Diary of a (Trade) Show Girl

• Posted on 28 February 2025

One of the more frequent questions we get at GoodWood is, “Where do you find all the new things you sell?” The simple answer is New York, but the reality is more involved than that, so we thought we’d give you a peek into our process by sharing a travel diary of sorts from our latest trade show adventures.

Several times a year, the gift and apparel wholesale industry holds shows from coast to coast, from Los Angeles to NYC, Dallas to Chicago, and Baltimore to Atlanta. We typically travel by train to NYC to visit the gift shows in August and February and the apparel shows in September and February. It’s part gamble and part fortunetelling, as we are buying for a season 6 months in the future. The apparel and accessories arriving in the store in the next few weeks were ordered last September, while the things we picked out this month will be for Fall/Winter 2025. 

Here’s a glimpse into what that’s like. 

Monday, February 3, 2025

7:40 a.m. - Boarding the NE Regional to NYC.

11:14 a.m. - Arrive at Moynihan Train Hall in NYC. 

From the train station, it’s a quick walk to the Starrett-Lehigh Building on the corner of 11th Avenue and West 26th St. (A quick detour into the City Opera Thrift Store located at 513 W 26th Street is always necessary, and we highly recommend you check it out the next time you are in New York.) 

The Shoppe Object gift show has just relocated to the Starrett-Lehigh Building from several other locations on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. While there are some apparel vendors here, the primary focus of this show is gifts, etc., and we buy several lines of jewelry from vendors here, including GoodWood favorites Lock & Key and Oropopo.

During our latest trip, we found some new items, too, including a new line of jewelry and matchbooks. We round out our fall purchases here with some beautiful wool scarves and pouches from the French line Moismont, and some fun socks from This Night. 

After lunch, it’s a quick walk up 11th Avenue to the Jacob Javits Convention Center for the NYNow Show. Like Shoppe Object, NY Now focuses on gift, stationery, jewelry, candles and home decor. There’s a lot to wade through, but there are several vendors here we make sure to visit, like Nippon Kodo for incense and several stationery wholesalers. 

It’s a short walk back to the train station, only to find the train is delayed. A glass of wine and people-watching at the bar in Moynihan Train Hall is a great way to pass the time.

Personal recommendation: Don’t sleep on the ramen from E.A.K Ramen at the food court. Grab a bowl and take it with you on the train. An absolutely can’t-miss meal that far exceeds anything available in the Cafe Car.

We arrive back in D.C. around 10 pm, tired but pleased. We’ll be heading back soon.

***

Sunday, February 16, 2025

4:20 p.m. Scheduled departure from Union Station. 

Unfortunately, storms have wreaked havoc in the northeast and our train ends up delayed by more than an hour. We arrive in NYC a little before 10 pm. This year, we are staying at the Arlo Midtown, at West 38th Street and 9th Avenue, an ideal location for all the places we will be walking over the course of the next few days. After a quick bite at the hotel bar, we retire for the night. 

Monday, February 17, 2025

9:30 a.m.
After a complimentary light breakfast courtesy of SHWRM Show (West 36th Street), our first appointment of the day is with Sanctamuerte from Italy. This will be our third season offering clothing from this avant-garde design team, and each season is better than the last. Their use of natural fibers, with colors derived from nature, bring a timeless feel to truly unique designs. Often the edges are left purposefully unfinished, as if they have been frayed by time and use. We can’t wait for you to see what we’ve picked from this line for Spring, and Fall 2025 as well. Rounding out our visit to SHWRM Show, we check out the line La Vaca Loca from Greece, as well as the Danish merino sweater group By Basics. Both lines will be making an appearance in GoodWood come fall. 

2 p.m.
The afternoon finds us returning to the Starrett-Lehigh Building for the Designers & Agents trade show. In an almost endless maze in the all white interior of this building, we place a fall order with Diega. This line will be making its GoodWood debut this spring with a playful line of suiting that combines two distinct, opposing style ideas - tailoring and vintage folklore. The result is a delightfully androgynous feeling to the more traditionally masculine realm of suiting. We hope you will find it as fresh and exciting as we do.

We also place an order with our friends at iLD jewelry, another GoodWood fan favorite. We find a new vendor for hand-knit winter hats, gloves, and mittens to round out our day. 

We then take a detour to Chelsea Market for some oysters, and then dinner at Hav & Mar on 11th Avenue. Hey, a girl has gotta eat, and we’ve walked miles in the cold today.

Tuesday, February 18, 2025

It’s time to head back to the Javits Center, this time for Coterie and Magic, the epically large apparel trade shows. Coterie is typically curated for women’s apparel stores, while Magic is a little more juniors/young adults-oriented.

11 a.m.
We have an appointment with Kozan, one of two lines designed by Melis Kozan in Turkey. This delightfully playful line of contemporary fashion for women has amazing fabrics that wear and travel well, all at a friendly price point. Kozan for Spring has already begun to arrive at GoodWood, with more to come in the fall. 

We then pay a visit to our friends at Bitte Kai Rand, a long-time GoodWood line from Denmark. Bitte Kai Rand has been in business since 1981 and is well known for their fine fabrics and timeless designs that hold up season after season. If you own their “Magic Pants”, you know what we mean.

Finally, we manage to place an order for more winter accessories with a vendor from Spain, Santacana Madrid. We first brought them to GoodWood this winter, and have been pleased with the quality and price point of the line. We weren’t the only ones delighted by their offerings, and their booth is quite crowded. 

2 p.m.
It’s time for yet another walk down very windy 11th Avenue, this time all the way down to Chelsea for the Brand Assembly Show on West 22nd Street. This show has grown by leaps and bounds, from 2 floors of vendors last September to 4 floors this time. It’s a very quirky show, but has the BEST swag for buyers (other shows should take note).

Here we buy from Bel Kazan, a line we carried in the past that we have re-introduced over the last year at GoodWood. This socially-conscious line is designed by Belinda Kazanci, as she splits her time between Bali and Los Angeles. Her fabrics showcase the beauty of methods like batik and block printing, and the fabrics highlight her environmental commitments, like organic cottons and Tencel fibers.

We head back to the hotel until it’s time for our final dinner in NYC.

***

Wednesday, February 19, 2025 

11 a.m.
We catch the train on Wednesday morning and hit Union Station at 2:30 p.m. We’ve walked miles, had our senses overloaded multiple times, were almost blown down by wind gusts on 11th Avenue, and ate and drank at some truly delicious places.

While we can’t wait for you to see what we picked for the store for Fall/Winter 2025, we also can’t wait for you to see what we picked last September that’s just starting to arrive in the store now.

Stay tuned as we highlight those new arrivals in the coming weeks on our Instagram account @goodwooddc!  

P.S. If you were worried you didn’t see Kim Schalk mentioned here, don’t fret. The first of two shipments for spring from Kim is due in the store in mere weeks, and she came directly to GoodWood to show us Fall 2025.