The Intertextile Shenzhen Apparel Fabrics (formerly Intertextile Pavilion Shenzhen) has rebranded and will take place from July 15-17, 2020, at a brand new venue, the Shenzhen World Exhibition and Convention Centre. An estimated 2,000+ exhibitors are expected to join a space of 60,000 square metres at the trade fair, organised by Messe Frankfurt.
Held concurrently with the first Shenzhen edition of Yarn Expo, as well as CHIC and PH Value, the fair offers a comprehensive, convenient platform for sourcing between seasons in South China.
Shenzhen is a key city in China’s Greater Bay Area, a central government scheme to develop an integrated economic hub by linking nine major cities of South China’s Guangdong Province, Hong Kong, and Macau. The Greater Bay Area includes major garment manufacturing hubs for all kinds of garment clusters, including ladieswear, menswear, kidswear, denim, wool, and underwear.
The new venue is located near the Shenzhen Bao’an international airport, while the area is also well connected via high speed trains and the world’s third largest ferry port, ensuring convenience for local manufacturers as well as international buying offices from Hong Kong. The fair is also an ideal location for garment producers from countries in the ASEAN region, such as Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Cambodia, according to a press release by Messe Frankfurt.
The venue is close to Dalang fashion town in Shenzhen, an ongoing development subsidised by the government that aims to use the momentum of the Greater Bay Area to build an international fashion centre. The development builds on top of Shenzhen’s strong foundations in fashion, with the city already being a well-known ladieswear hub, home to around 30,000 fashion designers and over 2,000 fashion retailers.
With aims to specialise in technology, design, and sustainability, Dalang fashion town is part of China’s efforts to continue to expand its textile industry from not only manufacturing, but also to design and trendsetting. The area is home to around 500 domestic fashion enterprises.
Fast fashion and sustainability rarely meet in the middle, however, both concepts are key drivers towards smaller batch sizes and on-demand replenishment. Market needs now constantly adapt to fast fashion trends outside of traditional Spring and Autumn collections, while at the other end of the spectrum, demand for sustainability is predicted to continue to grow in the 2020s, as public awareness of overproduction issues in the fashion industry rises.
Intertextile Shenzhen’s mid-summer date makes it an ideal event for trade buyers to replenish stocks between seasons, while many exhibitors also offer product-in-stock services for faster processing. Smaller batch orders are also welcomed by many exhibitors at the fair, encouraging the industry to reduce waste through over-production.
“Intertextile Shenzhen has long offered an access point to key garment manufacturers, from South China to Southeast Asia and beyond. The move to a new venue means the fair has room to grow even more, in a convenient location. And following the successful model of Intertextile Shanghai with three concurrent fairs, the July date makes this the ideal fair for trade buyers who need a one-stop shop for apparel sourcing between seasons,” Wendy Wen, senior general manager of Messe Frankfurt said.