This February saw us head over once again to the adult theme park that is Las Vegas for the Liberty Fairs tradeshow. We have now got the show and the trip dialed in, as we enter our 4th year of doing the US shows. So naturally, less than 2 hours after stepping off the plane I was in bed (4.30pm to be precise) and slept like I was dead until late that night. This is the best thing I’ve ever done since doing these trips. As long as you get up, head out, eat good food and go back to bed you are pretty much set in terms of adjusting the time difference.
Then you have more energy for working on the guns in the morning, chatting shit and working in the day, smashing wealthy Chinese gamblers on roulette in the evening, and then getting chucked out of any bar or club that will let you in during the night. As long as you’re tucked into bed to get your 7hours of sleep, you can rinse and repeat every day you’re there. Magic. Everyone will think you are a non-stop fucking party machine…when the reality is the complete opposite.
Anyway, we were there to work so we set a booth up, steamed some clothes, stole hangers using our regular hanger scam (don’t worry we put ‘em back) ate ice cream, and pretended we knew what we were doing. If you pretend, then everyone believes you, and you sell more clothes.
I can’t knock Liberty. At a time when tradeshows, in general, are getting it in the neck for being out of date, these guys consistently draw in the very best brands and the very best stores, so even though footfall was down on previous seasons we still wrote a ton of business and that’s saying a lot.
We met some great new stores and always get to hang out with new and interesting people and in the US that’s pretty much all that it’s about. Big shouts to Monty from Criminal Damage who needs as many friends as he can get at the moment, but is fun to travel on a plane with, Yaniv from Editorial Boutique and Elo from Dr. Denim- straight up my favorite person I’ve met at all the shows. 4 days is more than I can take in Vegas so we packed down the booth on the last day, rented a car and headed South to LA and the next leg of making KING the number 1 British street fashion brand across the pond. Watch this space cos it’s happening…