2003 in Review
It was a year of independents.
The economy showed its first signs of recovery in rising retail sales, and independent designers and retailers took advantage of the good retail news by launching lines, opening stores or staging fullscale fashion shows during Los Angeles Fashion Week.
It was a year of transition.
California importers faced new procedures and new scrutiny on goods entering the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles. Manufacturers and textile companies prepared for the elimination of quotas on goods from China in 2005 by educating themselves about doing business in a quota-less world and by forming strategies to compete with the coming flood of Chinese goods.
It was a year of challenge.
California businesses watched workers’ compensation insurance costs rise as lawmakers proposed measures that would require employers to offer health insurance to all workers and their dependents.
It was a year of departure.
Several longstanding California manufacturers and retailers closed their doors, bowing to pressure from offshore competition and new nimble players in the market.
It was a year of success.
California’s fashion industry and many of its designers were in the spotlight all year as Los Angeles Fashion Week grew to include nearly 100 runway shows and welcomed the addition of IMG’s Mercedes-Benz Shows L.A. and Smashbox Studios’ Smashbox Fashion Week.
January
Huntington Beach, Calif.–based surfwear giant Quiksilver Inc. files a complaint against Los Angeles juniors manufacturer Kymsta Corp. regarding Kymsta’s use of its brand name Roxywear, which Quiksilver argues is too close to its own Roxy brand. Both companies claim first use.
Shareholders of South Windsor, Conn.–based Gerber Scientific Inc., parent of apparel technology provider Gerber Technology Inc., drop a class-action lawsuit against the company. The shareholders’ complaint stems from Gerber’s announcement that it would restate 2001 earnings and take a $12 million charge for inventory.
Los Angeles–based lingerie maker Frederick’s of Hollywood emerges from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Multi-use office/retail project The Plaza at Sunset Millennium opens on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, Calif., with retailers O, Boudoir by Undercover and Madison.
Los Angeles designer Reneacute;e Bardot opens her second boutique on Brighton Way in Beverly Hills. Bardot opened her La Brea Avenue store in 1999.
Los Angeles–based e-tailer Babystyle celebrates the late- 2002 opening of its first retail store with a grand-opening party at the boutique in Manhattan Beach, Calif. The company also announces plans for a maternity activewear line, produced in partnership with Reebok International.
Miami-based shoe designer Donald J Pliner opens a store on Camden Way in Beverly Hills. This is Pliner’s sixth U.S. store.
Smashbox Studios proposes it will host an alternate venue for Los Angeles Fashion Week in April at its Culver City, Calif.–based photography studios.
The Association of Textile Dyers Printers & Finishers joins the California Fashion Association to take advantage of the CFA’s networking services.
The California labor commissioner orders Foothill Ranch, Calif.–based teen retailer The Wet Seal Inc. to pay $90,000 in overtime back wages and penalties to four workers employed by one of the retailer’s contractors to produce clothing under the Wet Seal label.
Van Nuys, Calif.–based Cherokee Inc. signs a five-year licensing agreement with Oxnard, Calif.–based Gilrichco Brands LLC to produce several brands under the CL Fashions trademarks, which include Carole Little, CLII, Saint Tropez West, Chorus Line, All that Jazz, Tickets and Molly Malloy. Cherokee also announces plans to distribute Carole Little clothing in TJX Companies’ T.J. Maxx and Marshalls stores.
The Tarrant Apparel Group completes its acquisition of a twill mill in Tlaxcala, Mexico, from Trans-Textil International.
Bentonville, Ark.–based retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc. opens its first central Los Angeles store at Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza.
William Beranek, designer of the William B. label, leaves the label he founded in 1990 to launch a new line called deb-el-yuuml;.
Cargo pants are the hot item and immediate deliveries are in high demand at the Jan. 17–22 Summer market in Los Angeles.
