INTIMASIA heralds brand new era of intimate apparel

Having realised a total trade turnover of over Rs 5 billion, Intimasia has been a revelation in connecting all the major facets of the intimate apparel industry with each other and facilitating an effective exchange of crucial ideas, contacts, and opinions. Spearheaded by the Intimate Apparel Association of India, the largest intimate apparel tradeshow proved to be an incredible opportunity for intimate apparel retailers as well as fashion entrepreneurs, brands, manufacturers, and other stakeholders to network among each other and share their experiences and insights in the sector.

Rakesh Grover, MD, Intimate Apparel Association of India, reflects on the event by declaring it as an unprecedented success. “We are so happy to see the phenomenal growth of the industry spurred just by this one event. We hope to see many of these faces and more in the coming years!” says Grover.

Seeing how the intimate apparel industry is currently growing at an annual rate of 15 per cent, the success of Intimasia demonstrates the potential heights the industry could reach if it could organise its regional bases and build a solid national market. As it stands, the total value of the industry is estimated at a whopping Rs 24 billion; at Rs 5 billion – the sales and partnerships generated by the event yielded over 20 per cent of that amount, which stands as a remarkable achievement in the history of this sector.

Hosted at the Adlux International Convention and Exhibition Centre, this event featured some of the most popular intimate fashion brands in India and internationally, including US Polo, Hanes, V-Star, Ramraj, Naidu Hall, Lux Dollar, Bodycare, Paris Beauty, Juliet, Little Lacy, Sherry, Lady Care, Sweet Dreams, Red Rose, Sonari among other flourishing brands in this line of business. Through a set of workshops, exhibitions, fashion shows, press junkets, talks and award ceremonies; over 1200 firms and business organisations were able to promote and market their brand to visitors and further extend their customer base.

In an unprecedented but game-changing move for the intimate apparel industry, the event organisers also set up consumer focus groups and collected their input as an effort to coordinate customer-retail interaction. They were also able to look into growth opportunities for the industry, both by interchanging strategies among each other as well as by learning of new initiatives and market trends discussed in the events.

By showcasing apparels such as lingerie, men’s innerwear, kids’ innerwear, sleepwear, loungewear, camisoles, slips, swimwear, beachwear, shapewear, thermals, active wear, yoga wear and socks, Intimasia demonstrated its wide appeal to all the visitors. The entrepreneurs, the event coordinators and the consumers were able to seek out business opportunities and plan out development schemes. Furthermore, the event proved to be a fantastic boost to the economy of Kerala in terms of driving up employment and sales for the State.

Individuals from Kasaragod, Kottayam, Ernakulam, Kollam, Malappuram, Calicut, Trivandrum, Kannur, Palghat, Alleppey, Kozhikode, Thrissur and many other smaller towns of Kerala were able to attend the event and get an idea of what makes their state special in terms of intimate apparel fashion due to the high brand awareness and literacy rate of this state. Not only did this three-day affair provide many enterprising opportunities for so many retailers, consumers, brands, manufacturers, and distributors and stakeholders, it showcased how a tradeshow could directly impact growth of such a major industry in such a short period.