Thursday, August 8, 2024
Women's Wear Daily Covers Curve NY
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Curve New York Returns With Innovative Take on Intimates Trade Show
Men's lingerie, new technology and brands, and the growing bridal market were highlights of the event showcasing the latest intimate apparel alongside swim and athleisure.
The Curve New York show touched down at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center this week, showcasing the latest intimate apparel alongside swim and athleisure.
Curve — a division of Comexposium, saw more than 200 brands exhibiting their spring 2025 collections. “Our New York show was an absolute success,” said Raphael Camp, chief executive officer of Comexposium U.S., highlighting that the show has continued to grow in both exhibitors and attendees post-pandemic.
Anchored by well-established players including Wacoal, Cosabella and Leonisa, the show also included 30 new brands, several new to market. Fostering these young brands has been “a highlight,” Camp said.
One of the newcomers, &Her is a Brooklyn based company which aims to transform the intimate wear industry by leveraging cutting-edge technology and local manufacturing.
The brand caters to women of all body types with 3D knitted, customized, on-demand intimate wear. It’s currently available direct-to-consumer but founder and chief executive officer Nini Hu was looking to Curve to pursue partnerships with specialty boutiques. She was “heartened by the enthusiasm shown by potential buyers“ from the show and connected with “several boutiques that would be excellent partners,” for her young brand.
The show featured a curated bridal booth devoted to the wedding market, pulling white intimates styles from exhibitors including Aubade, Lise Charmel, Cosabella, Mucci, and more to help highlight the expanding category.
Also new was the Curve NY x Wonderland installation with London-based intimates trade show Wonderland brought Stateside to feature 10 established British brands, selected as competition finalists. Each brand displayed pieces from their collections; while buyers voted for their favorite brand, they also entered themselves into a competition to win the displayed look from the winning collection. The brand with the most votes will be awarded a complimentary booth at Curve’s February 2025 New York show.
Special racks were devoted to emerging brands who couldn’t have booths, but that Curve wanted to help amplify in the market. “One of the brands from our last show now has a booth,“ Camp said, showing how the show can be a growth vehicle.
The intimates category comprised 90 percent of the show floor, but there was also sleepwear, shapewear (noted to be a growing category), swimwear and resort cover-ups, and space devoted to the nascent category of men’s lingerie. While still very new, Camp reported that he sees its growth for the men’s category with the winter Curve shows.
Another brand new to the show was Harper Wilde. “Our mission at Harper Wilde is to create a more comfortable world for womankind, starting with the world’s most comfortable bras and underwear, “ said Harper Wilde’s creative consultant, Anton Auerbach. The brand recently launched on Amazon after being solely direct-to-consumer. “We are excited about wholesale and participating in trade shows for a similar reason — it allows us to reach a broader audience through various retailers and marketplaces, increase the visibility of our brand and connect with customers beyond our own channels,” Auerbach said.
“The Curve NY show at Javits is a fantastic forum for a brand like Harper Wilde — it’s international, yet North American focused. Most of the larger heritage brands are there, so the exposure to a wide range of intimate apparel retailers is excellent. At the same time, it’s a more exclusive setting that creates a more human experience during the show in comparison to mega shows like Salon International de la Lingerie.“ he said.
Buyers were drawn to the brand’s underwire Base Bra range and the Cloud Cotton Collection, Auerbach reported. “Most buyers were also drawn to our take on sleepwear, along with our active collection. We spend time developing these styles to make them unique in the marketplace, so everything comes from our specific Harper Wilde perspective of comfort and premium fabrics.”
Over at the Eveden Inc booth — whose portfolio of brands includes Freya, Fantasie, Elomi and Goddess — and the nearby Wacoal booth — daily runways showcased the latest trends in fuller figure and fuller bust lingerie and swimwear. It was a key event for buyers looking to bring the category from the hanger to real life.
Between appointments, attendees took in a variety of panels with topics including “The Secret Sauce for Consistently Driving Sales Results in Lingerie” co-moderated by Michelle Krick of The Modern Retailer, and Brady Hansen, Director of Sales at Clientbook; “Inventory Planning: How to Thrive Rather than Survive” hosted by Michael Alic, Management One, and “Fit Workshops & Bootcamp: Revolutionize Retail Success by Learning How to Fit Every Body Type” hosted by Freddy Zappe.
Taking things outside of the Jacob K Javits center, Lingerie Francaise presented eight French lingerie brands with a fashion show and cocktail party at the Central Park Boathouse Monday night.
The spring/summer edition of Curve moves on to Montreal next, taking place Sunday and Monday.