Los Angeles designer Freddie Rojas leaves Los Angeles–based contemporary label Private after a little more than a year with the company. Rojas plans to relaunch his Rojas label and retain ownership of the Private boutique on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles.
February
The United Kingdom–based Daily Mail Group, co-producer of the Los Angeles Gift and Home Market, purchases a significant share of the California Market Center in Los Angeles.
The Dallas Market Center announces plans to close its Dallas Apparel Mart and open a new space, Fashion Center Dallas, in the Dallas World Trade Center. The move would bring apparel, jewelry, gift, home furnishings, floral and temporary exhibition space under one roof.
The Action Sports Retailer Trade Expo hosts its last Long Beach, Calif., show before permanently relocating both of its biannual shows to San Diego. ASR also picks up a satellite show, Agenda, which features independent designers in a nearby venue.
New York–based Nautica Enterprises Inc. moves its Earl Jeans division to New York. Nautica purchased the Los Angeles–based contemporary denim label in early 2002.
The Coalition of Los Angeles Designers joins the California Fashion Association and announces plans to co-host a series of business seminars aimed at contemporary and independent designers.
Struggling juniors retailer The Wet Seal Inc. fires Chief Executive Officer Kathy Bronstein, who had been with the Foothill Ranch, Calif.–based company since 1985.
Los Angeles–based CAD/CAM provider Tukatech Inc. opens its first TukaCenter, a CAD/CAM rental and training store, in Guangdong, China. The company already has TukaCenters in Los Angeles, Canada, the United Kingdom, India and Korea.
Long Beach, Calif.–based menswear retailer Mr. Rags files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and announces plans to shutter 14 of its 114 stores immediately.
New York–based streetwear brand Fubu purchases a controlling interest in Los Angeles–based streetwear label DrunknMunky.
MAGIC International prepares to launch the Sourcing Zone, a pavilion of representatives from 200 overseas factories, at the Feb. 18–21 run of the giant trade show in Las Vegas.
January retail sales reports are mixed. Specialty stores, including Gap Inc. and Pacific Sunwear of California Inc., post double-digit increases in samestore sales, while off-pricers, such as The TJX Companies Inc. and Ross Stores Inc., and department stores—including Dillard’s Inc., Federated Department Stores Inc., and Sears, Roebuck and Co.—report decreases in same-store sales.
Inclement weather on the East Coast delays the arrival of some visitors to MAGIC International in Las Vegas, and buyers remain cautious in their buying during the Feb. 18–21 run of the trade show. Buyers navigate MAGIC’s two venues and the six satellite apparel shows held simultaneously in Las Vegas.
Apparel contractors who made William B. merchandise for the Los Angeles–based Royal Apparel Group seek more than $50,000 in payment for sewing work completed for Royal Apparel. Fashion District Dallas, a wholesale-mart project in Dallas, launches. The project, rivaling the Dallas Market Center’s World Trade Center plan, hopes to lure wholesale showrooms to its downtown location.
March
The Rodeo Drive Committee announces plans to revamp the famous shopping boulevard in Beverly Hills and add a “Walk of Style” to honor international fashion designers. The first recipient of the honor is Giorgio Armani.
Los Angeles–based juniors line Ace Ross Studios is purchased by Brandon Beak, a former vice president with Los Angeles– based BLSA, which makes private-label apparel for the juniors market. Beak plans to change the company name to Rag Studio.
Open-air shopping boulevard Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, Calif., signs leases with Levi Strauss & Co. and Victoria’s Secret, filling spaces left vacant by small, independent boutiques.
Garment makers, including Russell Athletic and Hanes, adopt a tagless technology that replaces the woven tags inside garments with permanent tagless labels that use a heat-transfer process.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection tests a new rule that requires exporters to file a detailed cargo manifest electronically with U.S. Customs at least 24 hours before shipping goods to the United States. Importers complain the adoption of the Container Security Initiative causes many shipments to arrive late to ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif.
