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Mom2B is a maternity wear trade show with a catchy name if I might add and in January they decided to fill the rapidly growing maternity wear segment of the apparel industry with the launch of their first trade show followed by a second fall release in late September early October.

From their site:

“According to the New York Times (6/8/2006), maternity wear saw a 28% increase in sales between 2000-2005, whereas the overall woman?s clothing market showed a mere 2% increase during the same period of time.”

Mom2B is a trade-only one stop apparel show. Any pregnant lady would love to be in attendance to see the full product offerings available at the trade show covering all categories from apparel, beauty products, pregnancy snacks, energy drinks, baby shower gifts, and pretty much anything else a women would need for the 9 months other than check ups.

If you’re a retailer, manufacturer, or designer and would like to be in attendance for the next show, which will be held in Las Vegas at the Hilton Hotel on March 3-4 2008 you may reserve your spot by clicking here to pre-register.

Jason Bates the owner of a Los Angeles based showroom called Derelicte and Keith Cokes head of sales at Ted Baker have decided to launch another trade show targeting contemporary fashion labels and the premium denim brand market called Class.

Class will be launched next year in Los Angeles for the spring season. There plan is to create a well put together trade show with direction and sophistication that is right in the heart of LA catering to the contemporary/denim brand movement.

They plan to keep the ship tight and only have anywhere from 200-300 fashion brands as exhibitors each show to create a high end show with integrity that is not selling out just to make more money.

Starting booth rates at the Class show will run your apparel company $4,000 for a standard 8×10 setup and this price will increase with each following season by $500. Class is offering an incentive to buyers of stores if they decide to be in attendance by covering their travel expenses, but this is left for the Top 100 retailers they’re targeting for the show. They will decide on the cream of the crop after speaking with the show vendor lineup.

I thought this was quite interesting, but at the same time out of Jay-Z’ s league at least within the fashion industry.

Shawn Carter recently lost the bidding war for the New Jersey Nets Airline Continental Airlines Arena in Meadowlands in September.

At the same time I wonder why Iconix Brand didn’t step in and make the Arena a more lucrative offer than the Izod brand which is who beat Jay Z’s offer of $1.4 million per year with a matching offer of $1.4 million, plus a marketing package in addition to the cash incentive.

I guess in this case we see strategy…and money talks. You would’ve thought they’d simply outbid him, but they were thinking smart and had a strategy along with their deep pockets. I guess Rocawear can mark this down as a marketing strategy that failed, but they at least received some publicity over losing and the whole bid within itself. Although it would’ve been a great outlet for promotion.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Well we already know that the music industry plays a big part in adopted trends and both inspire each other in one way or another so why not have a fashion week fused with them.

Funkshion Fashion Week celebrates the interaction of the fashion & music world by providing a showcase where progressive up and coming designers can show their fashion collections to a different audience: including celebrities, media, international buyers, and trend setters.

The fall show will be going on at the same time as the Winter Music Conference and is a highly rated event that attracts dancers, musicians, dj’s and top international artists from over 60 countries, which in return will create an even more attractive atmosphere for press and media that emerging designers should take advantage of.

Funkshion Fashion Week will be hosted by 3 B productions it all goes down on October 10-14 at South Beach in Miami, Florida. If you would like to be in attendance visit their website to RSVP by clicking here.

I found this company while searching for videos to upload to the Global Fashion Network and I truly think their services are very interesting particularly for the fashion and footwear market. They cover all segments of the market from art, denim, trade events, the culture, music, skateboarding, sports, t-shirts, technology, and trade shows.

I can’t truly judge what knowledge you would get out of Label Networks weekly newsletters or profile reports, but if it is to any extent of what they describe I guarantee you that it would be worth your dollar.

Label Networks profiles cover everything from trends to why fitted hats are regaining more ground than ever. Educated reports on Youth Culture studies in direct relation to the Apparel Industry and successful brands. Live video footage of trade shows and interviews with exhibitors and organizers. They give you the inside scoop that most can’t, but along with that news is a premium price.

They do have free weekly updates that you can sign up for here, but are very limited compared to the weekly analysis subscription package that starts at $499 a year.

Politeed is a newly launched t-shirt business out of Richardson, Texas and has made ever news or media outlet within the Apparel Industry I debated on it and decided that I didn’t want to be left out .

There t-shirt are making noise not because they use a new one of a kind fabric or because they have (insert name of celebrity) wearing it all on television making headlines, but because they harness the power of word of mouth mixed with a little bit of shock and awe. Don’t take this post as another fashion news brief, but a lesson in marketing and how you can create opportunity and exposure for your brand for the hefty price of FREE.

