Yeah, I think for so many years, women would spend money on a couple of very expensive handbags, right? Yep. And those were their kind of workhorses, and one for day and one, a couple for evening, and one for summer, one for winter, right? Now suddenly it becomes part of your persona, right? As a woman or and it is it's part of how you're presenting yourself to the world. And so it became like an accessory that was as important as jewelry and as changeable as jewelry. And we started to see that in the gift sector because more and more stores were like, okay, hey, wait a minute. Women are buying a lot of handbags. I need to carry some.
Hi, and welcome to Handbag Designer 101, the podcast with your host, Emily Blumenthal, handbag industry expert, and the handbag fairy godmother. Each week we uncover the stories behind the handbags we love from the iconic brands and top designers, the creativity, craftsmanship, and culture that define the handbag world. Whether you're a designer, collector, or simply passionate about handbags, this is your front row seat to it all. Welcome, Dorothy Belshaw, CEO and co-owner of my most favorite trade show in the whole wide world, New York Now. Welcome to Handbag Designer 101 the podcast.
SPEAKER_00Thank you. I'm so happy to be here. The opportunity to talk about what we're doing.
SPEAKER_02Oh my goodness. I'm so, so excited as everybody has heard me go on and on and on about that. We have this incredible footprint at New York Now called the It Back X New York Now, where we have my most favorite word, curated. We have a curated group of 10 designers from across the globe that we have handpicked that have DNA and something new. And what most trade shows are trying to fill the void, which I believe New York Now does very well, that the market is lacking is newness, innovation, fresh destination. So we're super excited to come back for our third show, fourth show. I can't even keep up. No, this is our fourth. This is our fourth show. Yeah. Oh my goodness. My first with you, but it's your fourth. I know, I know. It's like to be revirginized into the trade show territory is all very exciting. So, Dorothy, let's go way back. How
did this like, why trade shows? How did this happen?
SPEAKER_00That's way back. Vintage. Yeah. Um I was working for the college that I went to, which was Hamilton College, Small Liberal Arts, upstate New York, close to nothing, where I was an English major. And coming out of that experience, I stayed on to work for the college. And I wrote all of their corporate and foundation grants for uh several years. And my goal was to write grant proposals, uh, move back to New York where I'm from. I'm a native New Yorker, and you know, work for, I don't know, the New York Public Library or the Ford Foundation or something like that. But along the way, I met a member of the board of directors at Hamilton, guy named Jeff Little, and a company called George Little Management. He was third generation of that family business, which was kind of the original trade show producer in the United States.
SPEAKER_02So my God, right place, right time. Did he go to Hamilton?
SPEAKER_00He did. So, you know, I was moving back to New York and I'd worked with him just because I connected with the board a lot and my role at Hamilton. And he said, Oh, you're coming back to New York. What are you going to be doing? I said, I'm going to, you know, I'm going to work for nonprofits. I'm going to write proposals. He was like, Well, why don't you come work for me and my business? Like, we could use a writer. Like he had a magazine that they produced in association with their trade shows. He said, You could write for that magazine. I had no idea what the trade show business was, honestly, no idea about the gift industry, really. I mean, so I went and walked a show. I found it so exhilarating, so exciting. I'd never been to one. It was like this access to creativity on a very different level. And also were they still smoking in the shows? Oh, yeah. Smoking and all the women were wearing four-inch heels and like was a whole nother ball game. It was back in the 90s. But the energy was crazy. And then also that sort of cottage industry element of it, all the small companies next to really big established brands was just really incredible to see kind of that trajectory of the ecosystem. Anyway, I thought it was really fascinating. So I showed up a week later to write for the magazine and they shut the magazine down the day before I arrived.
SPEAKER_02Oh my God, that's happened to me so many times. I can't. Well, you like had you picked out your first outfit and everything, like you were ready.