Los Angeles–based Applied DNA Sciences Inc. works on an application for its patented embedded- DNA authentication technology that could help customs officials identify counterfeit goods and track the country of origin of imported goods.
Retailers report lower-than-expected sales in February because of a blizzard in New England during the crucial Presidents’ Day sale weekend.
Representatives of the California Market Center, The New Mart, the Cooper Building, the Gerry Building and Designers & Agents launch a marketing effort to spotlight the apparel business conducted in the heart of the Los Angeles Fashion District. The campaign brands the hub of Ninth and Los Angeles streets as The Intersection.
The Manhattan Village Shopping Center in Manhattan Beach, Calif., is renovated with a beach-like ambience that includes overstuffed rattan chairs and couches, an overhead skylight, and light, bright interior colors.
Liz Claiborne Inc. purchases Los Angeles–based Juicy Couture for more than $88 million. The deal adds another California brand to the New York apparel maker’s stable of subsidiaries, which also includes Lucky Brand Dungarees and Laundry by Shelli Segal.
April
Security and technology issues top the bill at the International Sourcing, Customs, Logistics Integration Conference, hosted by the American Apparel and Footwear Association and held March 27–28 in Long Beach, Calif.
IMG, the producer of New York’s 7th on Sixth shows, stages the first Mercedes-Benz Shows L.A. at the Downtown Standard Hotel in Los Angeles, and Smashbox Studios hosts the first Smashbox Fashion Week shows at its facility in Culver City, Calif., during Los Angeles Fashion Week.
Micromini skirts are among the trends sent down the runway during the March 30–April 8 run of Los Angeles Fashion Week. Other runway trends include nostalgic looks inspired by the ’60s, ’40s and ’30s; coat styles ranging from trench coats to car coats; slim pants; capes; bomber jackets; suits; and pleated skirts.
San Diego–based swim maker Vix Swimwear Inc. reaches a private settlement with the Minneapolisbased Target Corp. over trademark and copyright infringement regarding a swimsuit featured in a Target ad. The suit, called the “Vix” suit, featured detailing similar to that of a suit in Vix’s collection.
Los Angeles designer Charlie Lapson receives the best-of-show award at Fashion Week of the Americas, held March 19–22 in Miami Beach, Fla.
The Los Angeles–based Tarrant Apparel Group acquires an exclusive licensing agreement with Los Angeles–based retailer American Rag CIE to design, produce and distribute a line of American Rag clothing.
Brooks Brothers opens a 22,000-square-foot store on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, taking a spot that formerly housed the Tommy Hilfiger store.
Several Los Angeles apparel companies cancel planned trips to China and Hong Kong after the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), a mysterious flu-like illness rapidly spreading in Asia and Toronto.
Italian label Cerutti hires Los Angeles designer David Cardona to head its women’s label. Cardona will continue to design his own collection and will split his time between Los Angeles and Milan.
Stores report lagging retail sales in March thanks to cool weather, a late Easter and war in Iraq.
California politicians propose new legislation that would require companies to provide health insurance coverage for their workers, but employers—particularly small businesses—are worried about the added costs.
Los Angeles–based contemporary designer Corey Lynn Calter becomes the first recipient of the Moss Adams Fashion Innovator award at a presentation following the California Market Center fashion show during Los Angeles Fashion Week.
Ralphs Grocery Co. signs a lease to occupy a 50,000- square-foot space at Ninth and Flower streets in downtown Los Angeles, an area adjacent to the Fashion District. The supermarket is expected to open in early 2005.
Paul Frank Industries Inc. announces plans to open a store at upscale Costa Mesa, Calif.–based shopping center South Coast Plaza later in the year. This will be the Newport Beach, Calif.–based company’s eighth store after the opening of a store in Chicago in May, and its first mall-based store.
Los Angeles–based e-tailer E-Style Inc. opens its second Babystyle boutique at Fashion Island in Newport Beach, Calif.
