New fashion focus

The significance of fashion as the mainspring of the global leather industry will be highlighted at the fifth edition of the biannual Le Cuir A Paris, September 17-19, 2003, where the whole event is devoted to leading the leather industry into the next season. Fashion pervades all industries today and under the banner of 'Quality, Creativity and Fashion,' Le Cuir A Paris is being held at the Paris expo Porte de Versailles, Hall 6, in the fashion capital of the world, to promote the use of quality leather as a fashion material. The fair has the express purpose of bringing together the world's top leather manufacturers, associated material and component producers with the world's top stylists, designers and buyers for finished leathergoods. The show covers all industries from garments to gloves, watchstraps to wallets. Exhibitor sectors include finished leathers, woolskins, fur, exotic leathers, textiles and components. The September 2003 edition of the fair will see some 30 new tanners from around the world exhibiting their fashion leathers. They join a strong European contingent from Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Portugal and the UK. Scandinavia is particularly well represented with new exhibitors from Norway and Finland joining colleagues from Iceland and Denmark. There will also be tanners from Australia, Canada, China, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Russia, Türkiye and the USA. The international line-up is enhanced by new exhibitors from Brazil promoting exotic new products from South America. And for the first time, a Pakistani pavilion will show finished leather and leather garments. Specific fashion-led aspects of Le Cuir A Paris include: * The Trends Gallery with four main trends for winter 2004/2005 * Focus area for men * Presentation of more than 1,500 samples showing what's on offer for the next season * The new designers * The Bureau de Style Winter 2004-05 is a season of essentials with novelty accents filtering through. Drawing from fundamental energy, it takes on a free expression and is both magnetic and captivating. Blackout Subtle, penetrating shadows invade this sometimes magical, yet always sophisticated world. The coloured darks are illuminated by oxidised metallics bathed in vibrant light-dark effects, alchemist lights highlighted with a distinctive yellow. Leathers come with mirrored, lacquered, metallic and sequinned effects while they hold a choice place for traditional and luxurious leathers such as nubucks, nappas, full grain leathers and a full range of furs. There are also textured effects that are reworked like painted or rough coatings. Emotion Remix This is a smooth and precious environment for an assertive woman with tactile elegance. Pinks that are successively darkened, aged or luminous to the point of fluorescence, respond to deep dark tones and true violet, creating a coloured atmosphere that is radically feminine. The materials propose a span of often complex motifs in monotones or Chinese shadow-box effects, all on satiny, velvety or glazed surfaces with butter soft, caressing and soft touches, smooth, pearly and powdery matt finishes. Waterproof Look for a range of aquatic tones with subtleties of green, bluish greens, greys blues, blacks and cool beiges. Scales, rough or more sophisticated, are in a palette of colours, pearly, shiny and semi-shiny effects corresponding to more fluid and neutral materials, super supple skins and slippery touches. Jet-Set This is a new urban amazon, a bit of a super-star who splashes a dull environment with liberating coloured accents. Materials are innovative and leave an important place for motifs with perforated, cut-out, waffled effects, graphic prints, all of which have vinyl, plastic, glossy or super-matte aspects. There is a more couture approach, a little over the top, with embroidery and over-printing detail.