Show report: Scoop sees uplift in buyer confidence with appetite for newness for AW25

Womenswear trade show Scoop, running at Olympia West in London’s Kensington from 9-11 February with a selection of over 250 designer collections, had buzzing aisles and plenty of orders being written on day two. Buyers showed more confidence in contrast to previous recent seasons, with a willingness to find newness for their stores.

Karen Radley, founder and Managing Director of Scoop, said: "I’m very pleased with the show this season. It’s actually beyond my expectations which, in this climate, is really something. We were unbelievably busy for a Sunday, the aisles were literally heaving.

"Overall, we’ve had some great names in, including buyers from Fenwick, John Lewis, Jules B, The Hambledon, The Dressing Room, Morleys, Anthropologie, Jarrolds, Sass and Edge, Black White Denim, The Mercantile and Galeries Lafayette to name but some. I’m very happy indeed."

TheIndustry.fashion took to the floor to get some direct feedback from new and returning exhibitors. Here’s what they had to say...

Julia Di Serio and Flora Foo, co-owners of Jolene agency showing Orelia, Gas Bijoux and Vanessa Baroni jewellery

Julia Di Serio: The Jolene agency represents jewellery brands but also accessories as a category. We only set up the agency last July, so this is our second season of selling and our first time at Scoop. We’re showing three jewellery brands, Orelia, Gas Bijoux and Vanessa Baroni. The show has been amazing, yesterday (Sunday) was really busy – writing orders from start to finish - and today has followed suit. We love a trade show generally, it’s our happy place, and we will also be doing a two-week pop-up showroom in Shoreditch – from next week – so we’re also booking retailers in for that. We were already familiar with the three brands we have on board here. Orelia was our first brand, the owner came to us, and I knew Gas Bijoux because I’m actually from Marseille where it derives. I grew up knowing it and always wanted to work with them. We reached out to them to make it happen. We also had a good Vanessa Baroni contact. We’re mostly targeting high-end fashion boutiques. Orelia is probably our most successful brand so far, it’s really commercial and has a great price point. In the current economic climate, people can still enjoy a piece of jewellery that’s trendy with an average price of £35 retail. It’s gold-plated fashion jewellery at its best.

Flora Foo: Julia’s housemate, who works for the NHS, has had to come and help us out for the first two days as it’s been so busy. She didn’t know what she was getting herself into! She doesn’t really know about jewellery, but she’s been an amazing help. Julia and I previously worked together for another jewellery brand called Estella Bartlett. I looked after the UK and she looked after Europe, and we thought that maybe one day we could set up on our own – then we did. Our intention with Jolene is to focus on the product that deserves to be focussed on and not considered as an add-on. In a traditional fashion agency, accessories tend to get overlooked because most people are in to buy apparel and then accessories and jewellery are always treated as a last-minute thing, with buyers maybe not having enough time to look at it  or budget for it. But we see accessories as a category really driving momentum at the moment, so we wanted to capitalise on that. Everyone seems really enthusiastic about jewellery. Independents have been our main source of business, but we’d love to work with more departments stores as well, even though some seem to be having more of a tricky time financially. We don’t work with any fine jewellery brands yet, but that may be something we look at in the future.

Mirabel Edgedale, Director of Mirabel Edgedale agency, showing Zapa

The show has been very good. We’ve seen a lot of the boutiques we supply from all over the UK – especially from the North, but also some new independents. We messaged a lot of people last week and they’ve all come and made the effort. I’ve done Scoop since the beginning at the Saatchi Gallery, but this is my first time with Zapa from Paris – a new brand for us. We literally only got it two weeks ago, so I had to call Karen at the last minute to get a stand – she literally only had this one left. We’re finding that there’s a lot of renewed interest in good French brands. This is a wholesale relaunch for Zapa and we’re getting great feedback. The brand has a shop-in-shop in Galeries Lafayette in Paris, so is well established. The product is centred on coats and jackets with a strong faux fur element. It’s eco-friendly, very lightweight and beautifully finished - all made in France. There are also some real leather pieces, but the faux fur and knitwear have been the best sellers so far. Prices start at €135 wholesale.

