Who’s Next Trade Fair Evolves With More Commerce, Cultural Offerings
PARIS — The Who’s Next trade show is evolving, continuing its growth toward the commerce and culture bent.
The organization will be returning to Porte de Versailles’ largest hall for the upcoming edition in January, organizers WSN said Thursday while revealing its slate.
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WSN is continuing its partnership with business-to-business wholesale online marketplace Ankorstore to support direct sales between brands and independent buyers, plus expanding its Loud section, which features livestream shopping, book signings, a series of industry talks and will host evening cocktail events.
It will also launch the WSN Academy as its “center of expertise and solutions that is intended for buyers and brands,” said WSN chief executive officer Frédéric Maus.
The Academy will help brands onboard to the trade show, as well as provide further business support including talks and one-on-ones between buyers and brands, plus coaching and digital consulting.
As the wholesale market has changed, Maus found that brands were reaching out for additional support from the trade fair organizers. That need quickly evolved beyond logistics, having to do with the trade show itself, particularly for young and independent brands.
“We began to think maybe we can really help the community to develop in some way, to prepare for the trade show, but also how to get off to a good start in the retail industry, or how to manage a collection plan. The fair will be still the fair, with magical moments, but on the business side we need to be really accurate and provide everything that our ecosystem needs,” he said.
Maus noted that it’s not just about product anymore — designers must also deal with digital distribution and sustainability requirements, among other complex issues. “If you are a creator, you don’t just need to create, you need to be very good at all the other parts. If we can just give a little stone to help them to build, to learn and to develop their brand, we’ll be happy to provide it, and they need it, actually,” he said.
The cultural space, Loud, is part of a new strategy drive at WSN, which saw it launch a culture and music festival in Jakarta over the summer.
“Culture is, nowadays, something that is even more important than luxury, and we bring culture into every part of our event,” he said. He pointed out that Who’s Next originally started from street, skate and rave culture and so they are digging deep into those roots.
The association with Ankorstore is also part of creating an ecosystem for brands and the community. They signed a partnership agreement in March. “In a few months, we have already made several million euros in GMV,” said Maus.
The interior layout is set for a spruce up, with jewelry section Bijorhca on one side, and Who’s Next’s ready-to-wear on the other. Organizers framed it as hosting different but adjacent universes under one roof. “Together they are stronger, but they can live separately,” said Who’s Next head Sabine Batomino.
On the Who’s Next side, the team has worked to create different tableaus within the expansive space.
“We worked a bit like a living mood board,” Batomino said. “It will be a big deal because the scenography is precisely made to put the collections in the spotlight.”
This year the fair will have a dedicated denim corner, featuring large brands such as Guess Jeans, Lee, and Wrangler, and smaller labels such as Kaporal and Sac & Co. Denim has always been interspersed in various collections, but brand demand for a dedicated space spurred the creation of an area.
They will also debut a corner called Brut Icon, which will highlight 20 creative brands curated by the WSN team.
Bijorhca is showing strength in its seventh season, organizers said. “It’s one of the shows that is actually really developing now quite strongly under the impetus of WSN,” said Maus. There will be 150 jewelry brands for the January edition, and the team wants to double that number within three years.
To that end they are in the process of signing a partnership with Milano Fashion&Jewels to collaborate on taking brands to both fairs.
Bijorhca will also have a series of talks related to the jewelry industry, on topics such as AI and the laws around upcycling.
The Salon international de la Lingerie and Interfilière shows will also be a part of the fair.
The lingerie fair will feature 400 brands and be hosted in an adjacent hall, and will launch a new space called the Creative Hub dedicated to sourcing. They will also try to up the game on experience; instead of placing items on mannequins throughout the space, there will be a dedicated “dream store” with an imagined retail experience.
A wellness section that launched last year within the lingerie section with eight brands, including sex toy brands, “was very well received.” This year it will expand to 20 brands.
Organizers said brands that had left the trade show are now returning, noting in particular that they cited the need for more support in wholesale. “These are super encouraging signs for us,” said organizer Matthieu Pinet.
Pinet also heads up the Matter and Shape design salon, which launched last year during fashion week. Next year it is scheduled for March 7 to 10. There were 35 brands at the first edition, and next year it will expand to 55 brands, he said.
Emblematic of WSN’s more commercial philosophy, Matter and Shape opened a pop-up store within Galeries Lafayette on Nov. 16, which will run through the holiday season.
“It was a super cool opportunity for us,” said Pinet. He wants to develop the consumer-facing part of the business along with the original business-to-business focus.
“B-to-c is super important to develop the notoriety of a brand, so we are going to continue to work on both aspects,” he said, adding that there are “about 10 proposals on my desk” from other department stores. But they will wait and seek the right partners, he said.
Maus said for the last edition of Who’s Next, attendance was up 16 percent and 52 percent of attendees came from abroad. It was the first time the makeup was more international than French.
He said that demonstrates the continued strength of the trade fair, despite others faltering.
“Lots of trade shows are struggling in Europe, but Paris is still really attractive,” he said.
Who’s Next will be held at Porte de Versailles Jan. 18 to 20.
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