Exhibition showcases the best in fashion and design

IRISH artists and designers are facing the challenge of finding ever craftier ways of attracting new customers as sales of their work take a hit on the international market.

Business generated by Showcase Ireland, the craft industry's biggest annual trade fair, fell for the second year running in 2003 and organisers warned yesterday that producers would have to become more competitive to prosper.

Crafts Council of Ireland (CCI) chairman Martin Walsh said that exhibitors had to attend to both the business and artistic sides of their workshops.

"The world that we are now in means that, as in other areas of economic activity, we need increasingly competitive design. We need a constant renaissance of ideas and design."

Tánaiste Mary Harney, who officially opened the four-day event, also stressed the importance of meeting competition head on. "The companies and countries that have the ability to convert new ideas into quality products at competitive prices are the ones that are going to succeed," she said.

Exhibition space sold out for this year's Showcase, which is promoting the work of 650 craftspeople working in wood, wool, silk, glass, leather and many other materials, with the aim of attracting orders from buyers from 30 countries around the world.

Figures for recent years show a drop in both sales and visitor numbers with sales falling from €49 million in 2001 to €40m in 2002 and €35m last year and visitors down from more than 12,000 to 10,000 in the same period.

Also a cause of concern for the CCI is the fall in the number of buyers ordering exclusively Irish products down from 33% of all buyers in 2001 to 24% last year. A trend has also emerged of buyers visiting the show only every second year.

The organisers are predicting sales to exceed €35m this year in what is the first year of a three-year plan to revamp the show and increase training and marketing events throughout the rest of the year.

One new initiative for this year's show is Index, a special awards scheme for the top 100 new products on show for the first time.

The first winner is textile designer Ciaran Sweeney whose hand-printed silk and velour drapes and capes have become a favourite with President Mary McAleese, The Corrs and Moya Brennan of Clannad.