PARIS — Première Vision is betting big on beauty.
The industry trade show is expanding beyond fashion sourcing through a strategic partnership signed by its parent company, GL Events Fashion Division, with Cosmetic Valley, as fashion brands increasingly look beyond apparel for higher-margin categories and new revenue streams.
The collaboration will bring the cosmetics industry network into Première Vision’s ecosystem, starting with the September edition of Première Vision Paris. The two organizations signed the agreement Thursday.
The trade show will debut a dedicated Cosmetics Village, bringing together a selection of “Made in France” beauty companies offering services ranging from fragrance and makeup development to contract manufacturing, packaging and white-label production.
The initiative is designed to connect fashion brands with beauty suppliers at a time when many labels are looking to diversify their product offering beyond ready-to-wear.
“We’ve been working on how to support fashion companies in their diversification strategies and help them identify new growth opportunities,” Première Vision chief executive officer Florence Rousson said. “Beauty quickly emerged as a natural avenue to explore.”
While fashion and beauty have long overlapped, the partnership reflects growing interest from a wider range of brands looking to expand into adjacent categories without building in-house expertise from scratch.
As fashion companies navigate slowing consumer demand, rising costs and pressure on profitability, beauty has become an increasingly attractive extension because of its typically higher margins and ability to deepen customer engagement.
“Both industries are also looking at business model diversification to unlock new sources of growth and develop higher-margin products,” Rousson said. “That made this partnership and collaborative approach seem particularly relevant.”
The initiative builds on early experiments carried out over the past two editions of Première Vision with nail polish manufacturer Fiabila, which Rousson said secured commercial agreements with fashion companies it would not otherwise have met, making the case for an increased beauty presence at the show.
Fiabila will return, while the new exhibitors are expected to include bespoke fragrance specialist Créassence; Delbi Cosm, which specializes in fragrance manufacturing and packaging, and Laboratoire LBP, an R&D laboratory focused on natural cosmetics, among other “Made in France” companies.
Rousson stressed that the move does not signal an expansion into the beauty trade fair business. Cosmetic 360, held each October in Paris, remains Cosmetic Valley’s flagship innovation-focused trade fair for the cosmetics sector, and the exchange will hopefully go both ways.
“The aim is both to inspire fashion companies attending Première Vision and, if it proves relevant, perhaps also to enrich Cosmetic 360,” Rousson said. “The objective is really to combine our respective areas of expertise.”
“The real objective is to think strategically about the future and identify long-term opportunities for collaboration between our two industries,” added Cosmetic Valley CEO Christophe Masson.
Rousson and Masson emphasized that the two industries face many of the same structural challenges, including innovation, international expansion, industrial transformation, sustainability and traceability, and the partnership is part of a broader push to reinforce French industrial competitiveness and the international reach of its creative industries at a time of intensifying global competition.
Beyond the pavilion, the organizations plan to develop conference programming, trend content and networking initiatives that can bring together companies from both sectors. Première Vision’s in-house trend team, which develops seasonal color palettes and forecasting for the fashion industry, will also “adapt” that work for cosmetics.
Although the first edition will take place in Paris, Rousson said the concept could eventually be extended to Première Vision’s international events in North America, including New York and Montreal, as well as Asia, depending on market demand.
For Première Vision, the partnership signals an evolution in its role as it aims to become a platform that helps brands identify new categories, new partners and new avenues for growth as the boundaries between fashion and beauty continue to blur.
“Première Vision is not becoming a cosmetics exhibition,” Rousson said. “It’s about creating opportunities that make fashion brands more competitive.”
She added that the partnership is designed to be flexible, and apply learnings to launch new events or themes as they go.
“These are two industries that evolve incredibly quickly,” she said. “We’re convinced we’ll continue discovering new opportunities that benefit both industries.”
