Despite the political change in Thailand a week prior to the show, the Bangkok International Fashion Fair and Bangkok International Leather Fair 2006 (BIFF&BIL 2006) achieved a record trade figure of US$6 by Thai exhibitors of textile, garment and leather goods. This revenue reflects a 474% increase over that of last year’s event. The joint fairs, organized by the Department of Export Promotion (DEP), were held at the Bangkok International Trade & Exhibition Center (BITEC) during September 27 – October 1, 2006.

It was at first feared that the overseas visitors to the fairs would hugely drop due to the worldwide news on the political take-over, and travel warning issued by some governments. Nevertheless, the BIFF&BIL 2006 total number of overseas trade and buyers of 1,311 showed only a 2.96% drop compared to the 2005. A big increase in attendance from South Africa (+75%), Vietnam (+68.42%), UK (+35%) and Malaysia (+33.85%) was recorded. In addition, the numbers of visitors from the USA, India, Germany and France all increased over 18%.

Among the international visitors, many were representatives from world leading fashion houses and designer brands such as Byblos, Ungaro Fever, Rocco Barocco Jeans, Fendi Jeans, Marlboro Classics, Murphy & Nye and Vivienne Westwood.

More than 830 booths showcased the latest designs in apparel, leather and accessories fashion from 426 companies not only from Thailand, but also from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam, taking up over 20,000 square meters of BITEC. While the future of Asia’s fashion industry was represented by 274 exhibitors, 152 companies displayed the latest leather products. Apart from enthusiastic exhibitors, BIFF&BIL 2006 also became a platform for introducing a wide variety of fashion development activities such as The 1st Creative Accessories Contest: Bags & Shoes, Exclusive Runway Shows from Thailand’s aspiring young designers and OTOP, knowledge packed seminars on many topics such as LDP Logistic Concept for Fashion Industry, French Ready-to-Wear Collection, Italian Style Fabric Development and one of the most anticipated programs, the Fashion Trend Conference in Bangkok by fashion gurus and specialists from France, Italy and Thailand.

One of the major highlights this year was the Department of Export Promotion’s initiated projects, the Thai Tex Trend (T3), Thai Garment Cluster (TC), and, introducing the Fashion Network (FN), all developed by leading Italian textile specialist, Mitor Textile Consultancy Services. The pavilion drew considerable attention with its simple, sleek yet inviting black planes towering above the exclusive space in the middle of Exhibiting Hall 103, reflecting high style by the nature of the projects. The many products and their up-and-coming young fashion designers a la mode of the Young Designers Room and Bangkok Fashion Society Pavilion also captured visitors’ interest.

Both the Bangkok International Fashion Fair & Bangkok International Leather Fair is set to return in late September next year.