Sur­tex is next week!
You are prob­a­bly all set, or maybe run­ning around to final­ize your prepa­ra­tions (A week before Sur­tex last year, I was still cre­at­ing new art…)
There are cer­tainly a lot of things to take care of before Sur­tex, and one of them is choos­ing what to wear. Every­thing else is more impor­tant, but you shouldn’t neglect the way you look at the show.
You will be mak­ing a first impres­sion on thou­sands of buy­ers; the bet­ter and more pro­fes­sional you look, the bet­ter that first impres­sion will be.

Here are 9 out­fits that I put together on Polyvore last night, as a Sur­tex inspi­ra­tion. They are exam­ples of what I think is suit­able to wear at the show.
The hours are long and you will be stand­ing most of the time. Clearly, the pri­or­ity is to wear com­fort­able clothes and shoes. I wore shoes with heels in my booth and had flats in my purse for when I walked the show.

Click on each board to see the full size ver­sion and details of the pieces on Polyvore. You can also take a look at all the other sets in my pro­file here.


It is impor­tant to be your­self. Your art reflects who you are, and so should your out­fit. Keep it true and pro­fes­sional. How­ever, there are cer­tain DOs and DONTs that I think should be “uni­ver­sal” at the show…

Out­fit DOs and DONTs at Surtex:

- Fix your hair – Have nice and clean nails (there is a man­i­cure shop at every cor­ner in Man­hat­tan!) – Have good breath – Make sure all your clothes are ironed and don’t have stains

– Wear san­dals. Closed shoes look more pro­fes­sional in a work envi­ron­ment (or a tiny open­ing) – Wear jeans, unless it is a really nice pair, dark, and ironed – Wear dis­tract­ing items, like lots of necklaces/bracelets, lots of ruf­fles or busy pat­terns (I like to keep it solid)

Atti­tude DOs and DONTs at Surtex:

– Be nice, smile and wel­come peo­ple to your booth – Stand up when the alleys are busy – Get to know your neigh­bor exhibitors when the alleys are empty & offer to watch their booth if they have to step out a while – Have a con­fi­dent handshake

– Be too smi­ley, too cheesy, too chit-chatty and obnox­ious – Eat meals/sandwiches in your booth (unless the alleys are empty) – Talk on the phone in your booth (unless the alleys are empty) – Be impo­lite to artists who visit your booth. Tell them nicely that you have to take care of buyers

You should also be pre­pared for small unex­pected inci­dents. This is a list of use­ful things I brought to the show last year:

Spare shoes, Spare tights, Lint remover sticky rolls, Tide marker, Mints –espe­cially for cof­fee lovers, Com­pact mir­ror, Bite size cook­ies or some­thing small to eat if you don’t have time to have a meal when you’re hungry.

Last but not least, have fun at the show, meet awe­some peo­ple and good luck! I can’t wait to hear from you all after the show.

Click here to see a cou­ple of pho­tos from my booth at last year’s Sur­tex. Enjoy! ☮