Show report: JATC lights up Tobacco Dock

Just Around the Corner’s (JATC) switch to Wapping’s Tobacco Dock from The Truman Brewery on East London’s Brick Lane for its new venue for SS24 collections – showing from 16-18 July 2023 - seems a bit of a masterstroke by show organiser, Juls Dawson.

Everyone seemed to love it when our Contributing Editor Tom Bottomley swung by yesterday, 17 July, to chat to exhibitors and gauge the mood. Here’s what a selection across womenswear (incorporating the new ‘responsible’ brand section) and menswear had to say.

Hannah Beaumont-Laurencia from Beaumont Organic

Hannah Beaumont-Laurencia, Director, Beaumont Organic

It’s the first time we’ve done Just Around the Corner, we were attracted by the brand mix and the support of Juls and the team behind the show. The brand is from Manchester, and I founded it in 2008. We’ve mainly seen growth in the US, Japan and Switzerland and we normally do trade shows in the US and Germany. I don’t think the UK market was quite ready for conscious clothing in 2008, but now I think people are a bit more aware, so I thought it was a good time to do a show here.

I’d describe our offer as contemporary conscious clothing. It’s very clean with lovely fabrics that feel amazing to wear, cut in beautiful shapes and using great colours. About 80% of our business is wholesale, which is the route we took from the off. We work with Anthropologie in the UK and Europe, and we work with about 15 great independents in the UK, including The Dresser, Mercantile and 69b, but our biggest accounts are really in Switzerland and America.

The show has been really good and it’s been great to connect with some new customers. We’ve also seen quite a few familiar faces from back when we did Scoop at the Saatchi Gallery in the early days, and buyers from some stores that we haven’t stocked for years. It’s been good to catch up. Generally, I just think it’s great to get out and network, and the venue for this show is amazing – I love it. There’s lots of natural light, which I think is so important at trade shows. The mood from buyers has also been really upbeat. We’re quite premium price points, and that can scare people, but the response has been really positive.

Lorna Tuner from Great Plains London

Lorna Turner, South East Sales Manager, Great Plains London

Great Plains London is part of French Connection – we’re their boutique womenswear brand. French Connection has been going for over 50 years, Great Plains has been established for 34 years. We have a completely different design team and use different factories, so it’s completely separate. French Connection is a younger brand, but we’re aimed at a 40-plus customer.

We have done trade shows in the past, including Pure London, but this is the first one we’ve done since Covid. We thought we’d give it a try because a lot of customers have recommended it when they have come in for meetings. The venue is great. It’s a large and airy building in a good location.

We’ve had quite a lot of independents pop on to the stand, especially today (Monday 17 July) – which has by far been the busiest day. We do supply some department stores, such as John Lewis and Hoopers, but as a boutique brand our focus is on supplying independents. Some of my key accounts include Robert Goddard, Jupe and Dressed by Dee.

Going in to the new season, buyers seem to be quite positive – a lot more positive than last summer. They seemed very hesitant then, not surprising given the news was all about the cost-of-living crisis and rising utility bills.

In terms of our new SS24 collection, stand out pieces include a Broderie Anglaise maxi dress and our wide leg, high waisted palazzo-style jeans in a mid-wash. There’s also our summer tailoring, which includes a single-button double breasted jacket with a tuxedo-style rounded lapel, matched with wide-leg trousers in ‘Corfu blue’. It’s unstructured and is 80% Viscose, so it’s silky, loose and drapes well. Suiting is making a bit of comeback, we’ve not done it for a while. We’ve had a positive reaction to it so far. It’s like anything, when you haven’t seen it for a while and it comes back round again, it looks fresh.

Helen Barker from Fika

Helen Barker, Co-Founder and Director, Fika

The show has been amazing for us – we’ve opened lots of new accounts and written big orders at the show. We did JATC in Manchester in January and that was also really good for us in terms of more local accounts in the North, but this is the first one we’ve done in London. I love the Tobacco Dock venue, it’s really quirky and different and there’s just a really chilled vibe. It’s different to any other type of show that I’ve done. There’s a place for everyone, and people among the brands are helping each other out, even sending stockists to each other.

I started Fika during Covid. I had previously been in the fashion business for about 15 years on the suppl side, with Li & Fung from Hong Kong. I was a senior account manager there, but was furloughed during Covid. It was then that I decided that life is too short and I should just go for it on my own. I had the contacts, including with three or four good factories in India and Vietnam. They have really supported us.

Our target market is 30-plus women. We like to think of ourselves as offering the ultimate capsule wardrobe – staple pieces that you can wear throughout the season, while promoting longevity, and good quality for a fair price. We also make to order, as well as carrying a bit of in-season stock for our stockists. Once it’s gone, it’s gone, we move on to keep it fresh.

We currently have about 20 UK accounts, including Domestic Science which has about four stores in the Cotswolds, Mou in Leamington Spa and platforms such as SilkFred, who really support new brands.

We’ve met someone from N Brown at the show, which like us is from Manchester. So, that could be an interesting conversation going forward. We shall see. I’d say the people that have come to the show that we’ve met have been perfect for our brand.

