Gran Canaria Swim Week is working on its leap towards America after becoming the European benchmark for swimwear fashion.
2022-10-20
Within the framework of the 1st European Fashion Alliance Summit, the Councillor for Industry, Crafts and Trade, Minerva Alonso, met today with the director of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, Steven Kolb, in order to establish a first contact with the American fashion scene and thus continue with the internationalisation project of the Gran Canarian catwalk, the Moda Cálida programme and all the local firms specialising in swimwear. "It is a work that starts from the roots and goes far beyond the mere presence at a fair," explained Alonso at the end of the meeting in which, as he announced, the necessary information has been exchanged to have a telematic meeting in a month's time to talk about concrete proposals.
The importance of the meeting could be crucial given the profile of the American organisation, which has more than 60 years of experience in the fashion sector with worldwide influence, above all in the nerve centres such as Paris, Milan, London and New York. The council works, like the Cabildo, on a non-profit basis, both with emerging firms and with others as consolidated and powerful as Ralph Laurent or Oscar de la Renta, and they have programmes in accordance with the realities of these firms as well as missions all over the world, as Kolb informed her at the meeting.
The councillor, for her part, summarised the work carried out since 2015 with the Moda Cálida programme: how the effort to promote brands - supporting companies with personalised itineraries, closing an agreement with ACME of which 8 Canary Islands firms are already part, making an effort in promotional and sales events - has meant a growth in turnover of 28.5% compared to 2019, an increase in physical points of sale of 47% and online of 41%.
In this effort for internationalisation, the result is that Gran Canarian fashion participates in the Berlin Fashion Week, where agreements were closed with other countries and the next objectives, such as attending the Copenhagen Fashion Week (Denmark) and accentuate agreements with the Italian Fair Mare da Mare. At the same time, through the European Interreg Modamac programme currently led by the Cabildo, contacts have been strengthened with other islands that have programmes to support the sector - La Palma and Tenerife - and with other countries or regions such as Senegal, Cape Verde and Madeira.
"Another of the challenges was to integrate the brand and our hallmark, which is closely linked to the destination, into the national market: swimwear," explained the councillor, who added that "Swim Week is already a national benchmark and this edition is the definitive backing to become one at European level, and for us it is very important, once this work has been consolidated, to be a meeting point between European and American swimwear firms and our specialisation and potential, which are the Canary Islands swimwear firms," she said.
On the basis of all the information exchanged, it was agreed that a new meeting would be convened in a month's time, so that Kolb could meet with his team on his return and reach agreements and concrete proposals.
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