In this special interview, Karine Van Tassel, the founder and organiser of the leading Shanghai and New York based SPINEXPO shows, explains how the shows came about, how they developed, the key factors in their success and her plans for their future.

How did SPINEXPO come to life and who is behind it?

Karine Van Tassel:  As the founder of SPINEXPO Shanghai & New York, I could say that I just followed the way the world of fashion moved.  When I started my career in textiles, fashion originated from Couture Brands. I first worked with Madame Grès developing her ready-to-wear line, and then Hermès, where I was Head of the Production Department.  With the strengthening of the new wave of creators, I moved to Marithé & François Girbaud, then to brands such as Cacharel and Georges Rech. When textile innovations started in fabrics, I joined Dormeuil as the Head of the Ladies Fabric Department, and later moved on to Chargeurs Group as Marketing Manager in charge of image and supervising collections for the entire Women’s Department of the Group Weaving Companies.  

So from High Fashion to designers, to brand leaders, then fabric development, the next step was where it all starts from: fibres and yarns.

I decided to come closer to the origin of the textile chain and at the same time, to be more involved in Asia where I was always very involved professionally. 

I started a market survey travelling in all the Asian countries for EXPOFIL and FILO, which ended up with the launch of FILASIA, a fibre & yarns exhibition in Hong Kong.  I organised this exhibition until it was bought by the Italian Cotton & Linen Textile Association for whom I was also involved in a large market survey in China, which underlined well ahead of time the fantastic potential of the country in terms of textile consumption and innovation. 

It was difficult to convince my headquarters to move the show to China despite my own conviction, so I decided to make the move by myself, and this is how SPINEXPO started.

Brief review of SPINEXPO development

Originally, the exhibition was organised to be a bridge between European spinners and the knitwear and weaving fabric manufacturers from Asia or from the West Coast of USA, so the majority of the exhibitors were from Europe or Japan, a few from Korea and Taiwan.  We had almost no Chinese exhibitors at the first session, since the exhibition targeted middle to top-level companies working on a seasonal collection and with a strong R & D Department. But very soon, major groups from China joined whom we pushed to strengthen their presentation and diversify their products, and this was the start of a very stimulating adventure with companies producing better and better collections.  At the same time European mills were facing a global market restructuring, the show became a place for cooperative and joint ventures, the ratio between Europe and Asia reversed, and the SPINEXPO offer became more and more diversified and interesting.   The team went along with the evolution of the show, and the Marketing and Fashion presentations became our priority.

What are the key factors of SPINEXPO success?

I would say that the first and most important factor has been our ability to adapt to the world’s ever-changing situations.  We have faced SARS, the September 11th attacks, the collapse of the banking empire and globalisation without being affected by the turmoil created.  Textile trends come from sociological changes. SPINEXPO is managed by a team of textile experts with no financial focus. It is therefore easy to adjust and adapt and to brainstorm to offer both exhibitors and visitors the best possible response to their needs.

We work closely with our exhibitors. We know their collections and products, their strategies, the problems they face, their skills, strengths and weaknesses.  We also understand the visitors’ needs and their expectations.  Everyone on our team has had the experience of participating in an exhibition and/or visiting exhibitions. We can foresee what both the exhibitors and attendees expect and we are obliged to deliver to each group what it expects to find. 

We are not concerned about numbers of exhibitors or visitors at the show, but rather focus on their quality and professionalism.  We are a business orientated trade show.  We work for SPINEXPO with passion: the show leads us, we don’t lead the show.

We cooperate with all the players in the field: machinery manufacturers/software designers who bring the new techniques of tomorrow which visitors can understand from developments and seminars; fibre promoters and manufacturers who share our concern and research for better quality, better life style, more eco-friendly products, more innovative end products directions; textile universities teachers and students, to whom we give the right to bring new ideas and energy to the sector; knitwear stylists and manufacturers who help create fantastic products from the spinners’ yarns; and of course, the spinners themselves with whom we share so many common interests.  

We are proud to be a real laboratory where we show not only knitwear, but also woven fabrics, accessories, home products, anything that can be made out of yarns, and there are so many. Above all, we care about fashion trends.

SPINEXPO visitors and exhibitors have come to a mature stage of development. As the organiser, are you thinking about attracting new born companies?  How does SPINEXPO conduct the verification process to guarantee the exhibitors’ quality?

Well, today we don’t witness the birth of new companies in Europe or Japan, rather the contrary.  China is now the largest textile country where companies set up, flourish and grow. European and Japanese companies restructure and tend to produce very special and high-end textile fibres and yarns.  Their production is more for sophisticated markets and average quantities while China mills are more into casual products, less technical or fancy, focused on very good quality and large quantities.  The global market is settling with different skills in different parts of the world: this allows a very good international offer, which has been, since the launch, the vision of SPINEXPO.   Many partnerships and joint ventures are also developing, some companies disappear, others re-structure, and most participating companies in our exhibition improve their collections regularly.

We don’t really verify, but we visit our exhibitors’ factories, we check their collections and use their yarns in our trend area to produce swatches, garments, woven fabrics and accessories.  We have a pretty good idea of the quality of the company products, like the end user would have.

Facing the increase of raw material prices in the global market, what role does SPINEXPO play?

We go through the same brainstorming as our exhibitors or visitors who have a collection to make and need to supply their brands or clients with correctly priced but creative garments.  We believe that from obstacles often rises real creativity:  how can we blend, use, and re-create a product so that it fits the end products distribution needs.  We go backwards in the process, starting from the price which would be accepted by the market, and find a way to achieve this goal despite the cost of raw materials.  Lightness, layers, blends…. There are solutions.

What is your development plan for SPINEXPO?

In Shanghai, our biggest problem now is the lack of space in the present Venue, not that we want to increase the number of exhibitors so much as offer a real diversification.  We have more and more buyers who request knitwear manufacturers and stylists in the show, and on the other hand, we have the same demand from these manufacturers or stylists to find an exhibition where they can exhibit high-end products and creativity.   So we have decided to move to a new Venue, the Expo Theme Pavilion, where we can have all exhibitors on the same level, welcome more companies, and have more space for trend and fashion developments.  We will move to this new venue in September 2011. We would also like to host trend and fashion seminars, and in particular from our own stylist team who work with the yarns of the exhibiting companies and can explain in detail why they chose a particular type of development.  

We would also like to put more focus on seminars conducted by machinery manufacturers, fibre developers and promoters to highlight more technological innovation. 

And, as a special service to exhibitors, we would like to find time to host a presentation of the upcoming season’s trends and colour developments, perhaps during the exhibitors’ move-in day.

Regarding setting up SPINEXPO in other countries, we launched SPINEXPO New York to address the American continent (North, Central and South), because of one thing: there is a real link between the US industry and Asia and also because there are clients outside the large Brands names in USA, and a growing number of potential buyers in Central and South America.  There was no specific exhibition for this sector in USA, and we believed there was a need for an exhibition.   At the moment, and despite the request that we have from some exhibitors, we do not believe there is a need for another SPINEXPO exhibition anywhere else.  We are not in this field to duplicate a success, start a business using the name of the show and make easy money.  We are into a long term project where we need to justify the exhibitors’ fees by concrete results.  Today, we consider that we should attract trade visitors from Europe to either the American or Asian platforms rather than start one more show.   But if the globalisation indicates differently, we will follow.   

Upcoming shows:

SpinExpo 17th session, Shanghai, 8/9/10 March 2011

3rd session, New York, 18/19/20 July 2011

www.spinexpo.com