The first run of Sew Down—a music, fashion and technology show—bows at Qtopia in Hollywood at the close of Los Angeles Fashion Week. About 1,700 attendees shop, dance and take in a fashion show featuring men’s and women’s apparel from independent designers.
May
California importers brace for shipping-rate hikes of up to 40 percent on goods coming from China.
The Los Angeles International Textile Show includes more than 600 fabric lines. Featured are Texitalia, a collection of representatives from Italian textile mills, and the French Pavilion, which includes several French textile collections.
Los Angeles–based girls’ apparel maker Guild Inc. sues the J.C. Penney Co. Inc. for copyright infringement and unfair business practices regarding the retailer’s use of a floral screen design that appeared on girls’ tank tops.
Developers drop the proposed Fashion District Dallas project, an apparel showroom proposal that provided an alternative to the Dallas Market Center’s World Trade Center plan.
Sneaker giant Nike Inc. becomes embroiled in a first amendment lawsuit with implications for apparel industry advertising. The suit stems from Nike’s efforts to respond to charges that the company manufactured its products in overseas sweatshops.
The Newport Beach, Calif.–based Hopkins Real Estate Group purchases the Southbay Pavilion shopping center in Carson, Calif., for $34 million. The group announces it will renovate and enlarge the 937,000-square-foot center.
St. Louis–based Kellwood Co. acquires the license to produce sportswear, dresses and intimate apparel under the XOXO brand.
Cleveland-based developer Forest City Enterprises, San Diego–based Corti Gilchrist Partnership and the Finley Group announce plans to build a $300 million mall called the Simi Valley Town Center in Simi Valley, Calif.
Long Beach, Calif.–based retailer Mr. Rags announces plans to liquidate inventory and close its 63 stores, including its 21 stores in California. The 18-year-old chain sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January and could not secure financing or find a buyer for the business.
Orange County–based tween chain Girl Mania Inc. files suit against The Wet Seal Inc., alleging that the Foothill Ranch, Calif.–based teen retailer copied Girl Mania’s store concept for its Zutopia stores. The suit names Zutopia President Susan O’Toole as a defendant. O’Toole had been a consultant with Girl Mania before she joined Wet Seal’s Zutopia unit.
Fashion Business Inc., the Los Angeles– based nonprofit group for start-up and growing apparel companies, moves into its newly renovated 5,000-square-foot designresource center in The New Mart building in downtown Los Angeles.
Many retailers report lower-than-expected sales in April, citing continued economic uncertainty and chilly weather during the Easter holiday.
Two Southern California malls are sold. Passco Real Estate Enterprises Inc. purchases the Puente Hills Mall for approximately $148 million, and The Mills Corp. purchases the Del Amo Fashion Center mall for $440 million.
A retail employee at a Chico’s FAS Inc. store in San Francisco sues the Fort Myers, Fla.–based retailer over its policy of requiring sales associates to wear the company’s clothing while working.
Calabasas, Calif.–based misses manufacturer John Paul Richard shops for licensees for its contemporary denim line, Fever Jeans. Fever founders John Cherpas and Kellie Delkeskamp have left the company to launch a new contemporary label called Grass.
June
Korean American Garment Industry Association President Sam Kim and KAGIA members form a private insurance company to lower the workers’ compensation insurance premiums paid by KAGIA members.
Apparel companies cautiously resume travel to Asia in the wake of the SARS health scare.
Retail buyers and apparel representatives are encouraged by signs of economic recovery at the Fall II/Holiday market in Los Angeles, where buyers place orders for immediate goods and novelty items.
Laundry by Shelli Segal opens its Los Angeles flagship store at the Beverly Center.
The Fashion District Business Improvement District (BID) secures approval from the Los Angeles City Council to renew its BID contract for the next five years. A rival group, the Apparel District BID, had tried to gain the contract, arguing that the Fashion District BID did not give property owners enough of a say in how money was spent in the district or in how board members were elected. City Council member Jan Perry helped arbitrate the dispute between the two BID groups.