We have a hooded faux fur coat that has been very well received, including by the buying director of Harvey Nichols (though not at the show), and everybody adores our faux fur jeans jacket style – we have it in black, navy, cream and chocolate brown. The long fine wool coat is also popular, it’s so soft it feels almost like cashmere.

The general mood of buyers at the show has been upbeat – I haven’t heard one complaint about the market, which quite surprises me! Last year, everyone would come on the stand and say they weren’t buying anything new, everybody was on hold, but this season they are keen to start. The attitude has changed and that’s been very noticeable. I think people are now looking for newness and to be truly independent.

Laura Robert Shaw, sales consultant from 360 Group agency showing Stand Studio

Stand Studio is a Swedish brand that’s been around since 2014. We’ve taken it on for this season, so it’s a first time showing this at Scoop. It’s had a lot of interest, so it’s been a really good show for us so far. People seem positive generally, even though some have found trading a bit difficult of late. This trade show is a good manageable size, so buyers are not getting weary.

The 360 Group agency carries other brands such as Colourful Standard and Won Hundred from Denmark, so Stand Studio in good company, though completely different. We’ve only brought a taster of the AW25 collection to the show, but we have around 250 pieces at our showroom in Spitalfields. The majority of the collection is faux fur, leather and shearling and retail prices range from £300-£600. We also have a couple of real leather pieces that are higher price points.

The full-length cow print faux fur coat with detachable scarf has been getting a lot of interest, as has a real leather full-length coat with a belt that’s got a real 80s look to it. It has slanted zip chest pockets and a double-button stand-up collar, and we sold that to a retailer yesterday. She just loved it when she tried it on. That’s our top end and will retail for just under £1,000.

A retailer has also bought into our collarless, shorter length faux fox fur coat with big shoulder pads, which is again quite 80s. The curly 70s-style faux fur cropped coat look with full sleeves is also making a huge comeback, and we’ve also had a lot of interest in the patchwork faux fur shearling jacket. There’s also furry boots, including a mid-length leopard print faux fur option and a shorter length shaggy fur style. Accessories such as the faux fur headband, again very 70s, have also been getting a lot of attention.

We’ve seen some really nice UK boutiques, but we’ve also seen a store from Barcelona and one from Italy. Yesterday (Sunday) was full-on. Retailers are really liking the margin we’re offering as it’s a 3x mark-up.

Stand Studio is already in Selfridges, it was before we took it on, so we’re taking over that account. It’s also in END. and has previously been in Liberty, Harrods and Harvey Nichols – so we’ll be getting them back in (the showroom) to have a look.

Alex Radford, Women’s Sales Director, Palladio Associates, showing The Tiny Big Sister, Orfeo Paris, Milla, Dixie, and Alohas

We actually have 11 brands here this season, five of which are new to the show. It’s the most brands we’ve ever brought to Scoop. We’re super excited about The Tiny Big Sister from Spain and we’ve introduced Milla from Greece for this season. We also have Dixie from Italy, which is new to the UK, as well as Orfeo from Paris which has amazing price points and is super sharp. We’ve also brought Alohas footwear from Barcelona to the show for the first time. It’s sustainable as they make to order, so they don’t over produce. That’s doing great business and has gone into the majority of our key accounts, so now we’re we’re looking forward to how we can develop it and sell it into the boutiques – hence why we’ve now brought it to Scoop.

Of the new brands, Orfeo Paris has probably been getting the greatest feedback from buyers. It’s excellent quality at a good price, with knitwear retailing between £60-£70. There’s really beautiful alpaca and mohair blends within that and it feels quite elevated. We’re excited about what that can do, as we think it is offering something the customers are wanting, so they can compete a little bit with the high street.

We did a very soft launch of The Tiny Big Sister for SS25 and it had a lovely reaction from some of the key stores. It went into The Hambledon in Winchester and The Dressing Room in St Albans straight away, despite us not having the full collection until late. The outerwear is doing very well, it’s so unique. There’s embroidered and colour block sherpa jackets, and printed puffas. The mohair blend striped knitwear is also proving popular, as well as cotton cardigans with tie details. It’s also about fashion-forward silhouettes in fun colours - and if you walk around this show, there isn’t anything else offering this kind of look.

