Spring Fair enjoys ‘buzzing’ new edition as Moda x Pure settle in

Retail trade show Spring Fair took to Birmingham NEC this week, the first edition to house the combined Moda x Pure category since the shuttering of the once standalone fashion event, Pure London. Organisers celebrated growth in both visitor and exhibitor numbers for this season, a “testament to the show’s community, its reach and its ability to transform businesses”, event director Soraya Gadelrab said in a release.

“We strive to offer buyers an environment that enables them to discover new products, new trends and new connections. The show floor has been buzzing since the show opened and feedback is incredibly positive,” Gadelrab said on the third day of the fair, which spanned February 2 to 5 and celebrated its 75th anniversary. “Thousands” of buyers and retailers were said to have descended on the event over its four days, including those from John Lewis, Marks & Spencer, TJX, Fenwick, Tesco, L’Oréal, H&M and Next.

Over 1,500 exhibitors were also present, 400 of which were new to Spring Fair, a figure that was largely bolstered by the new inclusion of Pure London, which brought along some former regulars to its new home in Birmingham. “By joining forces with Pure London to create Moda x Pure, we’ve been able to offer the best of both shows under one roof, while Source Home & Gift has proved to be hugely popular already with our buyers who are wanting to expand their search for products,” Gadelrab noted.

New Moda x Pure offers ‘streamlined and comprehensive’ setting for fashion

The revelation last year that Pure was to be absorbed by its sister event, Spring Fair–both housed in the Hyve Group portfolio–shook up the industry, and reflected what seemed to be a shifting demand from brands and retailers alike towards the fair landscape. It brought to an end a short-lived collaboration between Pure and Just Around the Corner (JATC), which for just two seasons teamed up as the collaborative show Pure x JATC. With this, JATC, which had initially attempted to balance out womenswear and menswear among its events both in Manchester and London, will cease to exist. Yet, those at Hyve envision a stronger base in Birmingham for fashion brands that had once shown in London.

Ahead of Spring Fair, FashionUnited spoke with Hyve Group’s retail portfolio director, Jackson Szabo, who said the “merging of Moda and Pure under the Spring Fair banner reflects evolving market conditions”, offering “a more streamlined and comprehensive buying spaces for fashion retailers”, many of whom are already familiar with Spring Fair itself. It ties in with the fair’s intention to encourage buyers and retailers to explore new possibilities in the way of stock and leverage the event’s vast breadth in informing their strategies for the coming season.

And it appears that, with this new season, this mission is somewhat being achieved. In a comment to organisers, Sharon Mcllroy, the owner of Berkhamsted-based womenswear boutique, Amelie, said: “I really enjoyed the show and picked up a few new jewellery brands which sit perfectly alongside my existing brands. The show has something for everyone, and there are some great new brands showcasing their products. I left feeling inspired and am looking forward to getting some exciting new accessories and gifts in-store.”

Exhibitors were also seemingly positive. Jay Chawla, a director at Nova of London, a former Pure regular, told Hyve: “The start of the show has been really encouraging, we’ve had a real mix of customers and some good orders. Moda x Pure merging is a good thing for us, seeing new customers and allowing everything to be in one place allows us to spend less time trying to split our efforts and focus on the Spring Fair – this is more accessible for both exhibitors and buyers.”

The Moda x Pure space housed collections within the Womenswear, Clothing & Footwear, Fashion Accessories and Jewellery & Watch categories, and further incorporated features that had become synonymous with Pure, such as the Moda x Pure Catwalk, which this year exhibited a ‘Pure Edit’. Here, collections from Angeleye, City Goddess/Goddiva, Trixxi and AX Paris were put on display, each touching on the season’s theme of ‘A Modern Love Story’.

Struggles of small businesses and independents recognised

Spring Fair’s content programme, meanwhile, was further structured to help retailers and visitors as a whole in approaching what has been a tricky market, both internationally and locally. Figures published by the Centre of Retail Research in January, for example, revealed that over 13,000 retail stores across the UK closed for good throughout 2024, increasing 28 percent on levels from the year prior. Independents were hit the hardest, having accounted for 84.1 percent of all store closures, up on the 74.5 percent rate in 2023.

Such difficulties were not sidestepped at Spring Fair, and instead discussed head on. Particularly by interior designer Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, who helped open the show and later held a presentation entitled ‘Licensing, Art and Designing for Retail Success’. In it, Llewelyn-Bowen said he envisioned a more positive environment for 2025, as long as retailers were brave enough to stand out among the larger conglomerates.

“I feel very strongly that we’re on a pivot point where independent retail has the opportunity to do something really different and powerfully positive; and it’s to do with the relationship between retail, manufacture and design,” he said. “In this country the leverage, the real power, the real difference happens through independent retail. It happens through the fact that you make your own decisions, because you know who you’re selling to, because you don’t patronise your customers. This is the point of Indies, we provide choice.”

In his own keynote address, retail entrepreneur Theo Paphitis also underlined the importance of small businesses, however, called on the government to close loopholes allowing large offshore companies to avoid taxes in order to level the playing field. He added: “I have always been a supporter of small businesses because that’s where I started out. I’d say one thing you need to have as a small business, or any sized business really is confidence in your USP. Ask yourself why does my business exist? Persistence is a great thing in business.”

Indeed, such companies were put on a pedestal for this edition under the New Business Pavilion, where products new to the marketplace, including those in clothing and footwear, were presented at dedicated stands. Speaking to Hyve, Chadwick Or of personal care brand Get Freschia, one of those exhibited, said: “It’s definitely refreshing to have so much new business here, we really enjoy talking to our neighbours and sharing the experience of being a start-up. We’ve had quite a bit of new interest and leads to follow up and we’ve had our first orders come in.”

Hyve Group will now be turning its attention to the upcoming fairs Source Fashion and Scoop, which will be taking place in London between February 18 to 20 and February 9 to 11, respectively. Akin to Pure, notable shifts will be seen among these fairs too, once again intending to reflect the current landscape of the industry. Source, for example, will be held in the larger hall of Olympia London, and will add leather and footwear divisions to its exhibitor lineup. Scoop, meanwhile, is preparing to move to Olympia’s National Hall from June, providing organisers with a more expansive setup for its growing number of international brands.