An alternative retailer opens in the Echo Park district of Los Angeles. The Kids Are Alright has a scholastic theme and carries apparel by Citizens of Humanity, CNC California, Corey Lynn Calter and Edward An.
Three California apparel makers file petitions against Clothestime to force the Anaheim, Calif.–based retailer into involuntary bankruptcy. Rigo International Inc., Ms. Bubbles and Big Six Fashion say the retailer owes them more than $700,000.
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge rules in favor of Cherokee Inc. in the Van Nuys, Calif.–based company’s dispute with Mossimo Inc. regarding Cherokee’s 15 percent stake in Mossimo’s licensing deal with Target Corp.
DMG World Media takes over day-to-day management of the California Market Center after the building refinances the complex with CDC Mortgage Capital Inc.
Several California college students file a discrimination suit against New Albany, Ohio–based retailer Abercrombie & Fitch. The students claim the retailer discriminated against non-whites in its hiring and scheduling practices at several California A&F stores.
Three California companies are named in a smuggling complaint. The complaint claims that Key Delta International Co., Friends Trucking and New East Inc. diverted apparel en route to Mexico to the United States without incurring the required duties and that the apparel ended up in retail stores.
The Craig Realty Group purchases the Citadel Outlets in Commerce, Calif., for $53 million. The group plans to renovate and expand the 403,000-square-foot outlet mall and office park.
July
The San Pedro Wholesale Mart, several buildings that house wholesale apparel companies just east of the Los Angeles Fashion District, attracts mainstream buying with its cashand- carry, trend-driven juniors merchandise.
Richard Tyler is honored at Fashion Business Inc.’s annual fund-raiser, where attendees take in a fashion show featuring Tyler’s Fall 2003 collection for his secondary label, Tyler.
MAGIC International announces plans to launch a fabric show, fabric@MAGIC, at its biannual apparel trade show in August.
Los Angeles–based teen retailer Forever 21 Inc. buys the assets of bankrupt retailer Reference Clothing Co., with plans to convert some of the 14 Reference stores to Forever 21 stores.
The proposed Museum of Fashion Designers and Creators receives a $30,000 grant from the city of Los Angeles to preserve some of the museum’s 250,000 garments and memorabilia currently in storage. Organizer and fashion designer Irene Kasmer looks for a permanent home for the collection.
Bentonville, Ark.–based retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc. asks its top suppliers to adopt radiofrequency identification technology (RFID) by 2005. RFID uses radio waves and global positioning systems to track pallets, case packages and individual garments, eliminating the need for hand scanning or machine scanning of bar codes.
ENK International, producers of the Fashion Coterie show in New York, announces plans to stage an expanded trade show at the California Market Center during Los Angeles Fashion Week in November.
Specialty retail chains, big-box discount chains and highend department stores report strong sales in June.
Action Girl Sports—a trade show that features makers of action-sports apparel, equipment and accessories for women—bows at the Long Beach Convention Center in Long Beach, Calif., with high energy but a sporadic buyer turnout.
Vernon, Calif.–based BCBGMax- Azria strikes an exclusive distribution agreement with the J.C. Penney Co. Inc. for BCBG’s Parallel label.
Beads, rings, buckles, belts and zippers are among the trends for swimwear seen on the show floor at the Miami Swim Show.
August
California manufacturers grapple with escalating workers’ compensation insurance prices and seek ways to hold down the rising costs.
New hardware and software applications for the apparel industry spark interest in technology. Technology providers are enthusiastic about the upswing after experiencing a difficult 18 months.
The Los Angeles City Council ratifies the five-year plan submitted by the Fashion District Business Improvement District.
Hollywood & Highland, the 2-year-old open-air mall in Los Angeles’ Hollywood district, boosts traffic with a series of promotions, including free and low-cost shuttles to the nearby Hollywood Bowl and Pantages Theatre, where the Tony-winning musical “The Producers” is playing, and a free open-air evening performance called Vox Lumiere, which blends silent film clips, rock music and live theater in the mall’s central courtyard.
