Uruguay XXI invited Uruguayan brands to participate in an informative talk about the industry and the fashion market in USA. Representatives of Coterieinternational fashion fair based in NY, they visited Uruguay and shared the latest trends and strategies in the sector.
In addition, the brands applied to receive a 20-minute feedback, where experts and their representatives analyze the value proposition, coherence of the collection, prices, materials and the catalog. This allows entrepreneurs to draw up a strategy to access new international markets.
Last year there were seven Uruguayan fashion design brands that participated in the US fairs Designers & Agents and Coterie. Celmo, Jibona, Margaret Shaw, margo Baridon, ound, Sap and The Farra They exhibited their various collections with the aim of positioning the national fashion industry in foreign markets.
Elisa Schroederexport promotion analyst at Uruguay XXI, told Ambit that the experience of these international fairs means for companies “the possibility of reviewing their structures and sophisticating their processes because access to a market as challenging as the American one undeniably implies perfecting oneself and extracting the real value proposition that each brand has, in this case closely linked to the use of local raw materials and above all to the employment of local labor, which is a great differential in the fashion industry.”
He added that “brands are used to knowing their customers, knowing the names of their customers because they have been in the market for a long time and the Uruguayan market is very small. Then launch into a market as large as that of USA It means that they have to tell their story, they have to recognize their identity and be able to tell it in an attractive way that attracts attention and is very concrete.”
Regarding the role of the organism, Schroeder explained that “from the Export Promotion Agency a vertical is the professionalization of the industry and train companies to obtain tools that allow them to internationalize.” “We generate this type of initiatives with references from other events, from other markets, in this case the American one, who come to tell a little more about what the experience is about, what the requirements are to prepare and what they are looking for,” he explained.
For its part, Alejandra Bolandesigner and international business consultant directly linked to fashion industry events in USA stated to Ambit that “Uruguay and, in general, the countries of South America“They have something very interesting, which is that they have very pure proposals from their DNA.” “You have to prepare, you have to know what you are getting into and have a commercial set-up that allows you to carry out your business within the new market. Internationalization has not only to do with participation in fairs, but with having good commercial prospecting, having the entire operations format very neat and organized so that it can really work, and then giving it the time and budget that it entails” , he explained.
Regarding the proposal for this year, Bolan stated that “our expectations are that more and more brands will go, of course, but also that they will be prepared and that the brand that was last season can go and continue growing.”
The experience of companies that approached the market in the United States
A company that participated in 2023 and now plans to repeat is Celmo, which works with the purpose of minimizing the environmental impact and not generate excess production. “Going to Coterie allows us to exhibit our garments and also serves as a meeting point to carry out our main objective, which is to export and internationalize,” said the brand representative. Antonella Scaldaferri.
The brand has already managed to be marketed in Barcelona and Madrid and even made sales in Koreanow adding the North American market.
Opening more points of sale targeting small luxury boutiques are part of the objectives that the director of Sap, Helena Betolaza, was raised at this international meeting. “The possibility of going to Coterie opened a door to a new world, not only to internationalize the brand to the United States and Central America, but also to European markets such as Spain and France”, he expressed.
The brand presented a collection that includes fine wool representative of Uruguay as raw material. Betolaza explained that “abroad it is valued that our workshop leaders are the most important link in our production chain.” Since its beginnings, Savia has worked with linen and now innovates with the addition of handmade finishes with materials such as leather or crochet embroidery.
“The first thing we saw was learning and understanding how that market works, we had no idea what we were going to sell and how we were going to sell it. We had four customers and two of those customers bought from us again. “It’s a good response, they liked our product, they consumed it again and they are interested, they even asked us for exclusivity for the next season,” he told Ambit.
The selection of the Uruguayan companies that made up last year’s delegation as this year was in charge of Uruguay XXI and the Chamber of Design of Uruguay in coordination with the organizers of the fairs. To form this representation, priority was given to the value of origin of the products that each company exhibits, the use of raw materials and local labor was considered, as well as the impact on the development of the national industry.
Source: Ambito
