‘Linexpo’ Lingerie and Hosiery Fair, organized by All Underwear Industrialists Association (TİGSAD), hosted its visitors at Istanbul Expo Center on February, 9-12. Approximately 5 thousand international visitors from 103 countries took part at the fair, held for the 6th time, while the total number of visitors was announced as about 15 thousand this year. The event was realized simultaneously with the Istanbul Fashion Connection (IFCO) and Fashionist. Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM) Chairperson İsmail Gülle and Istanbul Chamber of Commerce (İTO) President Şekib Avdagiç made the opening of the three fairs, held with the support of İHKİB and İTO. Special displays and fashion shows were also organized during the fair, in addition to B2B meetings.
“A sublime fair for the ready-to-wear industry”
TİM Chair İsmail Gülle, said the following at the fair opening; “There was no fair with the infrastructure to represent our distinguished industry, which is the most rooted, has the most current account surplus, employs the most, and has a great potential for Turkey’s international branding for a long time. We were feeling the lack of this. The atmosphere here and this organization we are holding after a long period of pandemic is really sublime. 2021 was an unforgettable year that the pride of Turkey, exporters made us smile with the peak of exports and production. We saw that the favour shown to our country exceeded the limits in all the fairs we attended last year. We saw lines stretching out onto the roads at the entrance. We have seen in almost all sectors that the participants could not keep up with order bookings. We have seen the fullness and success of the fairs held simultaneously. This shows that we are now taking big steps towards big goals in this country”.
Gülle emphasized that Turkey’s exports of 225 billion dollars in 2021 is a great success that will never be forgotten and stated; “We now have a target of 250 billion dollars in front of us. This is a figure we can achieve with these sectors. We witnessed that many of our companies could not keep up with the orders last year. We have seen that brands that did not receive orders from Turkey now return to do business with Turkey and place orders. These are very encouraging”.
There were three main sectors at the fair
ITO President Şekib Avdagiç disclosed in his opening speech; “We are holding our fair in 7 halls. We have nearly 600 companies and 3 main sectors. One is ready-to-wear and apparel. We also have the long-running Linexpo lingerie fair. We did not set a square metre limit for the participants since it was the first time we started this fair. However, in the fairs we will hold from now on, I think that after the sector sees the potential and business volume of this fair, they will get in line, let alone fill it”. Avdagiç said that IFCO will not only be an Istanbul brand but first a regional brand and then a worldwide brand in the sector.
Avdagiç emphasized that they should continue their efforts to make this event a worldwide brand and stated; “Because in this way, it will make Istanbul the centre of the main and all sub-sectors of fashion, textiles, lingerie, evening gowns. Companies abroad will make an effort to come here. Numerous countries from Africa and Central Asia prefer countries like Turkey instead of Europe due to Europe’s restrictive Covid measures for fairs. Our country needs to take more action by thoroughly evaluating the conditions brought by the pandemic for this reason”.
“All the sales areas of Linexpo are filled one year before the fair date”
TİGSAD President Nazım Kanpolat stated that they made the strategy of the fair within the scope of five-year plans and announced that they achieved their first five-year targets. Kanpolat continued his words as follows; “The point we have reached in buyers’ delegations, B2B meetings, the number of foreign visitors and the increase in the number of participants brought about stable growth. We were deemed worthy of an international fair status at the end of the path we started as ‘Fashion Days’ in 2016. One of the biggest features of Linexpo is that all sales areas are filled one year before the fair date. The fields of activity of our participating companies are underwear, pyjamas, swimwear, corset, dowries, bras, children’s pyjamas, children’s underwear, satin group, tights, homewear and tracksuits”.
Kanpolat pointed out that the relations that companies will establish with international purchasing committees, especially in the post-pandemic period, are very important for Turkey’s sector exports and added; “As TİGSAD, we aim to provide more foreign currency inflow every year to our country, which wants to grow with production, exports and employment through Linexpo”.