Laura Holt from Free People

Laura Holt, Account Manager, Free People

It’s our first time showing at Just Around the Corner, and the first proper trade show we’ve done in the UK in years, so it’s exciting to be here. Free People has been established since the late 1980s and is huge in the US. It’s owned by URBN, which also owns Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie.

We have stores in London, including in Covent Garden, on Redchurch Street in East London and just off the King’s Road in Chelsea. We’ve been in wholesale for over 10 years, but we are now just trying to reach those smaller independent boutiques, and that’s why we decided to do the show. Every trade show is a learning curve, but so far, so good. We’ve picked up some new accounts and got quite a lot of new orders in, which is great. I look after all the smaller boutiques around the UK and in Europe.

Key accounts for us including ASOS, Zalando, Fenwick and Harvey Nichols. We launched a two-week pop-up at Harvey Nichols in Knightsbridge last week. It’s a really gorgeous space.

Our USP I’d say is ‘luxury bohemian’. Our offer is playful in terms of prints and silhouettes, and it’s quite unique. We’ve got some really nice basics, including jeans which start at £70 retail, going up to about £140. A key piece at the moment is our floral maxi dress, and there’s our denim jumpsuit – which is a now a core style. It’s very flattering in stretch denim with a zip front and with our signature flare. It originated from a high waist jean we had which sold out. It’s our new best seller, now available in black and in a lighter denim as well.

In terms of mood amongst retailers, I’ve not heard much in the way of the cost-of-living crisis this time around. It’s been more about wanting something fun and fresh. Our marketing is really strong at the moment, and that ‘mum and daughter’ appeal is important now. We do looks that work well for both ages and can be styled in different ways.

Ed Quiligotti from Marshall Artist

Ed Quiligotti, Director, Marshall Artist

The brand was established in 2001, though we took over ownership in January 2015. We set about on a re-branding exercise, stripping it back and introducing the ‘Siren’ arm badge in 2016. It’s targeted at lads who enjoy their Saturday afternoons in the pub or at the football. It sits in different retail environments, but good brand adjacencies include the likes of Lyle & Scott, Napapijri and Weekend Offender. Also, in some areas of retail it acts as a bit of an entry price point into Stone Island and CP Company. It’s comfy in both those sort of retail environments.

Scotts and Tessuti are both big drivers for the brand, and also the likes of Mainline Menswear, 80s Casual Classics and Terraces Menswear. Neil Primett, the founder of 80s Casual Classics, has just bought back the 70% of the business he had previously sold to JD Sports.

We’re also hearing that Frasers Group, which acquired Scotts and Tessuti among other retailers from JD Sports, are looking on the Scotts fascia quite favourably, though it’s unclear what’s happening with Tessuti - it maybe a little bit too close to Frasers Group-owned Flannels. Unfortunately, it may be the end of the line for Xile, another retailer acquired by them from JD.

I think that, with the sale of so many fashion fascias, there’s a lot of excess product in the marketplace at the moment. If you look at Tessuti and Scotts, they are in a bit of a stock clearance position, which they’ve been in since December. So, there’s going to be a ripple effect out to the indies who are trying to support a full-price proposition at the moment. But, that product will leave the marketplace eventually, and independents will come through.

We see ourselves as an independent brand, and it’s important that independent brands and independent retailers support each other. That’s why we are here. It’s the first trade show we’ve done since pre-Covid. Generally, it’s been pretty good – we’ve seen quite a few buyers. It’s a smaller men’s show compared to women’s, but we’re feeling some of the buzz from the womenswear section as obviously you get retailers who cover both. In that respect, we’ve discovered some new customers. We can be quite hard to get hold of, which is our own fault, but we’ve had independents come to the show just to see Marshall Artist – so it’s been good from that point of view. Also, the venue is fantastic.

Paul Durr from Mitchell & Ness

Paul Durr, EMEA Sales and Marketing Manager, Mitchell & Ness

We have a number of American sportswear licences, including the NBA, NFL, MLB and the MLS, and we also have our own Mitchell & Ness offer. The company was established in Philadelphia in 1904. As a brand, it’s been in the UK since the mid-90s, originally brought in by a distributor. After that it was owned by Adidas, but these days it’s owned by The Fanatics Group.

We’ve never done JATC before with Mitchell & Ness, but we thought we’d give it a go to target some independents. We already deal with a lot of the multiples. The show has been slow for us so far (early afternoon on Monday 17 July). I think the venue and location is great, and the layout and organisation is strong. The plan is certainly there, but the footfall isn’t quite there yet. It could be down to the days that have been chosen for the show. A lot of independent traders like to have Sunday off (which was day one of the show) if they’ve been working all week, and Monday is always a ‘trade day’ – looking at sales. Hopefully, later on this afternoon and tomorrow (Tuesday 18 July) will see greater footfall for us. We want to speak to some new independent accounts who want an American sportswear offer to add something different to their streetwear offer.

Our ‘Swingman’ NBA programme is our most popular offer, including the basketball vest and shorts – they are our iconic pieces, including the Chicago Bulls. It’s also down to the basketball players’ names on the back too, and some of the biggest sellers are jerseys bearing the names of former players such as Shaquille O’Neal, Vince Carter and Dennis Rodman. We do really well on outerwear as well, especially the satin team jackets.