21st edition of Playtime Paris AW17 : Show Report

Walking the aisles of Playtime Paris AW17 felt like a welcome escape to the noise of the current climate. It was very encouraging to take in the creative energy, exceptional design and celebrate a bit of diverse creative thinking. The 21st edition of Playtime Paris was special for Pirouette blog with our first Pirouette ‘One to Watch’ awards at the show. In fact it couldn’t have been better timing with the introduction of the ‘New Now” space curated by the designer Deborah Sfez.

520 brands, of which  80% came from overseas with 40 different nationalities being represented. Whilst 55% of the 7689 professional visitors to the show were from countries other than France. Playtime it seems is more International than ever, it was also encouraging to see overall visitors were on the up (an increase of 3.1% compared to last winter).  The Fashion sector remains the biggest part of the show, however design has continued to expand making it’s presence felt more than ever this year – a trend undoubtedly set to continue as brands increasingly make forays from fashion to design and vice versa.

New labels waited to be discovered amongst the hundred or so new exhibitors. It was great to see Playtime up their game this year in respect of catering for new emerging brands . We saw the opening of the aforementioned space ‘NEW NOW’ with 12 fashion collections selected to present for the first time:
candit bandits (Netherlands), cherry papaya (Portugal), frnky’s (Netherlands), owa yurika (England), lulaland (United States), mabli (England), manuela kids (Spain), popelin (Spain), tjorven kids (Estonia), vild (England), wonderers (England), ylur (Iceland).

We presented our One to Watch Awards for the first time at Playtime for promising fashion and design brands aged four years and under:
lulaland (United States) – Children’s Fashion and Accessories
bonjour (Belgium) – Children’s Design

Milk Magazine of course presented their Milk awards to their favourite collections:
• Atelier barn, which received the editorial staff’s Fashion Award
• Misha and puff, awarded the Must-have Award for their first participation
• Bobo Choses and their transparent recyclable plastic rain boots won the Shoes Award
• Ferm living’s kid collection, attending for the first time, won the Decoration Award.

 

We saw lots of chunky knits, fringing, beautiful greens ranging from citrus greens to deep greens, embroidery, linens, cottons and micro-terry loopbacks. Here are some of our favourites from the 21st edition.

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Knitwear stories

Mabli

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The loopy knit as I referred to it as but really known as ‘the 1981 jumper’ was inspired by the image above of designer and label founder Lisa Roberts as a baby in one of the many lovely knits made for her by her relatives.

“I always loved the texture of this loop stitch (which is hand knitted with 2 needles and 1 thumb!). With most of my collection, I concentrate on fine knits and jacquards so I wanted to have some contrast in texture and this loopy knit seemed like the perfect addition.
This is being knitted by some ladies here in Wales who remember knitting these many years ago. I think often the problem with vintage knit patterns is the proportions are often a bit crazy and don’t seem to fit a modern shape of human (tiny necks, giant shoulders!) It’s been great to be able to combine this retro stitch with a modern shape that has a cropped boxy silhouette and a big rounded sleeve, with a little rib cuff and roll edge neck.”

Howlin

Howlin Belgian knitwear label had two rails, one larger rail all produced in Scotland and another smaller rail produced in Belgium. This label represents brilliant classic design with a twist, with the micro-terry loopback (middle image) printed to achieve the colour. We loved the yoke curve on the two tone jumper (see far right image). It’s always nice to see clever subtle elements of design i.e throw in a slight curve. This is a wearable unisex collection for kids diffused from the adult collection and it’s really cool to boot.
NB Howlin is a Scottish slang word, I’ll let you google it…

 

Cokitica

Aw17 is Chapter 21 for the Japanese label Cokitica, the concept behind the label is a tale of two boys sent on a magical journey. New adventures change with with each season, this season ‘A granting door’ takes the boy on a journey through a wishing door, what will happen ?…A truly magical collection, real clothes for boys and girls to take on the adventure of life.

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Favourite trend

‘Greens are good for you’

Manuela

Titled ‘Tale of a Wooden Hut’ Hungarian label Manuela produces the most gorgeous range of leather school bags to accompany their clothing collection.

Sissonne

We loved Porto based Label Sissonne. The green linens… beautiful !

Motoreta

‘WE ARE NATURE’ Aw17 brings prints inspired by the connection between nature, fashion, architecture and land. The prints are extremely strong and capturing. As always something unique from Motoreta.