Buyers place fill-in orders to spice up lean inventories at the Fall/Holiday market in Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles Fashion District takes on a new look as importers, textile businesses and other post-production outfits move into buildings that formerly housed cut-and-sew operations. A similar shift takes place in San Francisco’s garment district.
Real estate developer Brook Partners Inc. and a group of Dallas-based showroom owners propose the Fashion Industry Guild, a second attempt at an alternative to the Dallas Market Center’s World Trade Center plan.
Los Angeles–based denim maker Tarrant Apparel Group looks for a company to manage its operations in Puebla, Mexico. The private-label jeans maker wants to continue producing in the facility but no longer wants to run day-to-day operations.
The U.S. Department of Labor recovers nearly $400,000 in overtime back wages from nine garment manufacturers in Saipan, part of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The labor department has been investigating charges of noncompliance with federal wage and hour laws in Saipan factories for four years.
The United States strikes trade agreements with Chile and Singapore that will go into effect in early 2004, but the agreements are not expected to have a significant impact on the textile and apparel industry in California or the rest of the country.
The California Resort Show, a trade show featuring 150 apparel and accessories vendors, bows at the Queen Mary in Long Beach, Calif.
Contemporary and young designer trade show Designers & Agents announces plans to add several men’s lines to its Japan show lineup in October.
Jack Henry, a by-appointment-only boutique carrying oneof- a-kind or nearly one-of-a-kind “street couture” merchandise, opens on Kings Road in Los Angeles.
Buyers from Saks Fifth Avenue host an “Open See” event in the retailer’s Beverly Hills store to scout for new Los Angeles designer and contemporary lines.
Fox Network’s new nighttime drama “The O.C.” features Orange County apparel lines. The stars show off Southern California style thanks to costume designer Alexandra Welker.
Huntington Surf & Sport opens the first Hurley International boutique in a 578-square-foot space inside the HSS store in Huntington Beach, Calif.
Buyers navigate nine apparel-related trade shows and 10 venues in Las Vegas as MAGIC International attracts eight satellite trade shows. The shows include Pool, Westcoast Exclusive, Women’s Wear in Nevada, the ASAP Global Sourcing Show, the Off-Price Specialist Show, the International Apparel Show, the International Swimwear/Activewear Market and the International Western & English Lifestyle Market.
California legislators debate three bills that would require employers to provide health-care coverage for their employees.
September
More than 700 workers at Los Angeles–based Tarrant Apparel Group’s factory in Ajalpan, Mexico, file registration papers with the local labor board to form a union.
Los Angeles–based designer Jared Gold sells his company, Black Chandelier Inc., to Salt Lake City–based Nexia Holdings, a diversified management company. Gold, who severed his partnership agreement with Gardenia, Calif.–based California Concepts, moves his company, which produces the Jared Gold and Black Chandelier labels, to Salt Lake City.
Buyers are upbeat and busy shopping amid more than 700 brands at the Action Sports Retailer Trade Expo in San Diego, which draws roughly 7,000 registered buyers.
Retailers report strong sales in August. Brisk Back-to- School sales contributed to an overall 5.1 percent sales gain during the month.
Customs officials at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif., investigate claims that goods from China are being transshipped to California via Russia.
Beaverton, Ore.–based shoe giant Nike Inc. agrees to pay $1.5 million to settle a case challenging the boundaries between commercial speech and free speech. The suit, filed by a San Francisco activist, stemmed from Nike’s efforts to address charges that the company manufactured its products in overseas sweatshops.
Quotas are in short supply as the 2005 deadline for the elimination of quotas for China, a new World Trade Association member, approaches. In the past, importers could borrow against quota allotment from the coming year, but in 2004, there will be no quotas from which to borrow.
San Francisco–based denim giant Levi Strauss & Co. announces plans to shutter its remaining U.S. facilities by early 2004 and move all production offshore.
