Right after getting back from Iceland, I dived straight into my job as a booth manager for googoo&gaga at Kleine Fabriek, a children’s trade fair at the Amsterdam RAI. I was completely exhausted, and I really don’t know how I found the energy to do all of this so soon after an active trip.
It’s a good thing the world of children’s fashion is colorful and whimsical. It made the surroundings so much more energizing and inspiring!
There were hundreds of exhibitors that weekend, divided into four sections: Object+ (home and gift items), Star (distinctive and high-end fashion brands), Industry (big, established fashion brands) and Blueprint (denim). It says a lot about how the Dutch dress their kids that there was an entire section dedicated to denim; kids’ style here is definitely very casual, rough-and-tumble and practical.
I didn’t get to browse much because I was busy working—trying to hook visitors into the booth with our 30-second “elevator pitch”, fielding questions from buyers, press, and fellow exhibitors—but you can just imagine how much color and creativity was buzzing in this huge hall that weekend. And this is only half of it!
Our booth was in the Star section was pretty simple, which I think was a good way to go about it. It allowed Googoo&gaga’s designs to really stand out… which they did! We had a lot of awesome feedback on the design aspect of the brand. We even had designers asking if they could buy adult versions of the shirts, which was pretty cool.
Still, sales isn’t an endless string of praise. Willem-Jan and I also had to listen to unsolicited opinions from buyers on everything from the pricing to the fabric (“Oh, we only stock 100% fair trade organic cotton”) to the finish of the special printing technique (“It looks like you washed it wrong”)… and deal with questions like “Was this made with child labor?” (Right, because all businesses in Southeast Asia work like that.)
It’s a good thing Angelique, Googoo&gaga’s partner in Europe, had prepared us for that. “Rejection is part and parcel of the selling game,” she wrote in her final brief before the show. “I never take ‘no’ personally and remember that doesn’t mean ‘no’ forever.” So true. In life and on the sales floor, you can’t please everyone… and I find the older I get, the less pleasing everyone matters to me.
Exhaustion aside, I had lots of fun and I would definitely do it again. If you want to see more of Kleine Fabriek, check out this video that they produced showing off the entire weekend. See if you can spot Team Googoo&gaga (my nails and Willem-Jan’s hair!) at 00:59.
