With Christmas and the busy holiday season behind us, our thoughts are now turning to our upcoming trip to Salzburg. The purpose of our trip? Shopping! Each year we travel to the beautiful city of Salzburg, Austria for three days of intensive shopping and schmoozing at the Tracht and Country trade show. Our objective? To fill our store with new and exciting fashions and accessories! You can see highlights of the August, 2013 show here: http://trachtsalzburg.at
There are over 300 companies represented at the show, and they manufacture everything trachten and landhausmode ("casual weekend wear"); from beautiful traditional dirndls, hats, shirts and lederhosen for everyday wear (in Bavaria and Austria, anyway), to the jaw-dropping gorgeous designer dirndls favoured by jet-setter celebs, and the "who's who" of Austria and Bavaria. Many of the most popular designers are young (under 35), very personable and always willing to chat with us about their passion for the design process. As an experienced home sewer, I am in awe of the level of skill required to execute some of the fine details inherent in their one-of-a-kind creations!
Although we don't carry those lavish designer fashions, we are delighted to find the same attention to detail and commitment to quality in our suppliers; and their business practices and priorities echo our own - providing quality products at a reasonable cost, and customer satisfaction. Based on our 2013 sales figures and customer feedback, I'd say we've been successful in that. We are looking forward to bringing you the new and exciting from their collections for fall/oktoberfest 2014.
A few days prior to the show, we always drop in on Sabine at Hammerschmid Gmbh in the picturesque town of Marquarstein, Bavaria - located about an hours' drive from our holiday apartment in Anger. Of course, we always take the "scenic" route. (Actually, it's pretty hard to find a route that's not scenic!) We love to shop their warehouse for great deals on production overruns, unclaimed/cancelled orders, and samples - and pass those savings on to our customers, because we know you love a good bargain! Take a peek at their summer 2014 collection at http://hammerschmid-gmbh.de Their fall collection should be posted to their site around April 1, 2014.
Also on our agenda is a visit to jewellery supplier Alpenflustern, whose collection includes traditional trachtenschmuck as well as fun and frisky contemporary creations. They also carry a fab line of accessories. Flip through their lookbook at http://www.alpenfluestern.de to see their great collection. We can't wait to bring their collection to our customers...we know you'll love it!
Then it's off to Cham, to pick up some pewter feather holders from one of our suppliers in that beautiful, historic city! Of course, during our stay in Germany, we always make time to drop into my favourite fabric stores...Stoff Reich in Rosenheim and another quaint little fabric shop in Bad Tolz (also a beautiful place to spend a day of sightseeing).
Watch this page for more posts from the show!
Some photos from the August, 2013 show: (Source: Reed Expositions Salzburg, Andreas Kolarik, copyright Aug. 2013)
