Axis: Catching Up With Vanessa Chiu At Our Fave Tradeshow
Forget the people who are into fashion—the women at Axis are the ones on the ground creating it. I barely grasped the concept of a trade show before (“what do you mean, you can’t shop?”). The concept of the trade show is to promote women and brands that are marketed towards women in cross-categories. Basically, this show is for women who do it all—they design their own clothes, they market themselves on social media, they brand themselves, and they juggle all this alongside maintaining a social life and staying healthy and educated. We chatted with Vanessa Chiu, the show organizer about her process of curating and what’s next.
This was the inaugural Axis show! How are you feeling about it—what do you think you’ll do similarly next year, what do you think you’ll change?
I feel very grateful for all the support & collaborations that took place at Axis. So thankful for the Axis team—hard work and passion in bringing the first of many shows. It was a great learning experience, where we were able to execute a mere concept that both intersected business and brand story-telling into an experience. It’s incredibly exciting to see our to-do list and the potential to exponentially grow.
How did you go about deciding which brands to choose?
Our sales team is made of the key demographic the brands we hand picked into the show. We are actually the brand’s consumer and shop the retailers the brands want to or already sell to. We will continue to update with our consistent global brand discovery and tweak brand selection based on the retailer asks and what is trending in the marketplace.
Is your background in fashion? What leads someone to organizing an event of this type?
I suppose you could say that. I spent almost a decade at Aussie progressive surf fashion lifestyle brand Insight as the U.S. PR and assisted in women’s sales. I’ve always loved building communities, drumming up energy around (like a crescendo), assisting story telling, and building platforms to deliver info. Being on the tradeshow side is incredible!
What are you most excited to do now that this is over? Any vacations in the near future?
I’m so excited and inspired to “make it better”. We feel the momentum. It’s not over. It’s just begun. My boyfriend and I are headed to Tokyo later this month, then heading overseas the following month in New Zealand.
The Axis team: Courtney Tuttle, Vanessa Chiu and Krystle Quilala
All photos courtesy of Vanessa Chiu
