Achieving new goals is a mantra for Rick van Rijthoven, founder of Modefabriek show in Amsterdam 30 years ago and CEO since March 2026.
“For every problem there is a solution. And the more complex and difficult the challenge, the more fun I like it,” explains the entrepreneur. Though, most of his daring projectss become true by working with a team. “It’s not about who you are, but whom you know”–hence why he recently hired new young professionals to start his next most ambitious plans from scratch.
Van Rijthoven founded the Dutch contemporary apparel trade show Modefabriek 30 years ago. Despite being one of the four shareholders, he remained in the shadow since then. Only in March 2026 did he decided it was time to change direction. Therefore, he and his business partner, Lucel van den Hoeven, bought 100% of the company and acquired all the quotas they previously shared with the other partners. Then, as he became CEO of Modefabriek Group, he started to redesign it completely and focus on other smaller shows, too–Shift, Chapter and Denim Days.
Why did you decide to buy Modefabriek and manage it?
I decided it after 30 years I had founded the show–and the market and the world have changed so much, especially in the last five-six years. What I’m now doing is making our company organization more efficient and also bringing in young, and new positive energy by hiring some young and smart professionals involving them with expert insiders, too.
What we are doing now with Modefabriek now is a complete restyling. We want to approach it as a startup and are going to bring in the quality back from the past.
As its name literally means, “Modefabriek” stands for “fashion factory” in English, but, unfortunately, the “factory” feeling is gone because now what we only see are the commercial brands.
How will you proceed?
We want to bring it back to the old days when it all started, when people visited the show and young designers started participating in it. It was here where new collaborations and ideas started.
We want to show retailers–who are now our main and exclusive visitors–how you can grow from a fashion store into a concept store, and how to add more lifestyle to it.
That’s why we are now transforming the Modefabriek into a new luxury men’s and women’s trade show. We are also adding men’s fashion again because we want to offer a more complete selection for the retailers who come here to discover the hottest novelties.
How many exhibitors will Modefabriek host in the future?
We have halved the number of exhibitors from the 450 of the past editions to July 2026 with only about 220–which is around more than half of its capacity–on purpose. Since January 2025, we have also moved to a different and smaller location—Expo Greater Amsterdam. That’s why we cut its capacity by half. I think this is good because people don’t want to participate in too big events, anymore.
Why?
Today it is no longer the time for big events. It is like going to a disco with the wrong people. We prefer to organize more curated and much more special events focused on a certain retail group.
Of course we host young designers and talks, but we are also very careful about what we offer, because we want to have the quality of the Modefabriek of the past—differently from the last years when we opened our doors to everybody.
Now we want to take it back again. And it’s not about money, but it’s about feeling, fashion, and about bringing the industry together.
Despite we were still we successful, in this time you need to change and make clear to everybody who you are, what you’re doing through storytelling.
Who owns the show now exactly?
We are still privately owned. It’s juts me and my business partner. We have no investors.
We decided to change because we feel that some people didn’t recognize themselves anymore in Modefabriek the way it had become. Likewise, we want to make sure that people come back again, get inspired, and discover new brands, new talents, and designers.
Also, hospitality is a key aspect. We want to pamper the retailer that will become one of the pillars of the show. We want to pamper them, they must feel welcome, for instance, with an clear direction indications, free parking spaces, easy registering, free drinks, free food, and so on.
We must recall retailers again. In recent times they don’t come to events anymore because they get the information everywhere, from Google Ads to social media. So you have to think of new ways to attract them, have them visit the show, and connect with the right brands and the right retailers at the right moments.
We believe in making smaller shows and creating more events. We are breaking our events into different categories aimed at specific customers, like groups of retailer groups, but also for consumers. For this we are focusing on four different events.
Can you tell us about them?
What we are doing with Modefabriek, we are also doing it with smaller events like Shift, which is mostly focused on denim and streetwear, and Chapter, an event focused on the German retailers.
What about Chapter?
This new show’s name is Chapter. It will take place near Frankfurt, in Offenbach, at Fredenhagen, in an old factory, and is planned for 10 and 11 February 2027. It is going to take place a little bit later than people expected. We chose that timing because we want to create a show for international brands that want to enter in the German market. But our aim is mostly to offer occasions for matchmaking, for getting inspired, and not for starting writing orders immediately. Our aim is to build a community and create a curated event, not for everybody, as we only have 85 booths.
We skipped locations like Berlin or Düsseldorf because they belong to trade shows that are gone. Instead, we wanted to create something new and that didn’t exist yet.
Chapter is like a small Modefabriek. We called it this way because we wanted to set a new start, literally a new chapter of history involving companies mostly from Northern Europe and Germany. We also aim to focus on the right target group of retailers by using Hyperscout, a special software and AI-based system that connects the right retailers with specific brands. Pitti Uomo already uses it; the same is doing Modefabriek and so will happen with Chapter.
Could Chapter also happen in other countries in the future?
Yes, we could also eventually export it to other countries whenever we saw a similar potential of growth as in Germany.
How is Shift changing?
That show is taking place on one day only. The next edition will happen in Kromhouthal, in Amsterdam, on January 4, 2027, before Pitti Uomo. That show is meant to present only premium jeans brands, streetwear, and that kind of contemporary fashion brands. For instance, there you can find the Lee 101, and the Wrangler Bluebell, but also Replay and G-Star’s higher-end lines.
Shift is really is growing into a more culture and a community experience. That’s why we don’t want to open it for everybody. We want it to host only 80-85 brands and make it small, special, curated, and selected.
We are not doing this because we are arrogant, but we want don’t want that brands from other segments damage the feeling you can breathe there. In fact, at Shift we are bringing another vibe, another customer, and other retailers.
To keep its identity focused, we have also hired Wikash Mahangoe, a long time expert of the authentic jeans and streetwear segment brands. He is now in charge of the whole concept for Shift. He is the one who is in charge of the selection of the brands that exhibit, of the show’s whole branding, communication, and exhibitors’ selection.
You have spoken about a fourth show. What is it?
It Denim Days, a B2C event. It is already existing. It was part of the House of Denim organization, and now we have bought it.
Is it the event usually taking place at the end of Kingpins Show?
Yes. Exactly. There are two editions happening in Amsterdam, and there have also been editions in New York and Nashville, to name a few examples. That was a licensing agreement started when Andrew Olah owned Kingpins.
When will we see the first results of your acquisition?
We will work on Denim Days in 2027. It will continue to be a consumer-focused event.
We are a very interesting collective event organization that manages different events catered for specific users–Modefabriek for concept stores, Shift for premium denim and sportswear insiders, Chapter for the German market, and Denim Days for consumers.
It’s important not to mix too different insiders’ groups It’s like when you want to go to a bar where really nice people are all together and you want to be part of it. But when it’s too big and you mix different groups together that doesn’t work.
So it’s good that you keep separate different kinds of attitudes to style, to image, product and the way you sell. Smaller events have a more special character. It’s the same with the department stores: they are having problems as they are offering so much, but too much from nothing.