Show report: Brands confident at busy Moda x Pure while buyers tread with more caution

Although many exhibitors talked of visitors treading with "caution" as we head into 2025, there was also more than an air of optimism at the first-ever combined Moda x Pure show at Birmingham’s NEC yesterday – both now part of the Spring Fair set up, which is celebrating its 75^th anniversary.

TheIndustry.fashion took to the floor to gauge the mood as aisles and stands buzzed with buyers seeking our new product and placing orders

Tiago Da Silva, Head of Ecommerce, Yumi

The show has had great footfall and we’ve seen a lot of repeat customers. Buyers are looking for new trends and new materials. We can see a shift with customers, they are definitely looking to go more upmarket. They want better quality, not Polyester.

We have a track record of showing at Moda as we were big on wholesale, but then we stopped due to Covid. We restarted again just last year with Autumn Fair, so this is our second show back. This is much better for us than any other trade show in the UK. I used to do Pure years ago and it was amazing, but after Covid we found that the footfall was low – particularly the last one in London which was combined with Scoop next door. There was not a lot of customers and those that were there were just browsing, not buying. We are much happier here - the customers are better, they buy more and the footfall is stronger. Also, combining Moda with Pure in Birmingham makes sense as it’s easier for customers to come to one show due to all the travelling and costs.

In terms of the mood from buyers, they are being much more careful with what they buy, it’s not like the old days! They now have more data about their customers which reflects on what they buy and also sizes. It’s much more specific.

I think buyer confidence is growing, especially after Covid, the Ukraine war and the cost-of-living crisis. A lot of retailers just closed their doors as it was just not sustainable anymore. Since the middle of last year onwards, we’ve seen a shift. Customers are more confident, they are buying more and they are selling more. Especially now for SS25 we can see they are more confident about it.

We’ve brought SS25 to the show as well as some of our AW25 collection. We do normally sell in season – that’s what our customer increasingly wants. They want to buy what’s available, not sit on stock or wait for it to be delivered much later as they don’t know what’s going to happen in the future. I definitely think there has been a shift to buying more in-season.

For us, our printed and reversible Indian quilted jackets in organic cotton are among our bestsellers all year round, including in John Lewis, NEXT and Debenhams. Our lightweight chambray dresses, jumpsuits and tops also do well very well for us, as do our printed wrap dresses which work for all seasons. We’ve also started to do broderie anglaise pieces, including dresses, skirts and knitwear, and that’s growing in popularity.

Karen Carroll, Sales Administrator, Continental Textiles showing South Beach, Finding Friday and Loungeable

The show was pretty quiet on Sunday 2 February. I think people were finding their way around, but yesterday was a good day – we haven’t stopped all morning. We’ve seen repeat customers, written quite a few orders and we’ve had a lot of enquiries. There’s also been a couple of new customers coming through, which is always good to see, and we’ve got plenty of new leads to follow up.

We always do Moda, though we have also done Pure in the past. Moda in Birmingham has probably been better for us, so I think merging the two in one place works much better and attracts more customers. They don’t always have time to do different shows in different places. We’re happier to be in Birmingham as opposed to London because of our customer base and because it’s central. There is also free parking and it’s more accessible to get here – straight off the motorway, or customers can fly in or get the train.

We have three collections here. In terms of South Beach, customers particularly like the swimwear, as well as cover-ups, trousers and matching sets. On our website we also do South Beach gymwear for our retail customers. Loungeable is as the name suggest, loungewear and nightwear, while Finding Friday is our more glam partywear.

As we head into 2025, I don’t think buyers are particularly confident at the moment, they seem a bit hesitant. There may be a knock-on effect from the Autumn Budget. A lot of them traded well enough through Christmas, but maybe didn’t do as well as they expected to. In general consumers are holding back a little bit as they have less disposable income, so there’s obviously going to be a knock-on effect.

However, our business is doing very well - South Beach in particular. It’s been going for about 12 years now and is the more established of the three brands we have here. We’ve certainly seen the buyers we expected to at the show – and more, mainly independents. Hopefully we’ll have some of the bigger stores coming in too, as we’re expecting them.

Jay Chawla, Sales Director, Nova of London

We’ve found the show to be very encouraging. Today has been busy for us, but yesterday was extremely busy. We had people queuing to place orders. We’ve also had a real mix of customers come to see us and give us positive feedback on our product. This is the second show we’ve done here in recent times, following the autumn show last year. We did do Pure in London previously, but attendance was down. We’ve found this show, combining Pure with Moda and Spring Fair, to be a lot more beneficial, and we’re picking up some new customers. I actually think that it’s in everyone’s benefit that the shows have come together.

Looking back many years, we were coming to the NEC to do Moda – with this brand and others - and we’d write £1m worth of orders at the show, as did other brands. Those days have gone, but it’s lovely to see people turning up and supporting it now – there’s a good feeling about it. I think this show in Birmingham is a lot more accessible than London. There’s free parking and plenty of it, as well as a very good bus service.

We’re mainly showing short-order SS25, and we’re seeing greater demand for that.  The smaller boutiques like to buy week in, week out. They like to see things they can buy now and get delivered in 4-6 weeks. Everything we have here is available for delivery up until the end of March. We have plenty of T-shirts, tops, wovens and dresses, as opposed to winter when we do a lot of knitwear and outerwear.

We’ve seen a couple of buyers from the larger UK department stores come on the stand today, and we’re expecting more. As a business we do have a lot of customers with stores abroad, and we do also do forward order. What we have felt is that the Europeans do not now come to these shows since Brexit, and it’s just getting worse every year. There are a few customers from Ireland, but even they’re finding it harder.

