Lost in the gift fair labyrinth...

Team Vilain Boutique had a rather exciting excursion out of the office last week. We went to our very first "industry" trade fair at Jeff's Shed and the Graham Centre (another huge aeroplane hanger-type building in Port Melbourne). The theme was loosely gifts and homewares but it pretty much included everything from camping thermoses to Russian Babushka dolls to imported Indian throws and everything (and i mean EVERYTHING) in between. On the whole we really enjoyed the sense of exclusivity that comes with wearing a barcoded lanyard around your neck. You're not allowed to take photos in there so this is a photo off the Gift & Homewares Australia website (I think it might be from the Sydney show though...):

We were also decked out with fancy red show bags that came in handy for holding the 3,753,037 leaflets and pricelists and product ranges that every single stall holder at both venues gave us. It was a bit like when you go to yum cha, everyone says be a bit discerning pace yourself and don't feel you have to sample everything all at once... but you always do and then three hours later you're stumbling around the never-ending isles of stalls feeling like you're trapped in a labyrinth except everything you see is wholesale prices and it's like you've been on a Christmas shopping expedition for four days straight.
We saw lots of great little items that we want to offer in bedroom, bathroom and kitchen bundles. Lots of great children's wear and accessory brands that might only be stocked in a few shops around Australia. We're pretty keen to add kitchen-themed products to our range, and we ordered some samples of aprons, table cloths and tea towels and now delivery men keep arriving at our office with boxes of goodies and it really does feel like Christmas...
We're currently trying to sort through the multitude of pamphlets we collected at the fair so if anyone has any products they'd like us to pursue and maybe offer in our shop please tell us!