At the Rio convention center, women’s fashions and accessories reign

This week, the Rio’s convention center is a woman’s paradise.

Imagine hallways lined with the latest spring and summer fashions and accessories, leading the way into ballroom after ballroom filled with brightly colored clothing and jewelry for a wide variety of tastes.

For the 13th year, Women’s Wear in Nevada has taken over.

Owned by Las Vegan Roland Timney, the WWIN show is open to industry only and runs through Thursday. Timney, who was born and raised in Nevada, started the show with his partner, Jeff Yunis, at the Tropicana in 1998 with 250 booths. In 2013, 850 booths featuring 1,500 lines make up the WWIN show, which is held twice a year. Timney’s convention targets specialty stores across the U.S. that sell women’s wear.

“We’re a sold-out show every single time. The show for August will sell out in April,” Timney said.

Before starting a trade show for the fashion industry, Timney served four years in the U.S. Navy, was a hairdresser, repped for the clothing line Gunny Sacks and owned a blouse manufacturing firm.

“Somebody I knew in Las Vegas wanted to start a women’s apparel show,” Timney explained.

Thus, the Women’s Apparel Vegas show was created, and in 1998, Timney and Yunis created WWIN.

“In the fashion industry, it was almost unheard of to have shows for women’s clothing in Las Vegas at the time,” Timney said.

Today, WWIN is a part of Las Vegas fashion week, which includes a handful of other shows targeted to the fashion industry. On the show floor , lightweight goods and cottons are presented in abundance, as the fashions are meant for spring and summer.

At Doreen Yankou’s booth, flowing whites and creams dominated the color scheme of her blouses in the Whitewash and High Tea lines.

On the first day of the show, she opened five new accounts, which Yankou said is not typical — sometimes it can take a year.

“Yesterday was a great day,” Yankou said. “I think things are definitely on the rebound.”

At Eliot Whittall’s booth, highly decorated hats in bright colors covered every available inch of wall. His company, Whittall & Shon, has sold hats for more than 30 years to attendees of the Kentucky Derby, churchgoers and women everywhere who want to add a little flair to their ensemble.

“A lot of these ladies, they want to outdo each other,” Whittall said of his customers.

Prices for his hats range from $42-$75, and sales have been “really good.”

“Like anything else, if you can make it a little bit less expensive, you can sell more,” Whittall said.

Lior Paris’ owner Ajit Datwani has been exhibiting at the WWIN show for 12 years.

“We do very well in Las Vegas,” he said.

This year, Datwani said traffic has been steady and buyers seem most interested in his colorful women’s tops and bottoms.

The next WWIN show is set to take place Aug. 19-22 at the Rio.

Contact reporter Laura Carroll at lcarroll@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4588. Follow @lscvegas on Twitter.