SPEAKER_00Oh well, I showed up and there was just a note on my desk that said, We're not producing gift reporter anymore, but we want you to help the SVP of business development. So any dog. That was how I got started. And and you know, the first 10 years were really around launching new shows because that was the time when shows were the only way for buyers and sellers to connect. So we were just launching them, and the New York show was massive and sold out and filled the Javit Center. And so there were all these other shows kind of incubating and germinating as a function of a wait list that was growing then. So anyway, that's how I got it.
SPEAKER_02Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I need to know you said the first 10 years. How did you end up at a show for 10 years? Like that's a long, long, long time. Like, were you like, were you like, oh, I'm gonna work my way up, or you really felt valued there long enough to stay? Because especially as a woman in a trade show industry, which is traditionally men, for you to toddle around, which I'm sure that's how they saw you when you started, to being someone that commands respect, like 10 years is a long time. Like they must have, by the end of that 10 years, realized, like, okay, if I want anything done, I got to go through Gatekeeper Darthy.
SPEAKER_00Well, in the end, it was 20 years, actually. The first 10 I was working on new business development, the second 10, and there was a five-year period in between where they moved me out to California. I launched a California West Coast office. And then I came back and I ran New York. I mean, I think the reason I stayed there so long is that it the company ran 40 shows. That was back when there was a gift show kind of in every major market. In every major market. Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, LA. They were, you know, Chicago, they were all over.
SPEAKER_02So were you traveling nonstop?
SPEAKER_00Yes, I was traveling a lot.
SPEAKER_02I always was that hard then?
SPEAKER_00I mean, I was in my 30s. So physically it wasn't hard. I did have, you know, small children, so that was hard. But anyway, it was it was exhilarating and and I loved it. And it also was a closely held third generation family business that was very invested in all of these other sort of generational family businesses that they were working with as customers, right? So a lot of the in the gift and home industry were owner-operated, founder operated, generational businesses. And so there was just this great like connection between us as the organizer and our customer base. And we were very focused on the industry, right? We weren't a trade show producer that could show for any industry. We were gift home housewares focused. And we considered ourselves a part of that industry, the industry that we served. And that felt really special. It was a very customer-first company. And and I I loved it. I thought I'd work there forever, honestly.
SPEAKER_02Do you think, having been there for so long, that were you open to seeing like you know, trends that were going on that other shows were doing, and then being open-minded to saying, okay, because what they're doing, we should incorporate that too? Or was it very much it's such a hard mindset and such a it is a competitive industry because there weren't so many players, and then it's like, oh, you went to this show, so you can't come to that show. And it was very, I remember it being very doggy, cutthroat, which is nuts to say, you know, hopefully I can make it into this show, but if I don't get into this show, I'll get to into that one, which is like four tiers lower, but at least an in a show. So how did you handle all of that?
I mean, I think what was interesting is that as a company, the principals of the company were very interested in innovation. I think, you know, the president of the company at the time knew that he, you know, he had a certain style of working, but he knew that he needed a partner that was willing to try a million different things. And between them, they were kind of an interesting balloon and brick that enabled the company to be agile and try new things without too much risk and exposures. So we actually were doing a lot of new things and we were kind of leading. We also developed partnerships and collaborations with our competitors. So we worked in, we had joint venture partnerships with the Dallas Market Center for a number of years to help them produce their temps and bring kind of their temporary presentations at the market center to a new level. And we also worked with a company called Western Exhibitors that did all of the West Coast shows. And we produced several sections within their shows. So it was actually a very unique time in the industry where collaboration and actually we collaborated a lot with Britton Jones from Accessories of the Show, a bit with Elise Kroll. So there were a lot of there was a lot of openness, I think, too, in as much as there was competition, uh, because everybody was doing really well, you know.
SPEAKER_02Right, right.
SPEAKER_00And then 2008 came along.
