In my last post I wrote about our upcoming purchasing trip to the Tracht & Country Trade Show in Salzburg.    As a follow-up (and because so many customers ask) I'm going to elaborate a little on the whole trade show experience, and give the inside scoop on how the industry works.  

The sole purpose of the Tracht & Country show is to allow retailers from across Europe (and one from Canada!) to meet with various suppliers in order to view and order merchandise.  It's also a wonderful opportunity for up-and-coming designers and small to medium sized manufacturers to "network" and to have their products seen by literally hundreds of buyers from the retail sector.

Most of the fashion industry works on two production cycles or "seasons"  per year i.e.: Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter.  The specific designs, colours, and fabrics to be used in each collection are finalized by...

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...