Manila FAME April 2019 Opens Today

Manila FAME, the country’s premiere sourcing destination for home, lifestyle and design products is slated to open today, April 25 at the World Trade Center Metro Manila in Pasay City and will run until Saturday, April 27, 2019.

Organized by the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM), the export promotion arm of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the three-day event will champion Filipino ingenuity as it highlights globally competitive products from more than 300 exhibitors. Industries featured are furniture and furnishings, home accents, gift items, festive season décor, fashion accessories and wearables, handwoven and converted items, interior and architectural components, and visual arts.

The exhibitors this edition are a diverse mix of industry veterans and upcoming, aspiring enterprises. There will also be 36 foreign exhibitors in this edition coming from Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Cambodia, Timor Leste), China and India.

The show is expecting thousands of local and international trade buyers as over 900 buyers already signified their attendance. This presents an increase of 27% from last year’s buyer count, with the pre-registration rate normally accounting for just 30% of the actual buyer attendance. More are anticipated to come at the actual trade fair with the United States, Japan, Australia, United Arab Emirates, and France as the top vising countries this edition.

What’s Fresh at the Manila FAME April 2019 edition

For the first time, the Manila FAME, tapped some of the country’s rising online fashion entrepreneurs and designers to showcase the latest trends in both couture and ready-to-wear (RTW) fashion. The show gathered 22 online businesses in the Fashion E-Tailer special setting not only to entice the young and tech-savvy fashion enthusiasts but to level up its online promotion initiative.

Heritage Reimagined takes centerstage this April

To commemorate over 30 years of cultural inheritance and to prepare the groundwork for the 70th staging this October, the trade show took on a nostalgic theme this April. Manila FAME will present the most iconic and forward-looking pieces from the past and infuse them with the vision of the new to create an exciting collection that honors a legacy of design excellence.

“We looked at the best products from the past and gave it a modern flair through our new breed of designers that were very keen to help us this edition,” said CITEM Executive Director Pauline Suaco-Juan.

To follow through with this endeavor, CITEM invited design, fashion, editorial and entrepreneurial luminaries within the creative community to sit as consultants and product developers for the Design Commune. The team is expected to lend a fresh perspective to Manila FAME.

The Design Commune special setting is now on its fourth run in Manila FAME. Leading the thematic showcase of ‘Heritage Reimagined’ is creative director Vince Uy. For this April, it will feature products from 115 Philippine brands and manufacturers that have undergone product development and curation to meet the aesthetics and demands of the international market.

The product development designers who are involved in this edition are Stanley Ruiz for home and lighting; Nix Alañon for furniture and lighting; André Chang for fashion; and PJ Arañador and Maco Custodio for the home and fashion sectors of the Artisans Village.

These designers have established formidable names in the design and lifestyle sectors and now they are giving back to their community by helping MSMEs go further in the international market.

Manila FAME, a signature event of the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions, is one of the longest running trade shows in the Asia Pacific and is the only trade event in the Philippines approved by Union des Foires Internationales (UFI), the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry. Held biannually every April and October, the Manila FAME covers the home, holiday and fashion sectors.