At Première Vision New York, which was held January 19-20, 2016, visitor numbers reached an all time high of 4,143, up 4 per cent from the January 2015 edition. “364 exhibitors from the world’s finest mills, textile design companies, leather suppliers, accessories and apparel manufacturers showcased products for the S/S 2017 season,” a Premiere Vision press release stated. Representatives of all the major fashion brands attended the show, which included, 3.1 Phillip Lim, A/X Armani Exchange, Alexander Wang, Banana Republic, Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, Fossil, PVH Corp, Ralph Lauren, etc. Première Vision New York moved to a larger show venue this season in order to accommodate increased offerings, which included 30 leather suppliers and 26 apparel manufacturers. “My collection is all about creating beautiful, quality clothes and I am here to find texture, fabrics with interest that we can layer,” designer Clark Sabbat, a visitor said. “I cannot compete with fast-fashion retailers, so I focus on creating high quality pieces and I find the best products here at Première Vision,” he added. Patrick Sleem, designer at Etcetera said, “I am here to shop for novelty and am starting to populate colour stories for Spring/Summer 2017.” “We’re from Morocco and a lot of designers don’t even know what Morocco has to offer, so it has been a good show in general, as it gave us good insight into the US market,” Larimode’s Meriem Larini said. Première Vision’s deputy fashion director Sabine Le Chatelier presented Trend Tasting seminars and PV’s forecasts for colour and product highlights for the Spring/Summer 17 season. An evening roundtable focused on ‘Urban Manufacturing for the 21st Century’ which was presented by Manufacture New York’s Bob Bland. It covered the advantages of locally-sourced, smaller scale manufacturing, married with technology and sustainability practices, setting a pattern for future fashion industry TK and employment. The panel also included Hannah Milman, executive director of the Martha Stewart American Made program and Steven Capozzola, communications director for menswear brand Ralph & Remington. Amanda Parkes, Manufacture New York’s chief of technology and research and Daniel Silverstein, a New York-based clothing designer and expert on zero-waste manufacturing and sustainability were also part of the panel.