Most of there shirts are designed around building social awareness and current events going on in America…nothing much more to them. Simple text prints with a loud statement. I can imagine they will be featured on every major news station in the coming months and creating major traffic=sales for their online store.

This question is brought to you by Dobizo Answers where you can ask any question (Instead of Emailing me) and I will answer it to the best of my knowledge or with research within 48 hours or less.

Part of this answer is directed toward Sky clothing because they asked the following question:

I have an ecommerce site www.myshopkart.net/skysclothing and would like to know some inexpensive ways to promote it and build from there. My goal is to have a sister site that sells funky and rare urban wear that builds from the ecommerce because money is tight. I did go to school for fashion design and obtained my associates degree, but as you said you really don?t learn what you need to from it. Any suggestions?

My first suggestion would be for you to setup an independent store away from the Myshopkart system by hosting your own site with the unique domain of www.skyclothingboutique.com and having your store dependent on there system and your options to promote wouldn’t be as limited. It will look more professional and you could build up your own domain not working hard promoting only to have to move over to your own unique domain after you have put in all the hours building up theirs!

Considering many startup companies don’t have the right financing or know how to effectively market and sale clothing at a trade show many leave with no orders and less money than when they started.

Many have this belief that you will go to a trade show and leave with thousands of dollars in orders or you will one day find an investor that wants to put millions of dollars behind your company and for most of us that is not going to happen. Don’t feel discouraged though we all thought that way at one time including me and I had to find out the hard way.

There are other ways of going about getting your clothing line into stores and finding avenues to sell them some of which can be less costly, but more time consuming and usually yield better results once you get through the initial learning curve and get a feel for how they should each properly be done.

Shop.org is an online network for online retailing marketing, insight and knowledge to help make better decisions on the internet and Multi-channel retailing.

Shop.org isn’t just everyday online retailers, but executives from different walks of the online fashion retailing industry that are there to share their knowledge with members about the ever evolving online retail scene.

How do they get this information across?

• Retailer-only workshops
• Regularly scheduled TeleSeminars
• State of Retailing Online research study
• Annual eHoliday Mood Study
• Annual Members? Summit
• Regional Retailer Meetings
• Weekly email newsletter
• Retailer-only listserv

Of course with all this information from leading online retailer Ceo’s and insiders membership comes with a fee and is calculated depending on your companies sales revenue and the type of membership you choose ranging from $2,500 -&5,500 per year.

Who can Join? Anybody involved with consumer online retailing, which I think would include many of you with online store counterparts of your clothing company.

The title of their website kind of confused me, because it says urban fashion, but the website really does have designers of all fashions on the site from designer wear to jewelry.

The Urban Fashion Network is a network of designers categorized into sections with their website, contact, where to buy, and a small description of what type of products they provide. It is like a yellow book for fashion designers.

Along with the network there are three blogs, “it” items of the season, and a sales page. I suggest anyone looking for a little more exposure head over to Urban Fashion Network and let them know about your up and coming fashion line.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Very interesting company I found through the Fashion Business Network while browsing and is just another reason for you to sign up because you never know if your website might tickle my fancy .

Cynthia O’Connor founded COO & Company in 1992 and has brought in sales volumes topping $45 million annually. Some designers that her multi-category women’s fashion showroom have worked with include the likes of Kate Spade, Me and Ro, Lela Rose, and Isabella Fiore. Her company played a big part in the success of major brand Kate Spade from its initial inception until becoming a household name.

Product lines you may find at Cynthia O’Connor and Company include ready to wear, accessories, shoes, lingerie and handbags. The showroom is wholesale and only available to the trade. The showroom is located in the center of the Garment District right between 36th between 7th and Broadway they like to be a buyers answer to a one stop shop with a great mix of women’s fashion, footwear and accessories.

The Ceo Audio’s since becoming FREE have received over 700 downloads in this month alone.

If you do the math at the rate they were for sell $4.99 x 700 I had a possibility to make over $3,500 in the month of September, but of course if they were being paid for you could probably cut that figure of 700 in half to around 300 downloads…if that.

Don’t get me wrong I’m not just leaving money on the table so to speak (I’m a business man), but I definitely know the power of Free and what word of mouth can do for your business. I knew by offering the Ceo Audio’s for free and giving our readers even MORE value they would do nothing but talk about us more and share the audio’s with friends who are also interested in the Fashion industry therefore sending us more readers in the process. Plus I announce that the Ceo Audio is being brough