‘Footfall down, quality up’: Pure London x JATC settles into merger, prepares for future plans

Still finding its footing as a newly merged entity, meaning wider plans are just falling into place, Pure London x JATC returned to Olympia London for the trade fair’s second joint edition. Once again spanning three days, this season was mostly about evolving and settling into the show’s new form, while taking the initial steps into what is to eventually come for later dates.

It was the first time, for example, that the event had established an official partnership with Trendhub by BDA London, a forecasting platform that hosts trend seminars at various intervals during the fair that cater to both retailers and exhibitors. “It is really a step forward towards the direction we want to embrace for 2025,” Gloria Sandrucci, event organiser for Pure London, said in an interview with FashionUnited.

She elaborated: “[BDA London] have provided support for everything we need as a show that wants to represent the future of the industry. We’ve got a very experienced sales team that goes out to other shows and really researches the brands. But having BDA means that we can establish an understanding of what kind of brands could be successful if they were at the show and who could provide a cutting edge collection that responds to the traffic.”

Along the same lines of newness, this edition also offered what could be seen as a foreshadowing of the next, when Pure London x JATC will officially launch its ‘Curate/Create’ project. While Pure London and its sister fair Source, both Hyve Group-owned, had initially been held simultaneously to one another prior to Pure’s February edition –timings once again overlapping for this latest show– the two are to officially come together under the overarching proposition, ‘Create/Curate’, starting next year.

The idea behind the initiative is to encourage attendees to create their collections at Source and then curate at Pure. “We want to, essentially, have the two shows complement one another,” Sandrucci noted. “They represent the entire supply chain in the fashion industry. It’s about making it easy for the community and providing one place where they can source anything they need to produce a collection. Then buyers will come to select the collections they want to sell in their shop. It makes sense for us to come together with a strong proposition and that is how we are going to present ourselves in 2025.”

Menswear begins phase out in response to visitor demand

For now, and when it comes to Pure specifically, Sandrucci is all about focusing on the fair’s core offering and therefore its strongest category, womenswear, which took centre stage at the July show. Prior to the merger, JATC had placed emphasis on a more balanced ratio between womenswear and menswear brands among exhibitors –a one that sometimes left menswear labels feeling a little left behind due to their shorter buying season that typically concluded slightly ahead of the show.

While for the February 2024 edition, Pure x JATC did continue (only slightly) incorporating both, it appeared this time round a distinct decision had been made in favour of womenswear, with the trade floor seemingly lacking in the way of mens’ collections. There were some dotted around the setup, but the category itself had been removed, instead finding such brands placed under the ‘Sustainable’ or ‘Pop’ categories. The shift was a response to the demand seen among visitors, Sandrucci said, confirming the smaller number of menswear brands, and thus, without entirely excluding them, it was a reality that the organiser’s faced head on.

“It’s important to remind ourselves that Pure London is known mostly for being a womenswear show, so we really want to go with that message,” Sandrucci said. “The other categories [like accessories] are there to support womenswear, because we know that fashion boutiques no longer just sell womenswear clothing but everything that makes a customer experience and makes them stay in the shop a bit longer. It’s nice to be able to cater for that kind of need.”

Such a move didn’t seem to have much impact on womenswear exhibitors that were taking part, and seemingly didn’t deter long-time attendees of both fairs from returning. This was true for Level One Showroom director David Smith, who brought eight brands to the show, a few making their initial launch into the UK wholesale market, while others were already event regulars. For Smith, attendance is less about upkeep on relations with existing clients, and more about securing new partnerships, a mission that seemed to have been largely achieved this season in that every stand had opened new accounts by the end of the second day, coming on par with previous editions.

‘Footfall is down, but quality is up…’

“I think footfall is down, but quality is up,” Smith said when reflecting on the event, before noting that during this difficult time for businesses –the UK market being recently defined by its cost-of-living crisis, among other things– much of the industry is about survival of the fittest. Level One, for example, adapted to Brexit by being upfront about related costs, ensuring flexibility on minimum order quantities catering to the differing needs of retailers, and carrying out organic and cautious growth on brands to avoid overstocking. The showroom has also not been widely impacted by the closure of stores on the high street, something Smith is understandably thankful for.

