COTERIE & WHO'S THERE

Bl^nk London

A favorite brand among Anthropology buyers, was founded by Indian designer Diana Irani and her husband Julien Gressier in 2003 in East London. Bl^nk started out as an accessories brand and has now been in business for 15 years! The London based brand coveys a true bohemian aesthetic through feminine silhouettes, contrasting bold prints, and loud color schemes.

Corporate sales manager, Ashleigh, describes the life of someone who shops their brand: "she is 30-50 years old, educated, well traveled, enjoys gardening and nice wine, and she follows news and keeps in touch with current affairs. She's very worldly." She continued on to mention how embellishments and prints are key to their identity and everything is done with bohemian sentiments. When I asked about how they use trend information to assist them, she mentioned that they are members of a service called "Trendstop" and key accounts of theirs, Anthropology for example, will often provide their own trend forecasts. In the United States, Bl^nk has attended a wide range of trade shows such as Swim Show, Magic Las Vegas, Project, Fig Texas and Coterie. On a global scale, the brand has been to Who's Next and the Tronoi trade show in Paris, Premium in Berlin, Pure in London, and Revolver in Copenhagen.

Working for this brand as an assistant vendor, I gained very unique insight into the beautiful chaos that is participating in a trade show as a well known brand. At times the booth was very busy, overrun with buyers from different companies all rushing to pick out their selections for next season. I loved working for this brand because our buyers ranged from the various departments of Anthropology to small boutique owners based on the beach! The whole mood of the booth did reflect the product well in my eyes because the beautiful prints and loud colors really spoke for themselves. Visuals from our booth would stop buyers who were walking by in their tracks. The Indian influence was very evident and it sparked interest in many. Almost all the buyers who came by the booth already knew about the brand. Significant trends I saw included fur, animal prints, and beautiful shades of forest green and mustard yellow!

One booth that really stood out to me while I was at coterie was GiGi NY. Being a handbag lover, I immediately walked over to GiGi's table and started talking to the people there. The booth was very inviting, and set up in an appealing way. The animal fur bags were on one table, the new fall collection was on a wall in a shelf, and the game day collection was presented in the front. One of the game day bags even had a football inside of it to show what their new collection was all about. They were full of information and I learned so much from them. Striking up a conversation with them was so easy, I could have stayed there forever, but it was time to move on eventually once their booth started to get a little crowded. The man I talked to gave me a card and told me to come to their next event!

Their target customer is women, ages 20-40. They wide range is because of their pricing. Middle aged women can most likely afford these bags, whereas the 20 year old women like the products for the style and fashion.

GiGi NY

Brand that focuses mostly on handbags and accessories, prices range from $300-$600 & up. They are known for using fun prints and real animal fur.

Part of their new collection is the game day handbags! This collection is full of clear game day handbags, crossbody bags and tote bags. This specific collection offers its customers choices in color and even camo print.

This idea is function and fashion all in one. This bag is great for concerts or going to professional games. Most places nowadays requires your bags to be clear, so this bag is perfect for that reason!

Another fun thing this company does is they create tassels in different colors to hang on the bags. They will even customize the tassel to your school colors if you are a student.

For the new collection, they are focusing mostly on a Fall color palette, which consists of; Olive Green, Brown, Burgundy, Burnt Orange, and more.

This brand is very on top of the trends today, however one thing they should think about is using real animal fur on their products. Most people today are very animal cruelty free and if this brand continues to show that they support using real fur, then their sales might decrease in a few years.

Capture

President & Owner: Lise Epperlein

Contemporary multi brand wholesale showroom

Target Customer: she is 20-40 years old. Someone who is trendy, loves being inspired and enforcing women empowerment.

Product Assortment: Apparel and Accessories

Assethic: lifestyle brands, jewelry, organic recycle apparel, women and self-empowering brands

MeMoi

Wholesale hosiery and socks

Total supplier for Anthropologie and Free People hosiery

Based in Linden NJ

The MeMoi team finds new trends by looking at streetwear, talking to their customers, and simply looking at what else is trending. Even though trend come and go quickly within the hosiery world, they also have a quicker turn around and come back faster.

When you first entered MeMoi’s selling space at Coterie, it immediately felt trendy. They were showing new product that clearly could be stocked at any Anthro or Urban. The create fun novelty socks for both men and women, perfect for gifts. MeMoi was also showing trendy, transparent ankle hosiery- using fishnets, pearls and bow to add to any outfit. With looser fitting jeans being so trend currently, fishnets and sock details are also trending.

Lucky Brands

Lucky Brand has been a denim staple for years now. However, this booth featured a lot more than just denim. Following in the trends of brands such as Levi's or Wrangler, Lucky has made its own twist on heritage denim. The "Lucky You" saying on the inside of the zipper on all their jeans is their signature on the denim.

Their target market is men and women 20-40 years old. While visiting the booth it was not very busy which is why decided to step in for a quick look around. I felt the booth was very simple and plain. I feel like their website and stores give off their aesthetic much better than this booth did. The clothing was hard to look at because it was so jam packed into the rolling racks.

Lucky is definitely on trend. Because of their "Lucky You" saying on the inside of their jeans, they have been seen across social media platforms such as Tumblr, VSCO, and Instagram with girls showing off the slogan.

Overall, Coterie was a great experience once again. The dominating theme I saw was snake and animal print on EVERYTHING. Shoes with snake skin prints were the most popular item I saw at almost every booth. Bright colors also seem to be making a comeback with a mixture of pastels and floral patterns. Another interesting trend I saw was that many vendors were trying to become 100% cruelty free. For example there was a vendor selling puffer jackets with synthetic down feathers as well as faux fur hood details.