Yeah. Oh God, I remember that. It was when that hit, how did that, you know, all of a sudden people say, I don't have the budget, I can't do this, I'm sorry, please keep up and think of me. Like, cause it hit everybody. And it's it's crazy to be part of uh a historical moment where people and brands, and it's funny, I had I had one of the original owners of Big Drop on. Oh and that was uh really interesting because he said that they were so busy that he couldn't breathe, and that they had people banging down their doors and they were opening locations all over, and that that was all they did. It was he and his cousin, and that was all they did. And then that time hit, and then he was like, I can't do this anymore. There's no business. Like it just he said overnight it was almost like poof, it disappeared. They had to cancel orders from brands and designers and close up locations, and he's like, and then online happened. So the whole converging of everything happening at once.
SPEAKER_00It was a much more difficult time than post-COVID, honestly. Yes, I totally agree. Because consumer demand continued post-COVID, and certainly like there were categories that like you couldn't get you couldn't get puzzles after about four weeks, right? Like you couldn't find them, they were all sold, right? So but 2008 was really, really stressful and difficult. I think you know, the gift industry is incredibly resilient, and this is apropos of your segment too, which is to say that the gift industry is kind of 20 different verticals, subcategories that kind of roll up into it, and it just kind of depends on the whim of the consumer. What is kind of what is the standard sort of gift giving category of the moment. Like for many years, it was like porcelain collectibles, right? That was what everybody thought, right? Yeah, like tchotchkis, right? Yeah, then all of a sudden, people started getting into wow, scented candles and pillows and jewelry suddenly became this huge category within the gift industry that could be sold through so many different types of stores as opposed to just a jewelry shop or an or a specialty apparel boutique. So kind of the ebb and flow of what the consumer demands creates a natural resilience in the industry. And then also, I think during the Great Recession, people stop buying cars and second homes and taking big trips, but they continue to spend money on affordable indulgences. And there is something about the process of buying something that you don't need, but that makes you or will make someone else feel good, that is just it's part of the human spirit. And it can be dampened, but it was never snuffed. So, you know, in 2008, people kept buying gifts. Like they wanted to still feel good. They wanted to still do things for family, for friends, they wanted to make small changes to their home environment, even if they couldn't completely, you know, renovate, redecorate, whatever. And so the gift category held up. You know, what happened to the gift show? Yeah, we lost a little bit, but not a ton. Like everybody stayed in, they just took smaller footprints. Right, right, right. You know, was fine from a buyer perspective. You're still seeing all the same resources. There's just they're just in slightly different presentations. So anyway, it was difficult, but I think the gift industry was able to navigate it maybe a little bit more easily than some others.
SPEAKER_02How do you think? And and we can, you know, obviously keep going about what happened post 2009, which and then hit up with COVID.
How do you think, just again, and I I can speak from it from my perspective, but handbags has fallen into this whole realm of the gift industry? Because I think, you know, between you and I, that it is something that's grossly overlooked by I I would say more so by the brand side, less so the retailer side. How do you see that fitting into the whole, you know, I'll use this term zeitgeister trade shows?
SPEAKER_00Well, I remember it bubbling up. I remember when all of a sudden, you know, I think for so many years, women would spend money on a couple of very expensive handbags, right? Yep. And those were their kind of workhorses. And one for day and one, a couple for evening, and one for summer, one for winter, right? Now suddenly it becomes part of your persona, right? As a woman or and it is it's part of how you're presenting yourself to the world. And so it became like an accessory that was as important as jewelry and as changeable as jewelry. And we started to see that in the gift sector because more and more stores were like, hey, wait a minute, women are buying a lot of handbags, I need to carry some. And because there were so many more vendors coming into the industry making handbags, it gave gift shops the opportunity to differentiate themselves. And so it just has been very interesting to see how it's morphed. And I think it is part of that whole lifestyle element, right? Where suddenly the way you dress your children, the handbag that you carry, the candles that you have are an expression of your own style and your own. Whereas I think those elements were a little bit more cookie-cutter in the past. So it's been amazing to see the explosion of that category on the gift scene. You know, people actually stores carry gift bags, uh, carry handbags. It's they're like it's crazy. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02You know, it's funny that you can go into someone's home and they will have a handbag on display or their, you know, most interesting purchase available for people to see because it's almost as much of a a part of their home that they want people to notice. Like, look what I just bought. So this hunger for the newness and the innovation, it's that's why I just feel like handbags is so undervalued as a category within the gift space, because it is an investment piece that people want to see, they want to show, they want it there for people to see. I mean, there's a reason why full rooms, people have rooms dedicated to their handbags.
