KELLY HELFMAN ON COTERIE’S NEW ERA

COTERIE had a reboot this year. What’s new?

Honestly, we sat down and the pandemic did some good things, we really sat down and thought, “What are we going forward, how are we going to respond to changes in the industry, how are we going to evolve?” Despite the traditional model, the way transactions, It’s really great, Coterie does a lot of things, we’ve served the market, but things are changing. We do take a step back and think about how we want to help our clients move forward and the issues in between community, sustainability and technology or digitization of business. We need to start having those conversations and bring in resources, not just for the brands, but the retailers, and then start having more of an omnichannel approach to the way they do business. I really believe we need to be customer driven, we can’t just rinse and repeat the same tactics.

I noticed a difference walking the floor. What are some changes?

We have re-sold the floor since our last show. While buyers really want to know where they are going and each show has a similar floor plan, we also want to make sure that, like fashion, we are always changing and on the pulse of trends. We actually hired an architect from Europe. They worked with Balenciaga, they opened a lot of concept stores, we partnered with them and hired them to help us reimagine the floor plan, the setup, and started looking at ways we could re-sell the booth. Some of the biggest changes are that we’re putting all of our clothing in the same area, so, now you have a footwear and accessories section. We help these retailers discover brands through aisles and directions. Often we are creatures of habit; we go up and down, up and down, but we want to go both sides, diagonals, zigzags. Ultimately, it’s about helping people discover new things. We are highlighting collections that we believe are portraying a new era for COTERIE. We have unisex collections, handcrafted international collections…