Fashion Access Finishes Off Strong

The business of fashion remains strong, with top-notch design and quality being the most important elements to success. This was evident in the recently concluded Fashion Access fair held from March 27 to 29 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.

524 contract manufacturers, fashion brands and designers from 22 countries and regions exhibited. Majority came from mainland China, Hong Kong and India, with 129 first time exhibitors from Bangladesh, mainland China, France, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Spain, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Thailand.

The fair drew a total of 11,829 buyers over its 3-day run. Positive increases in attendance came from the Philippines, Malaysia, Chile, Brazil, Spain and Russia.

Eric Van Bourgonie of Van Bourgonie-Crols Leather Goods in Belgium has attended Fashion Access 20 times. He pointed out that "this fair is good for seeing new trends, different types of materials and producers, especially from Asia, all in a single spot."

From Samsonite in India, Hardarshan S. Gandhi noted that "the product variety is excellent in this fair, which makes it distinctive and helps my business."

Milka Lilyan of Semilla, Taiwan stated his plan to return to Fashion Access every year: "The quality of items displayed becomes higher than previous years." From Brazil, Mr. Marcos of Donnabrasil Handbags added that "the items in Fashion Access are more fashionable than in other fairs."

As a fashion-forward fair, Fashion Access through the Turkish leathergoods association ITKIB, brought internationally-renowned Turkish designer Umit Unal to Hong Kong to unveil his exciting and ultra-urban fashion collections using leather and fur selected from leading Turkish tanneries.

India sent a strong contingent this year, with 61 exhibitors showcasing leather garments, bags, footwear and accessories. There was also a bigger participation from Japan with 28 companies.

In the design awards front, young designer Laszlo Beata Orsolya of Hungary was named overall winner of the Design A Bag Competition 2013 for her Metal bag. Her design was chosen as the best out of 153 entries from 23 countries. Her prize includes a one-month training class in bag-making at the Ars Sutoria School in Milan.

The Best of APLF Awards, celebrating its 10th year of its search for excellence in design, quality and innovation, gave recognition to 9 exhibitors for the outstanding products or collections. These include Vinaaste International of Singapore, Simpson-London of England and Guangzhou Top Beauty Arts & Crafts of China for their ladies, men's and fashion bag collections, respectively.

Michael Antonio Footwear Group of the USA copped the prize for Best Ladies' Footwear Collection while Madras Inc. of Japan took the Best Men's Footwear award.Other winners include Guangzhou Jitian Yaosi Leather for Best Lifestyle Collection, Aranaz of the Philippines for Best Fashion Accessories Collection, Fashion Folio of India for the Best Handcrafted Product Collection, and Kwansbag Industrial of Hong Kong for Best Marketing Concept.

Fashion Access returns in September 2013.

For more information visit www.fashionaccess.aplf.com

About APLF Limited (www.aplf.com)

APLF Ltd is a joint venture between SIC Group and UBM Asia. For over two decades, Hong Kong-based APLF Ltd has been providing the global leather and fashion industries with its most important meeting and trading place.

About UBM Asia (www.ubmasia.com)

Owned by UBM plc listed on the London Stock Exchange, UBM Asia is Asia's leading exhibition organiser and the biggest commercial organiser in mainlandChina, India and Malaysia. Established with its headquarters in Hong Kong and subsidiary companies across Asia and in the US, UBM Asia has a strong global presence in 25 major cities with 29 offices and over 1,200 staff.

With a track record spanning over 30 years, UBM Asia operates in 19 market sectors with 160 dynamic face-to-face exhibitions, 75 high-level professional conferences, 28 targeted trade publications, 18 round-the-clock vertical portals and virtual event services for over 1,000,000 quality exhibitors, visitors, conference delegates, advertisers and subscribers from all over the world. We provide a one-stop diversified global service for high-value business matching, quality market news and online trading networks.

UBM Asia has extensive office networks in China, Southeast Asia and India, three of the world's fastest growing B2B events markets. UBM China has 11 offices in the major cities in mainland China, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Chengdu and Shenzhen, where we organise more than 60 exhibitions and conferences. In ASEAN, UBM Asia operates from its offices in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam and the Philippines with over 50 events in this region. UBM India teams in Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad organise 20 exhibitions and 60 conferences every year across the country.

About UBM plc (www.ubm.com)

UBM plc is a leading global business media company. We inform markets and bring the world's buyers and sellers together at events, online, in print and provide them with the information they need to do business successfully. Our 6,500 staff in more than 30 countries are organised into specialist teams which serve commercial and professional communities, helping them to do business and their markets to work effectively and efficiently.