SPEAKER_00Yes, yes. And look at how many different options that look at how beautiful they are. The the materials, the you know, sort of the process, like they're all so different. I mean, look, it's crazy. I mean, maybe I'm it's the algorithm, maybe for me, but just see they're all over Instagram. I just it's amazing, amazing to see the category kind of explode in this way. And I think it's it's fun. Like they're fun. It's a fun piece. Anyway, it's here to stay in the gift industry. And it, I mean, I would say it started growing as a category in the gift industry. Back when I was first working on New York, it was yeah, it was probably in the early 2000s that it started to really grow. And it's just continued, right? All the way through. So and now what you find too is standard issue kind of mainstream gift companies that are adding accessories to their assortment, right? To their production line. They're like, we got to get in this, right? So it's not just handbag designers, it's classic gift companies that are trying to kind of break in as well. So anyway, it's it's it's a terrific category.
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So, how you know, because I think understanding the history of trade shows dictates almost, and in addition, predicts trade shows like everything, like any other industry, are cyclical. Like you can reflect on, you know, I love to talk about novelty bags. And if you look at post-Spanish flu, how novelty bags of the roaring 20s were so big because people needed a little bit of joy. They weren't big. It was a party investment. And then after COVID, like people were looking for whimsical, fun, you know, things that attract attention to feel good. They were feel-good purchases. So, how do you see from like post the post-2009 kind of leading up to where we are? Like what's going on with the industry in terms of changes and the recovery post-COVID?
SPEAKER_00Well, this is not necessarily on the trend side of consumer trend side of things, but more on the the show side of things. I think coming out of 2008, there was retail consolidation. And what that ultimately has led to for the gift industry is there are fewer maybe classic gift stores out there, but there are more stores selling gift product through channels, right? So suddenly the the garden store has a home and housewares pop, you know, point of sale area when you're buying your hydrangeas or whatever. The hardware store has become a housewares and dinnerware store. You know, it just there are more stores selling gift product, even if there are fewer sort of classic Hallmark types of gift stores out there in the world. So I think retail consolidation happened, but the gift industry figured out how to redistribute.
SPEAKER_02I think like if you go to a bookstore now, you'll see which bookstores are popping because it's just a matter of community. It's a place to meet, it's a place to see other people, it's a place to sit and talk and have human interaction. It's, I feel like all this, it's ironic, speaks to so much of the anti-AI of it all that if I'm going to a bookstore, then I might want to buy a bag to carry my books. I might want to buy something whimsical that maybe is book related, like a like handbag charms or something that had books on them, much like what coach has done that that have exploded. So I feel like the the converging has made it more of a less specialty specific store and more of a mix of unique items. Yes, lifestyle. Exactly.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And I think, you know, everything then started moving toward mass, right? So the advent of Amazon and kind of the advent of Target and Walmart as the everything store. And then Some of these digital marketplaces that have sprung up. And I think post-COVID, everybody's like, well, that's it. Everything's going digital now. And that's the end of the trade show. And maybe that's the end of the store. I mean, it's going to impact retailers and shows and blah, blah. And I think what it has created, in fact, the combination of COVID and then the admin of AI is that I think people are craving personal connection. I think some of it is emotional that they want to connect, right? And so I think from a consumer perspective, they want to go into a store where they can see things that are different. So see something that not everybody is seeing, right, in the big mass merchandiser, and they can connect with a store owner and really think about a purchase and make a purchase that's reflective of them. So I think there's that emotional aspect of it. I think AI from a wholesale and retail buying from a vendor, you've got to meet a vendor face to face to know A, does that product really exist? B is it in production? C, do I trust the person who's going to sell it to me? That they will produce it, they will deliver it. And on the other side, the vendor has to trust, is this a real retailer? Like, is this someone that can pay net 30 or whatever it is? You know, is like the relationship is so important because this is not Nike doing business with Dick's sporting goods. This is an owner-operator doing business with another owner-operator, you know, independent specialty retail meeting a cottage vendor that maybe has scaled their business to be big, but it still is two people that represent their businesses. And that face-to-face trust and connection is critical when you're writing a big wholesale order. You need to know on both sides. And I think the combination of the emotional feeling of people feeling disconnected and wanting to connect with one another, and then the practical professional need of establishing trust in a commercial relationship. I think trade shows are poised to actually have kind of a rebirth, if you will.
