CIFF Kids fall 2012 report

It was a great delight to see online store Creme de la Creme a la Edgar exhibiting at CIFF Kids and had set up an installation in the front hall of idealised children's bedrooms.

The quirky mix of knitted and crochet styles have a vintage feel and yet are also modern. This company had one of the best children's fashion and lifestyle stores in Copenhagen, but closed last year so it is great to know that they are expanding their online offerings to wholesale too.

Mostly CIFF is about big brand labels firmly in the mid-market range. Companies such as Aya Naya, Hummel, Ticket to Heaven, Tumble 'n' Dry, Nono and Name It all have big distribution and provide a reasonably priced fashion offering that attracts buyers to this fair. Oh, and there's a lot of denim too!

There are some smaller gems here too, inbetween the mega stands. Often, first time exhibitors begin here for the exposure and some of the labels move between the two Copenhagen fairs.

The strongest fashion label I saw was Pale Cloud who cover many of the European fairs and also attend Playtime New York. Theirs is a beautiful line of silks and luxe embroidery details on soft vintage pink shades with a more 'exclusive' feel than that of many of the other exhibitors.

Other good stands came from Rockefella, the Swedish retro Rockabilly label, Oscar et Valentine who have classy cashmere knitwear with quirky animal illustrations and Oilily bags, which are bright and cute and have their own following.

I also always love to see the coils of thread at the exhibition centre with the colour predictions of the current season. Buyers pull off lengths of thread to colour match their buys to one of the six palette options. The pictured threads look spot on for all the colours I have been seeing across Europe at the trade shows, and in particular at Pitti Bimbo for next winter.

Photography by Linda McLean