Five Minute Friday: The Trends Taking Over Trade Shows Right Now (And Why It's Working)

Boutique Chat

Ashley Alderson

Business, Marketing, Retail, Boutiquetips, Fashionindustry, Fashionbusiness, Entrepreneurship, Businessstrategy

5 • 853 Ratings

🗓️ 12 December 2025

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this Five Minute Friday, Samantha Conner continues our market conversation by diving into the actual product trends hitting trade show floors right now — and more importantly, how they apply across every retail category. From apparel to home + gift, children's, and even western, today's trends are crossing categories faster than ever.

You'll learn:

The bold color trends coming for 2026
The rise of faster trend cycles (every 8–10 weeks) and how to keep up without overbuying
How cost-per-wear and cost-per-use are driving smarter buying decisions
How pop culture moments are shaping what customers want next
Why quiet luxury is fading and maximalist, personality-driven style is back

🗓️ Download the 2026 Tradeshow Calendar: 2026 Tradeshow Calendar

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Whether you're an online retailer or you have a brick and mortar store, whether you're selling
0:05.0	home and gift or children's or women's apparel, whether you've been in business for years
0:10.0	or you're just getting started, you have found out that the lifeblood of your business is inventory.
0:15.0	So in this two-part series, we're going to take it all the way back to where that inventory comes from. Let's talk about markets. Let's talk about trade shows. In our first session, we're going to be breaking down the trends that are happening with the actual trade shows themselves. What are we seen as far as the cadence of shows, the things that they're offering, and how can you make a plan to go to the show that's going to get you the very best product.
0:38.3	In our second part, we're going to be jumping into the trends of the actual products themselves.
0:42.1	I'll be covering things that you need to know, whether you're selling apparel, home and gift, children's, even men's.
0:48.4	These are trends you don't want to miss.
0:50.2	Let's dive into it.
0:52.1	All right.
0:52.6	We're back with our market conversation. Part one of this series,
0:56.3	we dove deep into the conversations about what is happening at market. Why are there so many
1:01.7	trade shows? How do you navigate them? How can you choose which one to go to? And then how do you make
1:07.0	the most of it? And immersive experiences like education, taking tours with the
1:11.6	boutique hub, attending fashion shows. All of these things are adding to your professional
1:16.4	development as a retailer. Today I want to talk to you about the trends of the actual products
1:21.0	themselves. The most exciting and interesting thing that I've noticed across the past few years
1:25.8	is that there's a huge crossover movement.
1:28.3	So whether you are home and gift or apparel, whether you're Western or children's,
1:32.3	you are all tied very closely together. Although you may feel like, oh, I'm not like this group,
1:38.3	you're going to see more commonality now than ever before. So let's talk about some of the trends that are coming down the pipeline
1:45.1	and how they apply to each one of these groups. So first off, I want to talk about color. Bold, bright
1:52.2	color is going to be back again in 2026. Now, we've seen red coming for a while, and that's now
	...

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