SPEAKER_02I agree. Yeah. Couldn't agree more. I really, really do. Let's talk about what we think is happening moving forward.
We have an incredible show that's happening in a few weeks. What are some of the things that we can be excited about seeing from a designer perspective and also from a wholesale perspective? And it's such a retail anthropological dance that you have to do, right? So you're trying to bring more people in because obviously this is a business like anything else. You survive on people who pay for space. It's very black and white. However, you want people to book tickets, come spend money, come to New York City, walk the jabots, and feel like they have a return on investment. So you constantly have to be like, okay, how can I make their experience to be stimulating and exciting and feel like, okay, you know, I my first job was in an ad agency. And I was there for two rounds of this happening where they couldn't figure out if it was better having all the creatives sitting together and all the media buyers sitting together and all the planners sitting together, like as a role, or if it was better to have people who were working on the same client. So here's the client, here's the creative, here's the media buyer, here's the media cell, like everyone sitting together, and no one could figure out what the secret sauce was, like what made the most amount of sense. So you have that same challenge. Like, is it better to have stationary all in one spot, or do we move them around to make it like destination worthy? Should we have candles in one spot, or should we splice them around with the other brands that perhaps carry the same DNA? Okay, does this brand actually have the same DNA? So I it's there's a lot of walking around a big open space and being like, okay, what makes the most amount of sense to make everyone happy? Because someone somewhere will not be without fail.
SPEAKER_00Without a doubt, there are many different schools of thought on this. I think, and you know, we got in, we we acquired the show 15 weeks ago, I guess. And so, you know, August is the floor plan was established, and we've been working to sort of energize it. The show will be a little bit bigger. We've got some brands returning that haven't been in the show in a while, and some new brands, and we can talk a little bit about that. But in terms of how we're going to scale and how we think about merchandising it, you can overcategorize, right? Like, and I think who gets hurt by that is really the buyer. I think someone once told me that it's really hard to look at a row of the same type of product, one right after another, because you become a little numb as you work. You do. You totally, totally do. So you need to change it up. But then other buyers have said to me, it's also really hard to go from, like, and this was someone who carried a lot of different categories, said I carry home, I carry decorative accessories and I carry jewelry. And she said, it is really hard to go from shopping jewelry to the next booth being a giant decorative accessory because it's almost like there's a scale issue, and I have to think about how I'm merchandising it in my store. So it's also hard to make that kind of a leap. So I think, you know, our focus is to have a broader collection of gift and lifestyle product, products that kind of cluster well together at retail, you know, which is accessories, including jewelry and handbags and scarves, and candles and personal care and fragrance and smaller children's layout baby items and so and paper, like those things all sell really well together, cluster well together at retail. And then to kind of have a home category, which is really truly decorative accessories, because we do have interior designers that shop the show, and by and large, they want to focus on home products, so which one extend into tabletop, china glass tableware, you know, pillows, decorative accessories, objects, housewares, things of that nature. So I think those are kind of the two big categories that need to be somewhat differentiated, but there's also going to be some bleeding between them because we have larger vendors that produce across all of those categories, and then we have multi-line sales agencies that have a line package that extends across all of those. So we sort of see those kinds of companies sitting in the middle as a sort of a bridge. And then you get to design and craft artisanal work. Right. And some of this is about making by hand, and it's just about small batch production. So it may not be hand produced, but it's limited production because of either the process or the provenance where it's coming from, the design focus, the desire to mean to manage inventory and not have too much and not over-distribute. And those kinds of resources do need to be together. They tend to carry a higher price point.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_00The buyer needs to understand why. So when they see that handbag, that jeweler, that scarf, that candle, they have to know why it costs twice as much as the one, three aisles. Right. And that generally is about materials and how it is made is artisanry, craftsmanship, and the story behind it. And so I think buyers need to be in the mindset to hear those stories and to understand price point. And so all of that product should really be together. And it is our intention to keep that product together. And that product will be cross-category. And to me, that's kind of the best way to start given the current size of the show. I mean, back in the day when the New York show was, you know, almost 630 square feet, it was all of the Java Center and three piers. And yeah. I remember that. In some respects, too big. I mean, you can't, it's hard as a buyer to shop a show like that. And at that point, it was highly categorized because it was big.
