Get ready for a lingerie smack-down in Las Vegas.
Organizers of the four-year-old Lingerie Americas trade show plan to stage the first Lingerie Americas Las Vegas fair in August, while Jean-Luc and Laurence Teinturier, former show managers of Lingerie Americas, have scheduled two trade venues called Curvexpo to run in February and August.
The August edition will pit Curvexpo and French-owned-and-operated Lingerie Americas Las Vegas against each other for exhibitors, retailers and real estate at what is expected to be the same location: the Venetian Hotel Resort.
Curvexpo, which will also feature swimwear, is slated to take place Aug. 26 to 28, while Lingerie Americas Las Vegas is scheduled for Aug. 27 to 29, according to the shows’ organizers. The first Curvexpo edition will be staged Feb. 13-15. It will encompass 25,000 square feet and will expand to 45,000 square feet for the second edition. The first Lingerie Americas Las Vegas fair will take up 45,000 square feet.
Regarding location for the separate shows at the Venetian, Laurence Teinturier said Curvexpo will be held in the Grand Ballroom, while a spokesman for Lingerie Americas said the company was not yet ready to release details. However, Lauren Larsen, senior national sales manager at the Venetian, said, “Neither of those [lingerie] groups have been confirmed yet, so I can’t say exactly where they will be. I know they desperately want to be in our building, and they are negotiating with sharing space with an existing client. We are still working on it.”
In addition to a desire for the same location, the competing shows share several other common elements:
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- Timing will coincide with the MAGIC Marketplace consortium of trade shows and the ASAP Show for global sourcing.
- The target audience will be retailers from the West Coast, as well as the Midwest, Southeast and Canada.
- Medium- to high-end brands ranging from department store labels to fashion names will be in the spotlight.
- The fairs will be supported by a marketing campaign, mailings, newsletters and trade advertising.
A rift between lingerie trade show producers is not uncommon. In 2002, German trade show giant Messe Frankfurt acquired the Intimate Apparel Salon, which was later renamed Intima America. A battle developed between Lingerie Americas and Intima America over amenities and transportation problems for retailers who wanted to visit both shows but were limited by logistics and time constraints. Intima America was discontinued in 2004.
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Lingerie Americas officials could not be reached for comment on the competing shows, but in a statement, Patrice Argain, chief executive officer, said, “Our goal is to hold Lingerie Americas Las Vegas twice annually. The dates for February 2008 will be announced after we have conducted a study and found the best possible dates for the industry to meet in Las Vegas.”
Argain added that results of “extensive research” among retailers in North America indicated a need for a “high-level” lingerie event in the West, primarily Las Vegas. There currently is a Lingerie Boutique show that runs concurrently with fashion week in Los Angeles at the California Mart and the Lingerie Classique fair in Las Vegas, which is produced by Specialty Trade Shows Inc. and focuses on provocative lingerie and sex toys.
A good deal of marketing research was also conducted by the Teinturiers, who had managed the Lingerie Americas venue in New York since its inception in August 2002. In four years, Lingerie Americas’ exhibitor roster grew from 75 brands to 270. The duo created Curvexpo Inc., based in Riverside, Conn., this month.
“A combined 140,000 apparel buyers are expected between Feb. 11 and Feb. 16, and we estimate there are approximately 6,620 intimate apparel retailers from the West Coast, Midwest, Canada and Southeast who would want to attend our show,” said Laurence Teinturier. “There are 950 flights a day, including 117 direct flights from cities including London, Tokyo and Shanghai. The average cost of a round-trip domestic flight is $200, and there are 130,000 hotel rooms. Besides, it’s a fun place to work.”
She said that Curvexpo will return to the same location in August 2007 to present spring-summer 2008 collections, which will be followed by four already-scheduled sessions in 2008 and 2009.
“We’ve discovered that trade shows in Las Vegas typically attract more people than any other destination,” Jean-Luc Teinturier added. “The incentive we’ll offer is we’ll put a lot in the promotion. We want exhibitors to get a return on their investment.”