Elsewhere, other womenswear brands had also expressed a positive experience at the fair. For Another Sunday, one of the winners of Pure London x JATC’s first awards show where it was recognised with ‘Best in Womenswear’, said that the show, and the resulting accolade, offered good exposure for the brand. Existing clients were also able to provide direct feedback and express what they want to see more of, giving points to help the brand adapt. Despite this, a representative of the four-time attendee did note that compared to previous years there had been a slower footfall, most of which had been made up of independents and boutiques.

Footfall was indeed noticeably low on the fair’s opening day, July 14, likely influenced by the varying degrees of sporting events taking place in London. It picked up on Monday and Tuesday, however, leaving exhibitors feeling much more optimistic about their experiences. Many exhibitors could agree with this, as did Love Rocks founder, Michael Waterman.

Having attended Pure London for around 20 years and later becoming a regular fixture of JATC, Waterman praised the duo for their open layout and stand organisation, yet expressed sentimentality towards what he felt was a lack of presence from JATC, the concept for which seems to have fallen a little flat since the merger. Next to the more equal span of categories, JATC was known for its casual yet professional atmosphere and its selection of “quirky” brands, many of which were based up North and as such frequented the fair’s Manchester show, which provided a more accessible option for many brands and retailers alike.

One thing that does stand out at Pure London x JATC, however, is its inclusion of smaller, often newly launched brands, many of whom take up small-scale stands consisting of a table, chair and short clothing rack. Speaking to a few of these exhibitors, it’s clear that their collective mission was to secure more brand awareness, yet for some performance of the fair even went beyond that as retailers set about establishing stronger ties.

This was the case for nine-month-old, Indian start-up Fouroz, the stand for which was located in the central row of the fair leading up to the stage. Here, CEO Pallavi Gunawant sat posed for enquiries about the brand, which was displaying its One World collection of adaptable garments. Gunawant –who had been invited to attend by Pure– reported a lot of interest from passing visitors but said her attendance was mostly centred around networking and building a presence in the UK, Fouroz’s second biggest market after India.

Source and Pure London x JATC to come under one proposition

Evidence of the brand’s plans were already made evident by Gunawant, who said she was expanding her team and bringing in more designers to support such growth. “We manufacture in India, so we want to make sure that we just smooth out the production throughout the entire process. From there, we are going to try and take it to the next level of reaching other places in the world,” Gunawant said. Currently, Fouroz’s 100 unit per piece capacity is carried out by producers in India, for which Gunawant is highly supportive of, stating that they are hard-working and readily available, particularly for a small brand like Fouroz.

Connecting exhibitors, brands and retailers with a more global production and supply chain community is part of the next steps for Pure x JATC. In the upcoming edition, and with the aforementioned Create/Curate plans in mind, Pure London x JATC is preparing to switch halls with Source, taking on the new, smaller home of Olympia National. This shift is part of organiser Gloria Sandrucci’s wider plans to curate a more consistent and concise show that is increasingly reflective of the demands of exhibitors and retailers.

“Going back to the concept of curating, next season we will very much be pushing that, and to be able to do that we are going to swap halls,” Sandrucci said. “By doing that, we will have the opportunity to curate the experience at a higher standard for our exhibitors and our audience, and that is by focusing on what we know we are doing best in: womenswear and accessories. These two are going to be our key sectors moving forward and having a show in the National will mean it will become really cohesive.”

In a more general sense, Sandrucci envisions an upscaling and elevation, transforming from “just being a trade show” to instead taking on a “3D dimension that I think is very important to respond to the pain points for our audience and our exhibitors”. “Both mentioned the networking, education and the seminar content, while exhibitors expressed a need for insights, so we planned to hold special sessions for them before the show opens each day,” Sandrucci added, a concept that will continue into 2025, when it seems the dual format of Pure London x JATC will finally settle into place.