SPEAKER_02I remember you'd have to take the shuttle to the piers, you know. And I remember I had a spot in the Javits, and a friend of mine had a spot in the piers, and she was so pissed because she's like, I only get people that are doing it and rushing through because they're afraid they'd miss something. And it was just, you know, it's like having too big of a buffet, you know.
SPEAKER_00And those piers were like the runway for Jabots, right? Like, yeah, when we lost people with Jabitz, we'd pull people over from the piers. I mean, those were very different times.
SPEAKER_03Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Now what we want it to be is quite a bit larger than it is today. I think ultimately it should end up being about four to five times as large, but with maybe a little bit more focus. And I think even at that size, it can be cross-merchandized. And we'll have to pay attention to that, who goes next to who. And that's a big part of how you know I've put my team together. Um, it's a team of people that understand and know the industry and have been in it for a long time. Not the trade, yes, the trade show industry, but more importantly, the home industry. So they know the brands, they understand the differences between price points, they understand our customers' business, and that can help us to be, I think, much more aligned with what our customers
need.
SPEAKER_02No, I couldn't agree more. I mean, part of the reason why, and obviously this preceded you, but part of the reason why I felt like New York now made the most sense for the it bag was truly the diversity of the uniqueness of the products around, and that we wanted to take a very non-traditional and as far as I'm concerned, obvious approach to how handbags should be merchandised, how it should be done in a very clean manner, that these brands that don't have the not even so much the assortment, but don't have the 15 years under their belts, they don't need a full booth. Let's keep it looking like you are a customer shopping as a buyer, as if you were walking through Nordstrom just to have the key items that the designer already knows are their best sellers. Because designers, like anybody else, like I've been through run throughs, I've been through having buyers come into showrooms. If there's too much product, it's too much. And if I know as a designer, these are my it bags, these are, and people said, Oh, what's the it bag? I said, the it bag is what the designers know are their best-selling items. It is their key item. So they are cutting out the time that you're wasting trying to determine what the best-selling item is. If they're coming in telling you, here's my best product, here it is in three different shapes, two different sizes, four colors. And I have two new items that I'm showing just to test out the waters. They have done the heavy lifting. They are saving the time and they're already telling you, this will sell. And I don't think that's ever been done, and done, at least to the designer's perspective, done in a very cost-effective manner. And that was also very important because it is very cost prohibitive for a younger or smaller or newer brand. I hate the word emerging, an independent brand. I hate it. It's like you've emerged, you've developed, you have a bank account, you're a new business. Yeah, it's I I call it the training bra effect. You don't need a training bra. It's a bra. You got boobs. Like, let's move on. Like it's enough. So to have it at a cost-effective level that we know we're covering your space, we know we're covering your costs, but we also have a beautiful product, and it's encouraging to have these designers come where they wouldn't be able to afford going to any other show. So we're getting the cool stuff that no one else can.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah. No, I I totally agree. And you know, you have to have that little bit of sizzle too, right? And you need to have, you kind of need the gamut, like you need all of it. You need the lower price point, mid-price, promotional price point. You need the sizzle, you need the very high price. I mean, there aren't a lot of retailers today that aren't really trying to diversify their mix. They need to appeal to a lot of different consumers. So they can't be so focused and targeted, but you need you need to have, you know, product that can energize the consumer, right? To make a purchase they wouldn't normally make.