October
Beverly Hills investor Max Webb purchases the Glendale Marketplace in Glendale, Calif., for $43 million.
Department store buyers turn out for the Los Angeles Junior & Contemporary Majors Market ready to place Spring orders.
Morgane Le Fay opens a second West Coast boutique, on Brighton Way in Beverly Hills.
Retailers report the strongest sales of the year in September with discounters, high-end department stores and specialty chains posting the year’s highest gains.
The California Market Center hosts its first Urban/Suburban runway show during the trade show’s October run on the building’s fourth floor.
Traffic reports are mixed at the Los Angeles International Textile Show, where designers and piece-goods buyers race to see more than 350 exhibitors before returning to their preparations for the upcoming Los Angeles Fashion Week.
Two Southern California shopping malls announce they will be among the first in the nation to get their own power sources. Westfield American Inc., which owns 65 Westfield Shoppingtowns nationwide, finalizes a deal with Woodland Hills, Calif.–based RealEnergy Inc. to supply energy to 14 Westfield malls, including California-based Westfield Shoppingtown Santa Anita and Westfield Shoppingtown West Covina.
Alternative Las Vegas trade show Pool, which runs concurrently with MAGIC International, announces plans to move its February show to the Las Vegas Hilton––adjacent to the Las Vegas Convention Center, where MAGIC is held.
The California Market Center, in partnership with the California Fashion Association, debuts Technology by Design as part of the Los Angeles International Textile Show. The show, cosponsored by Microsoft Corp., FedEx Corp. and Southern California Edison, among others, features hardware and software providers for accounting applications, shipping management, inventory tracking, CAD equipment, Web technology, conferencing and sizing.
November
Los Angeles hosts more than 90 fashion-related events during Los Angeles Fashion Week, which includes Mercedes-Benz Shows L.A., Smashbox Fashion Week and several independent fashion events around town.
Marty Forshpan, who ran Los Angeles label B.U.M. Equipment for more than a decade before it went bankrupt in 1996, is accused of smuggling apparel from China. Allegations claim that goods headed for Mexico ended up in retail stores in the United States.
Calabasas, Calif.–based Gold Mountain Enterprises and RSB Holdings plan a $60 million mixeduse development project near the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, Calif.
The intersection at Ninth and Los Angeles streets in the Los Angeles Fashion District gets a new European look, as the crosswalks are revamped with a mosaic brick pattern in preparation for Los Angeles Fashion Week.
H. Sport, H. Lorenzo’s fourth retail store in the Los Angeles area, opens inside Sport Club L.A. in Beverly Hills. H. Sport owner Lorenzo Hadar also operates H. Lorenzo, H. Men and H. Shoes, all at Sunset Plaza in West Hollywood, Calif.
Retailer and designer Yana Khromova opens a second Yana K. store on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles. One store carries Khromova’s original designs, and the other carries a new youthful, athletic-inspired collection.
New York–based designer Nanette Lepore opens her first Los Angeles store on Robertson Boulevard in Los Angeles.
Buyers place cautious buys at Los Angeles Market Week, which vies for attention with the more than 90 fashion-related events held in town for Los Angeles Fashion Week. The market week features several temporary trade shows, including an expanded Designers & Agents, ENK’s new Brighte Companies, the Agenda alternative trade show and the returning Pacific Coast Travelers misses show.
Several Los Angeles–based textile companies look to Nicaragua for growth and take advantage of the country’s 67-cents-per-hour apparel industry average wage, the lowest apparel wage in Central America.
El Paseo LLC and Klaff Realty LP announce plans for a new upscale shopping venue, El Paseo Square, in Palm Desert, Calif. The center will feature a Bellissimo women’s boutique and a Four Seasons Swimwear.
Developer Mark Weinstein and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, with the help of Congresswoman Lucille Roybal Allard, announce plans to build a 420-space parking structure on Maple Avenue in the Los Angeles Fashion District.
