Hong Kong: Fashion Access and MM&T honour France

By

Bruno Joly

Published
Mar 25, 2015

Fashion Access and MM&T, which open their doors on 30 March, will welcome France as their guest of honour. France has not had this occasion since 1998 for several reasons. But just after the 50th anniversary celebration of the Franco-German friendship and the importance of Made in France, the country of love and fashion, with its 41 exhibitors, including several tanneries, will be featured vie an exhibition.

Set up by the French Tanners Federation and International Leather Week, co-organiser with Ubm Asia (in reality both are partners of the organising company APLF), the goal of the 1,400 ft² space marked out by two Eiffel Towers will be to highlight French know-how. 

Like a gallery, the site will exhibit the creations of 10 artists, under the auspices of Au-Delà du Cuir. Visitors will be able to admire shoes by Jour Férié Paris and leather origami flowers by Sophie Marionnet…  

Beyond art, the organisers of the trade fair, which brings together nearly 1,700 exhibitors (482 for Fashion Access and approximately 1,200 for MM&T), work to unite buyers, both big and small, with products.

Thus, the first morning will see the first Global Footwear Retail Conference, which will address the themes of transition and transfers and moves being experienced by the Chinese market, e-commerce and the prognosis of the Chinese market. This conference is just one of many events part of the vast programme.

Whereas MM&T brings together manufacturers of machines, technologies and components for the leather industry, Fashion Access is the place for finished products for chains and brands. With the evolution of the market, the latter are taking up more and more space.

After having launched Fashion Avenue, the organisers also launched the Design Studios space for starts-up in the sector. The spaces for the fall-winter 2015-16 trends with 4 major focuses are The Art of happiness - Urban Festivities, The Art of Being Contemporary - Cool Perfection, The Art of Seduction - Faraway Dream - and The Art of Nature - Romantic Wilderness.

Finally, for its sixth edition, the Design a Bag contest this time asked the finalists to send their prototypes to the jury beforehand. The contest is open to students and young designers via the Internet where they present their projects in detail. It will be expanded to shoes in 2016.