SPEAKER_02I mean, we have such a wild array of designers. We have an incredible Colombian designer, Anna Dela Verde, who's coming back. Um, her bags were a huge hit. I knew as soon as I saw her product, she has it's almost Lueve-like in terms of the shape, the color. It's very unique. We have a Mexican brand that's been around for 15 years that hasn't done a trade show. We have a guy from Sweden who owns a restaurant and with his leftover skins, he makes bags. It's just so cool. And then we have this woman, Penny, who I'm I love that she's a late-in-life entrepreneur. She's in her late 50s, I maybe even early 60s. I don't know. She might kill me about that age, but she reinvented herself. She and her husband have moved to Tennessee for their, you know, like, let's downsize, let's get that. Became a handbag designer, has a whole bunch of patents. Her bags have been selling so much. She is chatty, she's a hustler, she has like their mix and match. I met her. I'm like, you're a firecracker. Where have you been all this time? She's like, Oh, I was working in a bank. So, but she's gonna be huge. She will be on QVC, she will be on those shopping channels because she appeals to that now, that that customer and this whole mix of great energy, and we're rebuilding this handbag designer community that's missing. We have been missing each other because to be a solopreneur, which so many of these people are, as you know, we need to be around people. And most trade shows, you want to kill yourself. And they they all these designers have been approached to do fashion shows. They've been approached to be part of these handful of stores that have locations in New York, Paris, LA, where they're charged basically a real estate flat fee and there's no guarantee on sales, they can't even host events there, and it's so expensive, but they're just excited to get to say that they have a location that they take it in the chin the fact that they're not making any money. And I think it's very unfair. And I like to give these designers a fighting chance to be discovered, to get their first round drop pick, specifically within this New York now environment, because I think this is what they deserve, and they find each other and they all go out to dinner. And I have to say, Dorothy, from the bottom of my heart, these times at this trade show are the best times spent and it moves fast and it's not lonely, and there are people there to watch when you go out. And that's that's the experience you want because as much as of a an emotional purchase it is for the buyer, the designer needs to feel that too.
SPEAKER_00Yes, it's a community, it's a community, and it's a community of competitors, but also a rising tide lifts all boats, right? So the more of your competition that is around you, the more buyers will come, the more engagement there will be. It just it's better for everybody. So yeah. So oh my goodness.
So I'm I want to close this out because I've taken up so much of your time. How can we find you, New York Now, follow you and get people to come check it out? Because I'm gonna make sure this runs. We're gonna re-air this episode a few times just because this has been so enlightening. But how can we find you, follow you, and and be part of this New York Now experience?
SPEAKER_00Well, probably start with our website, uh nynow.com, and all of our social handles are there as well. So we're pretty active on Instagram, you know, LinkedIn, if that's your thing, less so on Facebook. So mostly Instagram and LinkedIn. And, you know, we're being really well covered by all of the primary gift and home trades right now. So you should see plenty of information about us there. And yeah, that's the best way to find out about us. And you can register to attend as a buyer if you just go to nynow.com and you can also exhibit in February if you are a vendor. So we're really looking forward to 2027. I think August will have great energy. I think there are a lot of people that are interested in what's coming next. And so I think we're gonna have great traction and a kind of a great kickoff in August. But winter 2027 will be, I think, a very different, very different animal, much larger and with a little bit more focus and attention and zhuzh. Yeah, a little more of that. Oh my goodness, Darthi.
SPEAKER_02It has been an absolute pleasure. Thank you so much for joining us.
SPEAKER_00You really appreciate it.
SPEAKER_01Thanks for listening. Don't forget to rate and review and follow us on every single platform at Campbag Designer. Thanks so much. See you next time.