Premiére Vision is a huge textiles tradeshow that happens twice a year each, in Paris and New York. There are talks about trending colors, materials, print & pattern, sustainability, and the show has a general theme. This year the theme was savoire fair — know-how, which is about retaining artisan skills to make carefully and thoughtfully crafted products. It's the antithesis of fast fashion. The show also features a pretty huge section showcasing the trends for the coming season with an in-depth display of fabrics and materials that attendees are welcome to touch, feel, and examine up-close.

Obligatory selfie in front of PV Paris.

You might be wondering why I chose to go to this show in Paris when it also takes place it New York, where I live. Well, I've attended the one in New York and it's a much smaller event. I'd heard how much bigger and more well-attended the Paris event is and wanted to see it for myself. Turns out, it's true.

The venue for Premiére Vision Paris is located in a convention center at Parc de Expossions Villepinte, which is outside of Paris and reached on the RER from Gare du Nord — it's the same train that will take you to the aiport. The space is Javits Center-massive and was completely filled with manufacturers for yarns, fabrics, leather, accessories, and anything you could want for your fashion business, as well as the rather large section reserved for textile design studios. It reminded me of Texworld that takes place in NYC at the Javits Center in NYC, but bigger and fancier because the manufacturers really took care in outfitting their booths in order to stand out. There were booths as far as the eye could see and the place was absolutely buzzing.

I made a bee-line for the textile designers area the morning of the first day of the show, just to see what the scene was like over there. It was pretty busy, though some booths were busier than others. Some of the busiest studio had stacks of designs for sale in various styles. I walked every row and scoped out every booth set up and took lots of notes on how the designers displayed their work for customers to peruse as well as the kinds of designs that were getting the most interest. Hand-painted designs were popular. Designers exhibiting at this show must come with at least 200 designs to sell that have not been seen anywhere else. Because of this, I will not be posting any photos of this area.

The Preméire Vision uniform featured this beautiful floral design by Deveaux

Most of the design exhibitors were design studios that employ multiple designers who create different styles giving the studio more range than a freelance designer might provide. Some studios displayed multiple designs on the walls of their booth while others opted for one huge mural. An American design studio (Moonshake Studio) particularly caught my eye with their mural of a poolside scene that was hand-painted in bright, saturated colors that was giving David Hockney vibes and very well done. Another studio chose to present their designs on kimonos that they hung on the wall. One of the busiest booths, a design studio from France (Créations Robert Vernet), had about 5 people working their booth and every person was occupied with a customer. I watched for awhile and it stayed that way for hours. #goals

After spending time in the Designers area, I walked the show floor. I saw fabric manufacturers from all over the world — Turkey, Portugal, Italy, the UK, India, France, Japan, Korea, and China. If there were any manufacturers from the US there, I did not see them.

A rainbow of fleece fabrics

That first day left me questioning whether or not I'd be able to make enough quality work to exhibit at Premiére Vision Paris in one year. I can't use any of my existing designs and any work I pitch to freelance clients can not be exhibited at Premiére Vision. Designing for pitches and PV while maintaining production for yarn&whiskey seems a bit daunting. Another thing that gave me pause — what if I end up making things that the buyers don't want? I also thought about the cost of outfitting a booth. Everyone's booth looked expensive. Since most of my work is digital and I don't really make huge paintings for the customers to flip through, I'd have to print my designs on fabric and I know from experience how expensive fabric printing can be. On the train ride back to Paris, I felt a little glum and defeated but by the time I got back to the 11th and finished lunch, I decided not to count myself out just yet.

I'll tell you what helped.

While I was at PV, I found Potterton Books, a bookseller from the UK selling rare and contemporary design books as well as vintage designs that buyers can license. I ended up buying the V&A Sourcebook of Pattern & Ornament. I opened it up and on the first pages are an interview with Alistair McAuley and Paul Simmons from Timorous Beasties. I don't think I've ever mentioned this before but those guys are kind of some my design heroes. They just make what they want to make, don't really follow trends, they lean into their style and they've found their customers. It took them awhile and along the way they've licensed designs for commercial use, but they've been successful while staying true to who they are. I am on the same journey and reading their interview at that moment felt like a message meant for me.

A colorful display of fans in the trend area

I had opted not to talk to any of the designers on the first day of the show, even if they weren't busy. I figured it best not to take up their time with questions on what would probably be their busiest day and resolved to come back on the last day. It was a lot quieter, but not crickets — buyers were still buying designs — a good sign, given the event was on day 3. Since it was quieter, I got up the courage to chat up Lucius Vilar, an independent designer from Brazil. He doesn't work with a studio and since I'm in the same boat, I thought he'd be a good person to interview. Lucius told me he made 250 designs in 6 months in order to attend this tradeshow and that he did this while having other jobs. He showed me a couple of designs that he'd made using the same motif but remade using a different style. It hadn't even occurred to me that I could reuse motifs in this way. Our professors at FIT never let us do that. But in the real world, it's allowed as long as the style is different. That piece of information alone made it clear to me that exhibiting at Premiére Vision Paris February 2026 is an attainable goal. I did not ask if he'd had a good show in terms of sales, but he seemed pretty happy and upbeat about everything and he was very encouraging. He his big advice to me was to design faster. Being fast is key in this business. And as for my worry about making designs that buyers don't want, well, the whole point of going to a show like Premiére Vision is to learn about what buyers are likely to want and then design for that. Maintain my style and aesthetic, but take what I learned at the show and run with it. And besides, I'm sure all designers have that worry. Feel the fear and do it anyway, right.

So, I'm going for it. I just need to do the work and keep the right attitude and focus and I can get it done. To that end, I finally made myself a work schedule that includes design days, production days for yarn&whiskey, and R&D days for developing new products or trying new design techniques. I've been free-wheeling it for too long and it's time to implement a more regimented approach.

Obligatory shot of the Eiffel Tower as seen from grounds of the Musée du quai Branly, where I went to see the Golden Thread exhibition, currently on view

The financial piece is another matter. If I want my booth to stand out, it will be costly. When I closed the Patreon a couple of people asked how they can support my design work if they don't want to buy a project bag or scarf. In order to help finance my Road to Premiére Vision, I've set up a fundraiser on Ko-fi. Anything donated to this fund will be used to get me to Premiére Vision Paris 2026, looking like I belong there so I can get some new freelance design clients to support myself on the way to making yarn&whiskey a lifestyle brand that focuses on mood-lifting designs, craftsmanship, and sustainability.