From drawing board to retail floor, Who’s Next becomes trade fair for the entire fashion industry

Paris - At a time when traceability has become a commercial argument to answer the questions of neo-consumers, Who’s Next September 2025 is reinventing itself. Ready-to-wear, lingerie and fashion accessories, the show, owned by WSN Group, aims to cover the entire fashion industry, from downstream to upstream.

Since his arrival as chief executive officer of WSN seven years ago, Frédéric Maus has been driven by one vision: to make Who’s Next the largest concept store in the world. Therefore, it is not surprising that this new edition, which runs until Monday, September 8, 2025, in Hall one of the Porte de Versailles exhibition centre, introduces new areas to the initial brand offering.

From the specialised boutique to this temptation (or necessity) to innovate

"If you think of Bijorhca (French trade show dedicated to the jewellery market and now merged with Who's Next, ed.) before it was managed by Who’s Next, the atmosphere was much closer to the traditional world of the jeweller. Today, everyone needs to diversify their offer to reach a wider and younger audience," says Sabine Bertolino, WSN sales director.

Betting on this evolution, the organisers are targeting jewellers, or other retailers capable of selling precious jewellery, with a showcase of nine niche, precious and high-end costume jewellery brands. Entitled "Brillant" and located at the entrance to Bijorhca, this area benefits from the unprecedented financial support of FranceEclat, the professional committee for the economic development of the watchmaking, jewellery, goldsmithing and silverware industry.

This is the case for Aurore Jeunot, creator of the Valois Varden house, which specialises in sentimental jewellery, whose first participation was 50 percent subsidised by FranceEclat. She explained to FashionUnited the originality of her concept: "In the Victorian era, people wore a lot of jewellery to express the love they had for someone. I have kept the idea in a logic of a bottle jewel in gold, vermeil or silver. You can put whatever you want inside (the equivalent of six grains of rice)."

Innovation is not limited to jewellery. The Who’s Next Lab brings together six brands around the concept of innovation, particularly 3D printing. For example, Laura Deweilde created Incxnnue, a line of leather bags that she enhances using this technology. The same goes for Gauthier Combes with Cosmos, a lighting designer.

Will fashion boutiques become decoration boutiques?

Another example of this immersion in new territory is Who’s Next Home. This new sector, announced at the previous edition, brings together around 50 all-terrain designer brands around the home. Curated by Matthieu Pinet, chief executive officer of Who’s Next Home, it offers Intramuros, a French magazine specialising in contemporary design, interior architecture, furniture, objects, and more broadly lifestyle, a place to exhibit contemporary creations.

With its candles and porcelain tableware accessories made in Andalusia, Kult Collection embodies this extension of the fashion domain to lifestyle. Invited by Ankorstore to present last January, the brand is now an exhibitor. Until now, Kult Collection had not ventured onto the traditional path of the fashion and lifestyle ecosystem (presence at trade shows, showrooms, etc.). It had, however, already won over 400 international retailers.

This diversification raises a fundamental question: how far can fashion extend into lifestyle? In other words: will fashion boutiques become interior decoration boutiques? And vice versa?

"Fashion boutiques are evolving into concept stores and expanding into lifestyle," confirms Sylvie Pourrat, director of Who’s Next and Premiere Classe, to FashionUnited. "The opposite is not true: interior brands do not start selling textiles or accessories. In other words, fashion feeds on design, but design does not feed on fashion."

With Sourcing & Solutions, Who’s Next is now positioning itself as the show for the fashion industry

Sourcing & Solutions is structured around three key sectors: lingerie with Interfilière; jewellery with Elements; and ready-to-wear materials sourcing with Who’s Next; and a new area called The Creative Hub. Several concrete cases illustrate this desire to make the manufacturers behind the brands visible. Bosabo exhibited its products at Who’s Next and Premiere Classe, but had never entered into the work process of its manufacturing. Arhas International, a French SME at the head of Kamalia, a brand of raffia baskets manufactured in Madagascar, had never communicated on the fact that it manufactures hats, under a white label.

The highlight of the show? A jersey weaving machine brought by Bugis, a French creator and manufacturer of knitted fabrics, a company founded in 1956 near Troyes.

Close ties that rhyme with the desire to make fashion more transparent

This spotlighting will allow brands to communicate to a fashion audience that knows them by heart, but does not necessarily identify them as a manufacturer. In concrete terms: a clothing brand wants to manufacture shoes or launch a line of jewellery, it can find its partners on site. By extension, it is easy to imagine that retailers will also have more direct access to the origin of materials, components and working conditions of the factories. Better informed, they will, in turn, be able to pass on this information to a clientele that is increasingly concerned about traceability.

"In terms of sustainability, it's absolute transparency. And, right now, it's necessary," confirms Pourrat.

It remains to be seen whether this new path will make it possible to circumvent the secrecy that often surrounds the relationships between manufacturers and brands. This is a sensitive subject that Maus addresses tactfully: "This is also the evolution of Who's Next. As a trade show organiser, we are a central pillar of the industry. It is up to us to bring professionals together, to make sure they exchange. And it is also our role to be resilient, to accompany changes, not to remain frozen. Who's Next is an organic structure that evolves with the times and always tries to be one step ahead." Duly noted.

** Ankorstore / B2B online platform connecting brands with retailers with which WSN has created a hybrid omnichannel solution.

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