Exchanges at the heart of the next Who’s Next

Who’s Next will place the community at the heart of the next edition of its event from 18 to 21 January 2019 at the Parc des Expositions [Exhibitions Park] at Porte de Versailles. The event will be immersed in the best trends in fashion, beauty and lifestyle, offering visitors and exhibitors a wide-ranging mix of ready-to-wear, accessories and innovative products from the feminine fashion market, from young designers up to the most established labels. In this interview, Frédéric Maus, Co-director of WSN Group explains what prompted this gathering of the community and lifts the veil on what’s new.

To what extent is “community fashion” a force at Who’s Next?

Who’s Next has been an indispensable meeting place for the fashion world for 25 years now! The event brings together a wide and multi-faceted community: labels, purchasers, press, movers and shakers etc. The entire gamut of the ecosystem is represented here. The strength of this community lies in the fact that it allows formal exchanges to be made during the daytime and extends such exchanges informally into the evenings or at activities. It is said that the secondary source of business declared by the labels during Who’s Next is made directly with the other exhibiting labels through the links they weave between themselves.

To allow this community to form a group, we are developing new tools via wsn.community and are mixing digital and physical actions to provide a complete experience.

The important thing at Who’s Next is to set up meetings, to put the human and exchanges back at the heart of the event and of fashion. It is by reinforcing and multiplying these encounters that we promote creativity and the desire in everyone to develop their business.

Who are these new retailers and how does WSN intend to support them?

As the event has developed, WSN has been able to position its Who’s Next event as the greatest concept store in the world, with offers of ready-to-wear, accessories, beauty and lifestyle. It is exactly this concept store vision that the new retailers are seeking. These retailers can reinvent themselves and re-think their products to offer a complete range to their clients by breaking down the barriers between ready-to-wear and beauty, accessories and lifestyle. We also help them to develop their business and support them strategically through a team of experts in law, communication, and digital and commercial areas.
Lastly, we allow them to gain access to new markets, in particular in Asia, with some enticingprojects in the pipeline.

What new things are there to discover in the January exhibition?

In January, buyers and visitors can discover three major innovations in the sectors and product focus.

Inside is the lifestyle space. As a concept store, Who’s Next is committed to developing its lifestyle offer by presenting a space that mixes together decoration, home-wear and well-being. It is a true living space with Le Bénéfique tea bar, DIY workshops and the set design of an apartment by Mapoésie and Maison Baluchon, among others.

Cosmos is a space where clothing can offer protection against the lowest temperatures. At the centre of the space, silhouette figures will present these high-quality materials for facing up to winter whilst remaining feminine.

What’s Up, the return of the sportswear and street-wear DNA of Who’s Next. What’s Up groups together different concepts of urban fashion which can be at once feminine and oversize, vintage and premium, unisex and sporty. With What’s Up, we want to turn the spotlight on young design which shakes up the fashion codes and for which the urban is not only a trend but the very definition of fashion today.

WSN.community will also soon be revealed... What does it involve?

WSN.community will be a platform for meeting the needs of retailers throughout the year in terms of training, partners and digital solutions. WSN holds a central place in the sector and is committed to developing services to allow them to develop their businesses. This platform will be an approach to digitising the sector which will add to and expand the actions that we physically carry out at our events.

Will the spaces created in the previous edition of the event in September 2018 - Fine Jewellery, Mix & Mixte and Villa Beauté – be maintained?

With their success in September, Fine Jewellery and Villa Beauté are returning to this edition with a new selection which is still specialised. The Fine Jewellery space will even have a specialist purchasing service for this type of product.
Mix & Mixte has evolved and will be integrated into the new What’s Up space. We wanted to keep this premium and urban selection for ready-to-wear and accessories, which particularly appeal to a target of young and active city people.

Can you give us a foretaste of the programme?

The January 2019 edition of the event is marked by the theme of Apollo Club or the idea of a mythical and cosmic discotheque to celebrate 25 years of Who’s Next. The whole event will be punctuated by parties, performances and surprises orchestrated by artists such as Jean-Paul Lespagnard, Cosmosonic and Corinne. WSN will therefore use the aura of its event to excite the senses, reinvigorate and stimulate!
Conferences and expert workshops are based on current challenges in the sectors: the next trends, innovations and the digital aspect.
The programme for the event is structured and designed to promote exchanges and place the human dimension once again at the sector’s centre!

Photographs by Who’s Next, Yannick Roudier, Antoine Motard.