ITS#FOUR winner, Marcus Wilmont at Rendez-Vous Paris.
February 15, 2006
| In essence Rendez-Vous is a tradeshow. But don't think traditional salon. Really the description of Rendez-Vous as a tradeshow is some what redundant. It is a tradeshow with a difference. No compromises on comfort, the atmosphere is bustling with energy not the usual sterile industrial setting that might come to mind when thinking of a tradeshow. Here the focus is on quality not quantity. No one ends up at Rendez-Vous by chance, all fashion designers are carefully hand picked by Adleric Speer and Nic Jones. With apparel and accessories tradeshows on the increase in other European cities it was time to respond with answer for Paris. It is the affordable alternative to the alternative for up and coming and established contemporary fashion designers to showcase their collections. Just over a year since its launch Rendez-Vous has become a fixed appointment during the ready to wear Paris Fashion Weeks. Le Tapis Rouge has just turned off the lights on Rendez-Vous Homme which took place from the 27-30 January. Three days for young menswear designers to have their collections viewed by the press and buyers. Designers included Gaspard Yurkievich, Henrik Vibskov, Wendy & Jim :) and none other than our Marcus Lereng Wilmont, ITS#FOUR Collection of the Year winner, was invited to participate. Who better to tell us what it is all about. "I was very happy when offered the chance to be part of Rendez-Vous and saw it as a great opportunity. Going to a Buyer convention in Paris- such as Rendez-Vous during fashion week- is an exciting and frightening experience for several reasons. Unless you have had extensive dealings with the economical side of the fashion industry nothing can truly prepare you for the simple, efficient and direct goal of buyers- which is obviously to acquire clothes that will sell in their shops and make money. Of course there is a great deal of appreciation of the creative aspect of design but the bottom line is still the same. So you have to be ready for a lot of harsh professional directness that might sting a little but when you then in turn get positive comments and orders they mean so much more. I hope this is making some sense". Thrilled and thoroughly looking forward to five days in beautiful Paris I took the train from London at six I the morning on the day when we where supposed to hang up my designs. I am sure you know just how heavy a collection can be and how un-transportable- so suffice to say that the journey to Paris was a small adventure in itself. Having got there safely I found to my great delight that my hotel was literally one minute walk away from my hotel. I had a room on the top floor with the most arresting view of the rooftops of Paris. The Rendez-Vous Venue Le Tapis Rouge is an extraordinary place- It was one of the first department stores in Paris and look like a cross between a small version of Harrods, a French court and an Art Deco' salon. It is a stunning place that makes you instantly stop and simply look for a while. I meet Nic there, who is the guy that arranges Rendez-Vous and also has his own label for sale there, and he got me situated right in the grand entrance hall. This was a really good spot because everybody who got there would stand and 'simply look around for a while' and then come to my modest display. It takes a good deal of time hanging everything and getting things ironed and ready for next day and I was very tired when I finally left at around nine in the evening. Sitting at my stand through these four days was both strange and exciting- but most of all it is also very hard work that you have to do if you want your label to succeed. The days are long and sometimes it might be hours between you talking to people. A good piece of advice from me would be to bring a friend so that you can talk together and share the time. This means that you can go for breaks and clear your head without feeling guilty. Another thing that hit you is how much of a small society you as a designer belong to. It is almost like a small club. I filled many hours during the four days there talking to designers I know from London and haven't seen for a while and I also meet a lot of new people that design and gave me a lot of valuable advice. Advice I would never had got if I had not gone to Rendez-Vous and that you have to experience to learn. Most Buyers have trained themselves to be super efficient at quickly scanning a rail of clothes and instantly recognising whether or not this is what they are looking for. The result is that many of them simply pull out a few key pieces and then either stops to talk or move on. My designs don't exactly fall into the category of streetwear or conventional prêt a porter which is a weakness of mine but a deliberately chosen one. This means that quite a few of the buyers look at what I do, might even appreciate it (-suggested by their hurried comments-) but do not believe they can sell the clothes. The Buyers that did stop and showed a genuine interest- professionally and business-wise were from exactly the kind of shops that I would like my designs to be in to begin with. It might start out as a small exclusive group but you have to think very carefully about what kind of customer you are targeting- you want you clothes to be seen in the right shops and on the right people and then you can expand on the reputation... Again I hope this makes sense. Anyway, I had real interest from half a dozen Buyers and this is looking very promising indeed and pleasantly surprising as I didn't expect any to begin with. Forging these connections is something that would be very hard to do from a studio in London and this is probably one of the greater things that I took with me from Rendez-Vous. It is hard work but also very rewarding to see a direct response to your clothes from the insiders of the industry. I have been very happy to meet people I had all but lost contact with again and had such a good time with and am looking forward to doing this again in the future." Marcus |
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For more information see http://www.rendez-vous-paris.com or contact Nic Jones @ nic@rendez-vous-paris.com Next dates March 2-5 Look out for other ITS finalists. |
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