Bonjour

Our Playtime Paris Design One to Watch, the deep green in the ‘Petite chambre noire’ collection by Bonjour is simply stunning and their ceramic lamps are a personal  favourite from the show.

AMY & IVOR

It’s all about mint and monochrome spots for Amy & Ivor AW17. This multi-award winning chrome-free leather baby and toddler moccasin label still manufacture by hand in England with a very small team of skilled workers, and is evident in the quality !

‘Knit it chunky’

Tuchinda

Manuela

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Sweetest of presentations

little titlee

This display was so sweet and eye catching, well done little titlee. What an inventive and super cute way to display your lovely line.

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Design

PCM Design

The Policosmos Families by Eleonore Castellarin & Moises Hernandez

PCM Design, a Spanish brand searches for products by very talented and young designers from the best design schools. Paloma Cañizares, architect and founder, is committed to creating a brand that displays the exquisite sensibility of simple, smart design from this decade. Thier product selection has a strong relationship with local materials or skills. They believe Spain is still an untapped country in terms of industrial and artisanal potential in the design world, so their projects try to showcase a new vision of a country full of traditions. 

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Art & technology

Anchovy

Anchovy was one of those finds from late on our last day at Playtime Paris. All too often wearable technology is just about watches. Not here, we love their mix of fashion, technology and art. See previous post.

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Collections

Velveteen

The Aw17 collection delivers exceptional quality and fine detailing this California inspired label are well known for. The Cecilia tassel ‘coatigan’ (picture left) is a must for AW17, it’s very difficult to choose between the colour ways blackberry or cinnamon…both !

Lulaland

Our Pirouette One to Watch Fashion Playtime Paris winner ! Lovely Lula creates a beautifully fun mix and match mostly unisex collection. We love the aztec pineapple print ! Their SS17 collection is hitting the stores now. More to come on our Playtime Paris One to Watch Lulualand.

Tuchinda

The AW17 collection by Tina Tuchinda contains the most exceptional knits, from chunky (see Playtime NY post to follow) to finer delicate machine knits. The tassel fringing fine knits above caught my attention at the show. Beautifully clean but complex, brilliant ! They look incredibly comfortable.

Hilda.henri

The world of Opera it’s magic and rich history in Vienna is the inspiration behind the Hilda.Henri AW17 collection. We love the traditional boiled wool, and for Aw17 there’s golden yellow and cobalt blue. A truly theatrical and creative collection by this Austrian based label.

Piupiuchick

The AW17 collection ‘little nature lovers’ by Portuguese label Piupiuchic is full of soft tactile texture with pretty much the cutest baby playsuit at the show. Gorgeous collection for Aw17 !

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Design product for parents

Mara Mea

The diaper bags from Mara Mea  are not only beautiful they are incredibly practical and well designed. I fell in love with this line, you can change the straps to a back pack, to attach securely to your buggy or sling over your shoulder. Their diaper bags have so many fantastic features for the modern day parent there are too many to list. This line was a real crush, clever, practical and stylish design !

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New to this edition
centralised trend spaces

The ‘Shaman’, the ‘Party Time’ and the ‘Daily’ Trend spaces

 

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Playtime in stats

Total number of visitors: 7689
France: 44,7%
International: 55,3%

Europe (excluding France): 43,2%
Asia 6,0%
Americas 3,3%
Middle-East 2,0%
Africa 0,5%
Oceania 0,3%

Top 5 Europe
1. Belgium
2. United Kingdom
3. Netherlands
4. Spain
5. Italy

Top 5 excluding Europe
1. United States
2. Japan
3. South Korea
4. Russia
5. China

Distribution of visitors per day:
Saturday, January 28: 39,6%
Sunday, January 29: 32,9%
Monday, January 30: 27,5%

All countries in descending order
France, Belgium, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Germany, United States, Switzerland, Japan, Portugal, South Korea, Denmark, China, Russia, Austria, Poland, Sweden, Hong Kong, Lebanon, Norway, Canada, India, United Arab Emirates, Ukraine, Australia, Luxembourg, Lithuania, Turkey, Taiwan, Israel, Morocco, Finland, Ireland, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Kuwait, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, Bulgaria, Indonesia, Cypress, Argentina, Algeria, Estonia, Iceland, Chile, Jordan, Peru, Hungary, Thailand, Slovakia, Vietnam, Argentina, Andorra, Colombia, North Korea, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Martinique, Monaco, Uzbekistan, Czech Republic, Réunion, Senegal, Saint Martin