Corporate Travel Management for Fashion and Retail

The womenswear shows move as a circuit: New York first, then London, Milan and Paris, in February and again in September, with Paris often running into early March and early October. Men’s collections show in January and June, with Pitti Uomo in Florence followed by the men’s weeks in Milan and Paris.

For buyers, editors and brand teams, that adds up to weeks of back-to-back cities. Because the order rarely changes, the travel can be planned as one long itinerary rather than four separate trips.

Book the whole circuit as soon as the official calendars are published. Hotels in SoHo, Mayfair, Milan’s Brera and the Quadrilatero della Moda, and Paris’s 8th arrondissement and the Marais fill quickly during show weeks, and rates rise sharply.

Beyond the runways, trade shows drive much of the industry’s travel. MAGIC in Las Vegas draws apparel and accessories buyers each February, Première Vision in Paris is a key fabric and materials fair for designers, and NRF’s Big Show fills New York each January for retail operations and technology.

Market weeks in New York and Los Angeles add regular buying trips. For each one, decide early who’s going, reserve rooms on cancellable rates, and build appointments into the same trip.

Sourcing trips go where things are made: silk around Como and wool around Biella in northern Italy, leather and footwear in Tuscany and northern Portugal, denim and knitwear in Turkey, and factories across India, Vietnam and China. Many need business visas and long ground transfers between production towns.

Samples and prototypes are valuable and often irreplaceable. Carry critical pieces in the cabin, keep invoices for anything bought abroad, declare purchases on return, and consider an ATA Carnet for commercial samples shown in several countries.

By planning the season, not the trip. Empyrean can map the show calendar a year out, secure hotels early in the right neighborhoods, route multi-city circuits, and handle sourcing trips with visas and ground transport sorted in advance.

At Virtuoso partner hotels in cities such as Paris, Milan and London, stays booked through an advisor typically come with daily breakfast, a property credit and an upgrade when available, which adds up over weeks on the road.