MAGIC — Las Vegas Fashion Trade Show

MAGIC is one of the largest and longest-running fashion marketplaces in the world. Every February and August the fashion industry gathers in Las Vegas for the MAGIC Marketplace — at its height a portfolio of ten expertly merchandised and curated shows across every category, trend and price point, and the most comprehensive destination for fashion buyers and brands anywhere. Thousands of retailers, from single-store boutiques to mass-market domestic and international chains, come to shop men's, women's and children's apparel, footwear and accessories, and to source fabrics and manufacturing services on the same trip.

The name is an acronym with a history: MAGIC began in 1933 as the Men's Apparel Guild in California, an association of Los Angeles area menswear manufacturers, and it has grown with the industry it serves — adding women's apparel, children's wear and a global sourcing show along the way. Today the marketplace is staged by Fashion by Informa, part of Informa Markets, with MAGIC, PROJECT, SOURCING and OFFPRICE co-located at the Las Vegas Convention Center; the announced 2026 editions run February 17–19 and August 10–12, 2026.

From the Men's Apparel Guild in California: A Brief History of MAGIC

MAGIC was founded in 1933 as an association of Los Angeles area menswear manufacturers, known first as the Men's Wear Manufacturers of Los Angeles. In 1942 the association produced its first show, the Roundup, in Palm Springs, California, and began producing market weeks in Los Angeles the same year. Boyswear was officially added to the shows in 1946, and in 1948 the membership — by then reaching beyond Los Angeles — voted to form a corporation under the name Men's Apparel Guild in California: MAGIC.

The growth of MAGIC mirrored the growth of the California apparel market. In 1979 the show opened its doors to manufacturers worldwide, and in 1989, outgrowing Los Angeles, it relocated to Las Vegas. Women's apparel arrived in 1995 with the introduction of WWDMAGIC, a joint venture with Women's Wear Daily, and in 1997 MAGIC purchased the Children's Trade Expo and launched MAGIC kids. By 2005 the marketplace occupied nearly one million square feet of exhibit space at each show and attracted over 95,000 attendees from around the world — buyers and sellers of men's, women's and children's apparel and accessories converging twice a year for one of the most influential business events in the fashion industry.

Ownership: Advanstar, UBM and Informa

In 1998 MAGIC International was acquired by Advanstar Communications and became a wholly owned subsidiary of Advanstar Communications, Inc. Advanstar went on to acquire the POOL Trade Show and the Project Global Trade Show in 2005, building the portfolio that became MAGIC Market Week alongside PROJECT in New York, while MAGIConline.com became the digital home of the Advanstar Fashion Group, including the ENK International family of shows.

On October 1, 2014, Advanstar announced it would be acquired for $972 million by London-based UBM plc, and the business continued as UBM Advanstar within UBM Americas. UBM itself later became part of Informa, and the fashion shows today sit within Informa Markets' Fashion by Informa portfolio alongside COTERIE, PROJECT and OFFPRICE — the same marketplace, under the industry's largest events organizer. The show's earlier web home, MagicOnline.com, now directs visitors to the current MAGIC event site, carried in References & Further Reading below.

The Portfolio of Shows: WWDMAGIC, PROJECT, POOL, FN Platform and More

MAGIC was never a single show floor. In its Market Week form it presented ten unique shows in a single setting, catalogued in MAGIC Trade Shows August 2014: PROJECT for men's and women's premium denim and advanced contemporary collections, with THE TENTS @PROJECT for curated designer collections; ENKVEGAS for women's advanced contemporary; the MEN'S show for classic menswear, young men's and licensing brands; MVMNT for youth culture and street fashion; and POOLTRADESHOW for art- and design-driven emerging and independent brands.

Alongside them stood FN PLATFORM for branded footwear for men, women, juniors and children; WWDMAGIC for women's sportswear, contemporary, outerwear, eveningwear, activewear and swim; WSA@MAGIC for fast-fashion footwear; and SOURCING at MAGIC for the supply side of the industry. Together the ten segments covered apparel, footwear and accessories for men, women, juniors and kids — which is why a buyer could treat one Las Vegas trip as the season's whole market visit. WWDMAGIC also travelled: in July 2014 it joined WHO'S NEXT in Paris to build the bridge between European and American brands — see WWDMAGIC at Who's Next Paris. In today's line-up, MAGIC Las Vegas is the premier women's fashion event — trend, young contemporary, contemporary and modern sportswear, footwear and accessories, plus home, gift and beauty — while PROJECT carries the men's premium contemporary marketplace and SOURCING carries the supply chain.

SOURCING at MAGIC and fabric at MAGIC: The Supply Side

The fabric side of the marketplace is SOURCING at MAGIC: North America's largest and most comprehensive sourcing event, reflecting the fashion supply chain at its most complete, with contract and original-design manufacturers, fabric and trim suppliers, print design studios and service providers from dozens of countries. Its Matchmaking Service helps brands navigate the show floor and connect with exhibitors who meet their specific sourcing and production needs — down to finding the right clothing factory or the right fabric.

Sourcing has always carried an education and sustainability strand. For August 2014 the show built an 'All About Denim' focus around eco-sustainable denim manufacturing: Jeanologia installations demonstrating waterless, laser and ozone wash technologies, Cotton Incorporated's Cotton University, and exhibits running from fiber to fabric to finished garments, alongside the wider discussion in Reducing the Textile Industry Environmental Footprint. That strand continues in the current SOURCING program, which pairs the manufacturer floor with education on technology, sustainability and fashion entrepreneurship.

MAGIC University, Seminars and Learning at the Show

MAGIC has long treated education as part of the marketplace: its seminar program brings in forecasting and industry leaders — sessions at the February 2016 marketplace, for example, came from WGSN, Fashion Snoops and the Women in Footwear Industry, covering everything from trade agreements to the future of menswear and the challenges of footwear retail. The same season's floor held more than 6,500 brands, and the sourcing matchmaking consultants worked the show in person.

In February 2015 the show extended that idea online with MAGIC University, described at its launch as the first retail education portal in the fashion industry: a free digital resource authored by MAGIC executives and leading retail experts for retailers, buyers, marketing professionals and fashion entrepreneurs, opening with five tracks — Retail Experience, Social Media, Trends, Consumer Demographics and Sustainability — with new content added quarterly. The February 2015 Las Vegas marketplace itself is previewed in MAGIC Fashion Event February 2015.

Attending or Exhibiting at MAGIC Today

MAGIC remains a working, order-writing marketplace: brands exhibit to reach a global audience of retail buyers, from big-box chains to single-store boutiques, together with influencers, media and industry thought leaders, and buyers attend to preview the coming season's collections. If you are exhibiting, the choice of segment matters as much as the booth: MAGIC, PROJECT and SOURCING each draw a different buyer, so place the line where its customer actually shops.

Event dates, venues, exhibitor lists and registration are set by the organizer and change from edition to edition. The Las Vegas editions are held at the Las Vegas Convention Center — the announced 2026 dates are February 17–19 and August 10–12, 2026, with MAGIC, PROJECT, SOURCING and OFFPRICE co-located — so confirm the current edition's details on the official MAGIC website before booking travel or shipping samples. The Apparel Search archive follows the show across the years, from the Three Day Show Format for MAGIC Marketplace announcement to the story of how the FBI Partners with MAGIConline for MAGIC Prep School.