Show Report: The Word from Pure London x JATC

Despite the combined impact on footfall of the Wimbledon men’s singles final and England playing in the final of Euro 2024 on Sunday 14 July – day one of the Pure London x JATC show – exhibitors remained upbeat and were feeling the benefit of increased numbers on day two. TheIndustry.fashion walked the floor to gauge the mood.

Gloria Sandrucci, Event Director of Pure London, said: “The show has been very well received, with positive feedback highlighting the vibrant atmosphere and the extensive range of new collections available.

“We have welcomed a diverse range of retailers from independents to major department stores including John Lewis, ASOS, Her Dandy Wolf, John Lewis, Ella Cru, Urban Chic, N.Shelley, Ruby Room, Belle & Blossom, Frasers Group, Jarrolds and Pamela Shiffer.

“Exhibitors have particularly enjoyed the extensive networking opportunities, and the Pure Awards celebrated the exceptional talents, innovative ideas and achievements within our industry.”

Juls Dawson, Creative Director of JATC, commented: “JATC is now situated at the top of the hall, on the ground floor next to Pure London, where as last season it was upstairs in the gallery.

“We’re happy with the footfall. It’s been steady so far despite the crossover with the football and Wimbledon. We still saw a good turnout on Sunday, but it has made today busier. To be honest, you never can tell which will be the busiest day at a show any more, where as it used to be quite predictable.”

Rachel Thompson of JUST Consultancies showing Ichi

Rachel Thompson, Sales Agent for JUST Consultancies, showing Ichi

I handle sales in the North – from Staffordshire and Derbyshire right up to the top of Scotland - for Ichi, which is part of DK Company from Denmark.

The show was quite quiet on Sunday, but I definitely think that the football combined with the tennis had a huge impact. Not ideal timing! But, today has been really busy – especially as the day has progressed. It’s definitely back to how it used to be for us in terms of footfall.

I have seen the buyers I expected to see, though as I deal with the North I don’t tend to see so many – especially with hotel and travel costs. There are less people visiting from the North now, but I have seen everybody who said they were coming and I have seen some other people on top of that who I wasn’t expecting to see. We’ve had a couple of new enquiries for our territory as well.

We’ve got an amazing linen programme within our summer collection. It has a 3x mark-up so the price point is really strong, and we offer a multiple selection of colours and prints. It’s been received very well. In fact, the collection overall has been really successful so far.

What’s new for the SS25 season, and what is proving very popular with buyers, is we are now offering a free size ratio, so we’re not selling in packs with specific size breakdowns as we used to. They can now have whatever sizes they want. We still have some set minimums in place, but they are not tied to a set ratio.

In general, I think our customers come back to the brand because they know it is really strong on price points, the collections are quite fashionable without being too trendy. It’s also timeless and ageless. There’s pieces in there that I could wear and my mum could also wear, perhaps just styled a bit differently. It ticks a lot of boxes for a lot of different customers. It’s also a big collection so you can buy into it how you like.

Lisa Burrows, Another Sunday

Lisa Burrows, Designer, Another Sunday

Another Sunday has been established for two years and this is our fourth time showing at Pure, so we’ve done it since our beginning. We want to change the way that you wear your weekend, with ‘to die for’ dresses, tops and blouses. We have a real attention to detail. It’s all in-season and we’ve got our AW24 line here, not SS25.

The show has been amazing as we’ve had such a great response. All the orders we’ve had so far have been with new customers who are loving the quality and price points. We’ve seen retailers such Lavender Moon – an amazing boutique in Dorset – and also Lilac Moon, which has stores in Leamington Spa and Cambridge, and we’ve been able to get some great feedback on the range. We also won the Best Womenswear Brand Award at the show yesterday (day one). That’s brilliant because we’ve been working so hard behind the scenes.

It’s also great to see customers buying the pieces we really love. Our milk maid dress in black with a rose print is channelling that Boho vibe we’re seeing at Chloé at the moment. That’s one of our current key pieces, and you can dress it up or down. It retails at £55, so it’s also very accessible. It’s not about throwaway fashion either as it’s something you can layer from your wardrobe all season. We now have lots of pieces that can be layered, so we’re not just a dresses brand, and we do from size 6 to 22 – so we are inclusive. Everyone has also been loving our ruffle blouse with pin-tuck detailing. That retails at £40.

The networking at the show has been great, we’ve made lots of friends and we all encourage each other. It’s like a bit of a community. We’ll definitely be coming back again.

Ieva Jasiunaite, Luel

Ieva Jasiunaite, Sales Manager, Luel

Luel was founded 22 years ago and this is our sixth or seventh time showing at Pure. It has perhaps been a bit quieter than previous shows, but our clients have come back to see us as usual – and they’ve placed some big orders. We’ve also seen a few new clients, which is great.

All our collection is linen – covering smart suits, tops, trousers, shorts and also more loungewear-type pieces like joggers. Dresses also sell very well for us, because they are a bit different with more details than you might normally get with linen pieces. Everything is really easy to wear and colours such as navy white, beige and black can be mixed and matched. We really focus on the design details, garment shapes and quality – that’s what our clients really like. We also really try to be as sustainable as possible.

We are from Lithuania, where all our collection is made, and on day one of the show we won the Best International Brand Award. It’s great to get that recognition. As we’ve been here a few times, people have heard about us more, and we’ve not only seen UK customers, but buyers from Spain, France and even clients from Dubai. People know what to expect from us and we are confident going forward.

Inés Martinez, Vilagallo

Inés Martinez, Junior Sales Manager, Vilagallo

Vilagallo is based in Madrid and we’ve been showing at Pure for many years, though before that we showed at Scoop. This show has been really good for us up to now (half way through day two) – we’ve managed to reach the numbers we wanted. We’ve seen the buyers we expected to see and we are expecting to see more tomorrow (16 July), though the final day is not usually as busy as the first two days. We write a lot of orders at the show, mainly from buyers from the UK and Ireland, so I’m sure we will be back again next season.

In the summer our suits, shirts and dresses are very popular. Some of the linings in the jackets match the shirts. There’s plenty of colour in the SS25 collection and also bold prints. Our designers create the prints, so they are all unique. That’s the most important thing for the brand and why we are having a lot of success. You need to be different from the rest.

The UK is a good market for us and we expect to continue growing. Some of the retailers who currently sell Vilagallo well are Katherine Draisey in Solihull, Angela Beer in Stockport, Pamela Shiffer in Primrose Hill and Cavells in Oakham.