The recovery of children’s fashion evident at Kleine Fabriek

Children’s fashion sales levels appear to be on the up in the Netherlands and Belgium. So an excellent time for a visit to the Kleine Fabriek (Small Factory), the children’s fashion trade fair in Amsterdam. This trade fair is a well known concept within

the Dutch and Belgian markets in particular. The 12th edition of this fair saw a total of 280 children’s fashion brands and 40 shoe brands being presented.

According to research conducted by the Dutch industry organisation CBW-Mitex, the 2010 turnover in the children’s fashion industry did not fall below the previous year’s figures. The children’s fashion sector thereby performed in line with the country’s average fashion shop owner. There are no official figures available for Belgium, but things are certainly looking better over there too. According to Christian Clarysse from the SCS Compagnie agency, brands in the higher segment are particularly doing well: “The market is recovering. Plenty of shops disappeared in Belgium, but these were mainly ones with relatively cheap products which had to try and compete with major chains like H&M and Zara. What we are now left with are mainly entrepreneurs who specialise in the higher price segment.” Clarysse has been selling the Italian brand Fun & Fun girl for the last 3 seasons, for which Belgium currently has 50 sales points.

Many companies are tempted to approach both the Dutch and Belgian markets at the same time, as a result of the location of the two small countries, as well as their shared language, but they actually differ greatly. For example, Belgians will generally spend more on an item of clothing than Dutch people would. This is why the French Lili Faufrette has around 100 sales points in Belgium, yet no more than 60 in the Netherlands. “Belgians have more of an eye for quality,” Tania Johan from the Junior Fashion agency explains, which has been selling the brand in the Netherlands for 12 years. “But the Dutch customers who like and value the brand will continue to buy it. This means we didn’t notice the crisis at all, although we did suffer as a result of competitors’ labels, but that’s another story. Our turnover has been stable during the last few years.”

The Dutch and Belgian customers’ tastes can also vary greatly. Dutch people like distinct colours, which has resulted in, for example, the Spanish Custo Growing doing well in the Netherlands, whilst the Belgians tend to prefer the more classic colours and models. “It’s very funny”, says Barbara Roland Holst-Terhorst from the shoe brand Diggers: “Dutch people will usually go for shoes in dark blue, brown and silver. Belgians will generally go for the neutral grey and brown shades.” Petra Heuts, who represents the Danish brand Freoli at the fair, has noticed that Dutch and Belgian customers are also quite different from a business point of view: “A Dutch person who doesn’t like your collection will simply say: ‘I can’t sell this’. A Belgian person would never say such a thing, they are far less direct.”

From our correspondent in Amsterdam