Our customers are generally saying their retail sales are down by 5-10%, but we seem to be growing so we must be doing something right.

Lucy Lee, Director, Scream Pretty and Lily Charmed

We won a 75 Years of Spring Fair Award yesterday for Scream Pretty, which we’re proudly displaying on our stand – it looks great and matches our brand colours! We won it for our ‘Bold’ mini collection of jewellery created from recycled brass, which took me ages to find. Normally we only use recycled silver.

We launched Scream Pretty in 2017, before that I was a TV producer and worked on Strictly Come Dancing for the first four years. Very long hours and then I had kids, hence the change of direction!  This is also storytelling, but in a different way.

Scream Pretty has grown really nicely since then and we now have about 300 customers across the UK and Ireland. We come to this trade show to meet new customers and we’ve had some really interesting conversations so far. One of the most random ones was with a Japanese gaming company wanting us to help with manufacturing. We’ve had everything from small shops to representatives from Longleat Safari Park come on. There’s such a wide breadth of buyers.

The retailers we supply are a real mix, from traditional jewellers, fashion boutiques, department stores, gift shops and piercing and tattoo studios. This show gives us all of those customers in one place.

As the years go by, we probably write less orders at the show itself. People spend more time looking and considering – and then order online – but the show definitely drives that. People still want to see and talk to you, that face to face is still very important for forging connections and building relationships. Everything is so faceless without it. You also make trade show friends and get to speak about the industry with like-minded people, which is great. You find out what’s selling, so it’s research and development for us too. We’ve got a brilliant online order service, but we always say pick up the phone and talk to us. Running a business, you need to be a human being, not just a chatbot!

Scream Pretty is all about earrings, multiple piercings, stacking and styling for curated ears. I design the collection along with my sister, and we also now design Lily Charmed – a new brand for us which we’re testing here for the first time. It’s a charm jewellery brand. We’ve now added a hinged clasp to all of our charms – you can wear them as pendants, on necklaces and bracelets and they also fit on Pandora products. We do quirky charms like Jammie Dodger and Custard Cream biscuits, which fly. There’s also a banana charm, a vintage teddy, a lightning bolt, a mermaid, a star and so on. Our strapline is ‘A charm for every story’. It means people can curate their own.

Victoria Taylor, Head of European Sales, Trixxi Los Angeles

This is our first time showing outside of the US. I’ve been to Pure in the past and we felt it was the right time to bring Trixxi to the UK at this location. It’s also good timing for us regarding the whole Americana and western trend spurred by the likes of Beyoncé. This is the start of our expansion into Europe and we’re also looking at the Middle East, Australia and so on.

So far, the show has been good for us. We took several orders yesterday (Sunday 2 February) and we’ve had a lot of interest today with people leaving cards and wanting more information sent to them. Also, a lot will come back to see us, so it’s been positive.

We’ve got a Californian vibe, but we’re really known for our dresses in the US, including mini dresses and midi styles. In terms of retail price points, everything is geared to sell for under £50, so it’s a very affordable brand while still being good quality, with lots of great prints and fabrics. It’s quite unique and I think there is a massive gap in the UK market for this handwriting at these prices.

We are targeting independent boutiques, but ultimately I’d say it’s a department store brand because of the breadth of the offer and the price points. In the US we sell in Nordstrom, Macy’s and JC Penney – all the big department stores. We also do a lot of private label. We’re showing Trixxi SS25 here and we carry stock, as well as offering forward order. We can repeat very quickly.

Across the industry generally I’d say boutique buyers are being cautious with their spend, but people are also being fairly positive. I think it’s going to be a tricky year and people are going to spend wisely, because the consumer is. Again, that’s why these price points will appeal, especially for those consumers who are finding things a bit tougher but still want to look great.

Oliver Greenaway, Director, Moo Chuu

This is our first time here, though we have shown at other smaller trade fairs. We wanted to come to Spring Fair to really expand our stockists. We’re based in Dorset and have most of our customers in the south, so we now want to reach stockists in the Midlands, the North and London. This is such a great hub to do that.

We’re a sustainable footwear brand and all of our footwear is made from recycled plastics from landfill in Thailand. They are repurposed and reformed before coming to our workshop in Dorchester where we then hand assemble to order. Customers can pick sole and strap colours. We can create any combination for that customer to match their clothing ranges, brand colour or whatever suits. We do flip flops, slides and sandals for women, men and kids – matching sets if a customer so wishes. The cross sandal is our best-selling product, which people buy on the south coast for paddle boarding as well. The heart toe pieces for women are also very popular and we’ve just brought out a new ergonomic style with an air cushioned sole for people who need the arch support.

We’re in the Moda fashion footwear area, but our product isn’t just a shoe shop product. It’s also great for clothing boutiques and gift shops and we also target garden centres, department stores, beach shops and holiday parks. The main range retails for £20 for kids and £26 for adults, with the ergonomic designs at £33-£35.

We won an award at the show yesterday for the best dressed small business stand. It does stand out as our whole idea is based around colour and we have a very visible neon sign.

We’ve been very busy and today has been an especially good day. We’ve taken on new stockists and seen customers from previous shows elsewhere that have come here to place their SS25 orders with us.

I think 2025 is going to be a challenging year for a lot of businesses, and the high street needs a lot of support which it isn’t really getting. Business confidence is probably not as high as it should be, so hopefully we will see that grow as we go into the main season. Our product is very much geared to the spring/summer season, we don’t do autumn/winter product so now is our time to shine!