next designer. I don’t care if you went into business yesterday. If you show me that you can ship, you’re going to be in that show.”
Over the past two years, Kroll has hired consultants to scour the market for the fresh, new designers who would help keep her show relevant to retailers and buyers from around the world. Kroll likened her consultants to “fashionistas” who simply have a grasp on what will become the most important trends and collections, thus upping Fashion Coterie’s cool factor.
“I’ve found people who can go out into the market and identify trends and the people who are doing them,” Kroll said.
In September 2004, Paige Premium Denim launched at the Fashion Coterie. The designer of the collection, Paige Adams-Geller, was a fit model for denim brands such as Seven For All Mankind and Citizens of Humanity prior to launching her own line. Retailers and fashion editors swarmed to her booth.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Kroll said. “People went nuts over it.”
According to Adams-Geller, Paige Premium Denim opened 300 accounts at that show. “Our first Coterie was out of this world,” said Adams-Geller, who since has launched her product into 30 countries and 600 specialty stores domestically.
Adams-Geller said she knew Coterie was “a big deal” before she had her own line, but it was only after the first show that she realized how crucial it would be to her business. “It’s ideal. You may be able to get that exposure, but you can’t get it all in one place like at Coterie.”
But being fresh and cool isn’t enough for a brand to guarantee space on the Piers. Kroll said the selection process has changed over the years, and these days, designers need to be on top of their game if they want to land — and remain — on the show’s roster.
“I don’t care what country you’re from, we won’t look at a Web site exclusively,” Kroll said. “You can do magic with pictures. We need to look at everything. I want a designer. I want a manufacturer with a point of view. I don’t want an importer of stuff.”
Kroll said the hallways of ENK headquarters are often cluttered with more than 300 collections of Coterie hopefuls. Now, brands are voted onto the exhibitor list on a show-by-show basis. “You’re not voted in forever now,” she said. “We have to review it each time and see how it works out.”
Betsey Johnson has shown at Coterie since the beginning, according to Chantal Bacon, business partner to Betsey Johnson. Bacon said that Coterie is “an intense three days,” where buyers from around the world have the opportunity to see a variety of collections.
“Elyse has done a good job of deciding who should be in the show,” Bacon said. “She pulls together a nice assortment of resources that are all aiming at the same kinds of stores. It’s really great for us because we get to see all the new specialty stores [at Coterie].”
Konheim of Nicole Miller said specialty stores are the key to showing at Coterie.
“[Kroll] produces a credit-worthy specialty store crowd,” Konheim said. “All of my colleagues sit around talking about the mergers of the majors, but Elyse is the answer to all that. Those specialty store accounts come to the piers and they buy merchandise from us. We check their credit and we send them the merchandise they ordered and they send us a check for the amount that they bought. Department stores don’t do that. If someone says, ‘We need the department stores,’ well, one of her shows is better than all of that. [Specialty stores] write orders and they deal directly with the consumers in their stores. Buyers at department stores deal with computers.”
Vera Wang launched her Lavender dress collection at the spring 2005 edition of Coterie. “Elyse has created such a venue for companies to be able to capture all of these specialty stores, and to have access to specialty stores they wouldn’t normally be able to reach out to,” said Susan Sokol, president of Vera Wang Apparel Divisions. “It’s a great way to build sales very quickly and to find good stores that maybe you didn’t know about. Lavender is in about 200 doors. We have been able to identify 100 of those specialty doors through Coterie.”
Kroll has changed more than the selection process through the years. She said her company has made great strides in how they allow brands to present their collections at the show. Some things have become forbidden. Among them: “Draped tablecloths and grids, which are too garmento for us,” Kroll said.
“We care about how our show looks, so you better care about the way you present your line. We’re trying to present quality to the industry, and this business is all about image,” she said.
One way of projecting the right image is, as Kroll put it, to “keep the majority of crappy product out” of her show. But with such a large show, how possible is it to ensure that they’re all bringing quality?
“There’s no way to keep the crappy product out,” Kroll said matter-of-factly. “We do a lot of business with showrooms, and showrooms have an obligation to carry a spectrum of products because they appeal to a number of stores,” she said. “And very few showrooms are on one level.
“In a lot of instances,” she continued, “we accommodate a lot of showrooms and take in a lot of their products even if we thought, ‘If this one weren’t associated with the showroom, I might be a little bit hesitant.'”
For Kroll, showrooms are a bit of a double-edged sword.
“Having a showroom behind a brand helps, but a retailer is typically more interested in a line that is not represented by a showroom because that means it’s not so easy to find.”
Some showrooms, though, like New York-based Showroom Seven, have been with Coterie for 20 years. “Showroom Seven and I go back a long way because they bring in the right retailers,” Kroll said.
Karen Erickson, founder of Showroom Seven, said she encourages her designers to exhibit in all five ENK trade shows. “Elyse is a visionary and she isn’t willing to compromise. She takes criticism and makes changes when necessary.”
Coordinating a show as large and influential as Coterie doesn’t happen without any hitches, and Kroll is the first to admit that pleasing exhibitors and retailers alike isn’t the easiest task. She also said she’s grown accustomed to trading in her own currency of dates and space.
“If I have the wrong dates, it’s trouble. If I have the wrong space,” she said, “trouble.”
Kroll said the timing of the show has recently come under examination by visitors and exhibitors. Now Coterie immediately follows fashion week so that out-of-town retailers can take advantage of her show.
“Is it more important to be right after fashion week to capture those stores, or is it better to give everybody a break?” Kroll asked. “We’re here to serve exhibitors and retailers and if we’re not, we’re in trouble.”
Brian Hogan, vice president of merchandising for Vivienne Tam, said he understands the predicament in which Kroll finds herself when it comes to the show’s timing. “I know she wants to service the Europeans who come here for fashion week,” he said, “but [the timing of the last Coterie] was a complete nightmare. It was a combination of the Chinese New Year, an early fashion show and an early Coterie,” he said. “Plus the blizzard.
“But,” Hogan noted, “they do a fantastic job and they set the standard. The show is a major part of my business.”
In addition to adding more young designers to the mix, Kroll said she’s focused on merchandising the show more clearly. “Coterie is big. I don’t want retailers to feel overwhelmed,” she said. “I need them to feel like they’ve been serviced.”
After 20 years at the helm of a successful show, Kroll said she knows she’s paved the way for the vast amount of trade shows that now dot the fashion calendar.
“The competition makes it harder to focus on the real deal. The point is to come to a trade show to see what’s going on. You can’t do it in a vacuum or on a small scale. You have to go and see and feel the vibe. You have to hear what people are saying and [see] what they’re wearing.”
She also has her eye on Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Europe as possible Fashion Coterie locations.
“That’s the future,” she said. “Movin’ and groovin’ over there.”