Bluezone aims high, digs deep and stays focused
A fully booked roster of around 90 industry exhibitors showed their latest fabrics for spring-summer 2024 during this month’s Bluezone, the dedicated denim section of textile trade fair Munich Fabric Start (MFS), held over two days in the Bavarian capital’s MOC event centre.
MFS, which itself ran for three days in total, the first two shared with Bluezone, registered over 14,000 visitors overall, from 58 countries. The mood in general was described as focused and positive.
This final visitor figure remains roughly 20% below that of January 2020, MFS’ last show to take place pre-pandemic, but organisers said it was an expected and “realistic” outcome in view of macroeconomic challenges, particularly as the world awaits the return of Asia-based visitors in numbers approaching pre-covid times.
Instead, the event was especially well-attended by those hailing from the German-speaking DACH region (Germany, Austria and Switzerland), Benelux (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg), Scandinavia, the UK and Turkey this time around, they added. Fashion designers, buyers, product managers and more attended from companies including C&A, Hugo Boss, Bestseller, Mustang, Gucci, Espirit, Escada, Karl Lagerfeld, United Colors of Benetton, S Oliver and more. Bluezone's theme for this edition was ‘Discovery’.
MFS managing director, Sebastian Klinder, reported that interest in newness, particularly in relation to sustainability and digital-first technologies, was “extremely high” and “much more in-depth” than seen previously.
“Everything went smoothly, just as usual,” commented director of strategic projects at Turkish denim mill Isko, Marco Lucietti. “What’s special [about Bluezone] is the combination of denim with other segments, which results in a mix that attracts numerous clients.
"We make many appointments and come to actually work and be productive. It’s not an easy time [economically], I’d wish for more international visitors, but we expected a bigger downturn and it’s not [been] as bad as expected. I feel that the industry is getting back on track, slowly but steadily.”
The next Bluezone is set to take place in July, once again at the MOC.
Image: Bluezone via Instagram.
