WSN’s Who’s Next Trade Show Attracts Digital Native Brands for Wholesale
PARIS — Wholesale is stronger than ever.
“It’s a model that has proved its resilience,” said WSN chief executive officer Frédéric Maus, calling it “common sense…where we share the risk and everyone is doing their job well” at a conference on Tuesday unveiling plans for the second half of 2023, which include the September editions of the Who’s Next, Première Classe and Bijorhca trade shows.
More from WWD
The executive said the upcoming edition, themed “Back to Who’s Next” and slated for Sept. 2 to 4 at Paris’ Porte de Versailles exhibition hall, was “above pre-COVID-19 levels” and had its spaces already sold out, with some 100 more exhibitors than the January edition and 30 percent new exhibitors.
This will bring the tally to an expected total of 1,200 brands spread across Who’s Next, jewelry showcase Bijorhca, the sustainability-focused Impact and Neonyt Paris sections and Traffic, dedicated to solutions for business development.
According to WSN, exhibitors will be made up of 42 percent from France and 58 percent from overseas, which the organization considered “an exceptional dynamic that confirms the growing influence of the group on the international scene.”
Some 45,000 visitors are expected, on the heels of the previous edition’s 41,500, according to Maus, who said pre-registrations were on a good dynamic.
“What made our resilience during COVID-19 is that we are a French and European trade show,” he continued, noting that the 50-50 split between European and international visitors was now reaching a 60 to 65 percent proportion for the latter, particularly with the growing appetite of Middle East-based retailers for European styles.
This success could be attributed to the attractiveness of the show but of Paris itself, according to Maus, pointing to the fizzy schedules of the recent Paris Fashion Weeks for men’s and couture as examples.
The three-day fair will occupy some 500,000 square feet, expanding once more into Hall 1, with additions such as the first-ever showcase of historic Shanghai-based trade show Chic outside China, for a vision of “an ultra-creative, committed Chinese fashion,” according to Maus.
“The Showp,” with its portemanteau name playing on the words “show” and “shop” and defined by Maus as a business-to-business platform that “allows [the WSN] ecosystem to continue its exchanges” outside of show times with 3,500 brands already onboarded, will also make its formal debut during the early September show.
According to the CEO, another sign of wholesale’s prevalence is the number of formerly direct-to-consumer brands, such as French eyewear label Jimmy Fairly, which will be selling wholesale for the first time.
In Maus’ opinion, such brands were coming back to wholesale after realizing that instead of removing intermediaries with a direct-to-consumer model, they had displaced the issue to digital actors such as Google or Meta. He also reminded that a program in cooperation with crowdfunding platform Ulule had resulted in 230 incubated projects, and 12 brands now taking stands at Who’s Next.
Calling Première Classe “the biggest event of Paris Fashion Week,” Maus said 12,000 visitors and 350 brands were expected for the coming edition, to be held from Sept. 29 to Oct. 2. It will also include the second edition of its consumer-facing DRP street culture festival in one of its three tents in the Tuileries, open to the public on the Saturday and Sunday.
Maus also teased the program of 2024, a year that will include the 30th anniversary of Who’s Next as well as the 60th anniversary of the Salon International Lingerie, although a trailer offered little in terms of clues for the themes.
“Our ambition is to unite a maximum of creative industries because creating this strong rendezvous creates a moment to meet, to inspire,” he said of the decision to offer a wider mix that went from intimates to jewelry, homeware to fashion and accessories, calling such intersections “a source of business” for brands.
Best of WWD