I did a lot of work to try to find new brands and products for this season that tap into certain criteria, such as price point and point of difference for a slightly older customer. The 50-plus customers have money, so strategically that’s something we’ve looked at.

I think we’ve pretty much seen most of the retailers we were expecting to see so far, and the show feels like it’s getting even busier, which is great. In terms of buyer mood, it’s a mixed bag. Some people have had the busiest year ever, which is amazing to hear, and some people are still having a tough time. I think a lot of it is driven by location and the clientele in their given area. Overall, it definitely feels more buoyant than it did for spring/summer.

Paloma Rato, co-founder and Creative Director, Augusta

We are based in Madrid, where we design the shoes, and we produce everything in Alicante. We founded the brand in 2019 and we aim to offer fashionable but comfortable shoes. People need to move on from the sneaker trend! We like to play a lot with textures and colours, using different leathers to make them fun but still very wearable.

This is our first time showing at Scoop and Sunday was a very good day. We saw a lot of Irish retailers in particular. Though we originate from Spain, our main market at the moment is France, including selling in department stores such as Le Bon Marché and Galleries Lafeyette. After France, our strongest market is the US. In Spain we sell in El Corte Inglés department stores.

The collection we are showing here is all for AW25. Our Mary Jane styles are always our bestsellers and we have a new chunky version, which is working well. Our high boots are also very popular, as are our animal print shoes, including leopard and cow prints in various styles. The metallic ballet flats are another popular style. Retail prices start at about £200, going up to £450 for the long boots.

We don’t currently supply any UK retailers, but we sell online worldwide and the UK is our fourth biggest market - so that’s why we are here. We’ve made some good connections so far, so let’s see what happens.

We are still a very young brand, but I feel confident moving forward into 2025 and beyond. I think there is a lot we can achieve. We’d like to open our first own brand store in Madrid. I don’t know if that will happen this year or next. It’s not easy to find the right spot. I think having a store is important. Online isn’t perhaps growing now as much as we expected, and people are once again wanting to go to shops and try things on. That physical experience and speaking to people also means you have better knowledge of your customer because online is very impersonal. It’s just data driven. You are not with them when they try the shoe, so you are not hearing their comments. Online, you only tend to receive the bad comments, when something is good you hardly ever hear!

Jordana Scott, Head of Partnerships, Nobody’s Child

This is the first time we’ve shown Nobody’s Child at Scoop. We’re in our tenth year as a brand. Historically we’ve focused on building our brand awareness for our online business and our main UK wholesale partners, but what we’ve been doing in the last 18 months is really looking at our premium independent business – that’s our focus as we’re now closed on our commercial partnerships. M&S has a 26% share in Nobody’s Child – we were also the first third-party brand they took on. We also sell through John Lewis, ASOS and NEXT.

So, we’re now really looking more at being that entry level in the premium independent landscape. The show has been amazing. We’ve been very busy for the last two days, which is always a good sign. The footfall has been really strong and we’ve had really credible accounts come on, as well as some new ones we’ve been in talks with and some others we’ve not heard of before. It’s really positive. We’ve brought a little selection of our SS25 collection, but we’re mainly showing AW25, and we’ve been writing orders for both.

Historically we’ve been driven by dresses. Our USP is our ‘daycasion’ dresses that you can wear in the office and then into the evening with a pair of heels. Our icon dress is the ‘midaxi’ ‘Starlight’ style, which everyone has been loving. However, in the last 18 months we’ve really been growing into a lifestyle business. Dresses now account for about 60% of the mix, so they are still very important for the brand but now we’re focusing on growing the other categories – we’ve done a lot of work on our blouses and separates, and denim is really important for us. For AW25 our knitwear is also really key. Average prices are £85 retail for dresses – that’s our sweet spot, outerwear is between £130- £250, knitwear is £75-£50, denim is £50-£60 and separates are £50-£70.

In terms of buyer mood out there, everyone is looking for newness. They are looking for monthly drops of new product, keeping things fresh, and price point is key. The retailers I’ve been speaking to here sound a little bit more confident in the market and I really feel like the high street is back. People are shifting a bit from online to in-store as they look to get out again more, and the boutiques are busier as a result.