Womenswear boutique Indi opens on Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood, Calif., with a selection of Italian labels, including Le Full, Le Complici, Cristina Gavioli and JJs.
The International Swimwear/Activewear Market confirms plans to move the February run of its Las Vegas trade show to Caesars Palace.
Ocean carriers discuss raising shipping rates by about 20 percent. The increases, which would be implemented next May, would follow last spring’s 30 percent increase.
Outgoing California Gov. Gray Davis signs several new laws that could affect the apparel industry by requiring companies to provide health insurance coverage to all employees and dependents, add minimum-wage guarantees to contracts, and adhere to new anti-sweatshop guidelines and penalties.
New York–based The Warnaco Group Inc. sells its A.B.S. by Allen Schwartz unit to A.B.S. founder Allen Schwartz and former Guess? Inc. executive Armand Marciano, who cofounded Guess in 1982 with his brothers, Paul, Maurice and Georges.
Fashion Business Inc. announces it will go to Hong Kong in January to participate in the World Boutique, a forum showcasing products and brands at Hong Kong Fashion Week.
Retailers report sales increases in October, but the rates of increase are lower than what retailers anticipated due to unseasonably warm weather in much of the country and Southern California’s concurrent wildfires and labor strikes.
Wilmington, Del.–based fiber and chemical company DuPont sells its Invista division, which includes textiles and interiors fibers such as the Lycra and Tactel brands, to Wichita, Kan.–based Koch Industries for $4.4 billion in cash.
Roberto Cavalli, Brooks Brothers, Tadashi and Zara are among the new stores at upscale mall South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, Calif.
Swimwear as sportswear, feminine ruffles, menswear details and fabrics, and ultra-short hemlines are among the trends on the runways during Los Angeles Fashion Week. Other trends include ’60s- and ’80s-inspired apparel, colorful shades and lots of white, a “nouveau peasant” look, and prim-and-proper schoolgirl and office styles.
The Fashion Industries Guild, the alternative proposal to the Dallas Market Center’s new home at the World Trade Center in Dallas, signs leases with several California companies, including Terry Sahagen Sales, Peter Rauch, Cynthia O’Connor, Federico Mariel, KLA/Laurie Hasson, Lerner Et Cie, Kathy & Jo and S. Collier.
December
Hurley International inks a licensing deal with Anaheim, Calif.–based Lunada Bay Corp. for the Costa Mesa, Calif.–based surf brand’s first line of juniors swimwear.
Joyce Azria, former designer of the BCBGMaxAzria swim line and daughter of Max Azria, launches her own contemporary line, Joyaan: Pret-APorter De Luxe.
Los Angeles–based Red Tiger Trading Co. kicks off its better urban men’s line Ever with a launch party at The LAB Anti-Mall in Costa Mesa, Calif.
Teddi of California shutters after several creditors force the company into involuntary bankruptcy.
Irvine, Calif.–based St. John Knits International Inc. and Tustin, Calif.–based Raj Manufacturing Inc. strike a long-term licensing agreement for a line of upscale swimwear under the St. John label.
In Memory
Helga K. Oppenheimer, designer for Helga Inc.
Walter P. Goldberg, sales representative and owner of Walter P. Goldberg and Associates Starring the Pink Lady
Emmanuel H. “Mannie” Fineman, founder of Hollywood Casuals
Stanley Hirsh, apparel industry executive, philanthropist and owner of the Cooper Building
David Rochlen Sr., founder of Jams World and Surf Line Hawaii
Brian Zeintek, founder of Beach Patrol and former executive at the Sirena Apparel Group and Patagonia
Herb Goetz, co-founder of Westcoast Exclusive and former manufacturer and independent sales representative
Patricia Fischer, founder of Lovin’ Enterprises, maker of lingerie, costumes and clubwear brand Dreamgirl
Robert “Robbie” Eisenberg, zipper manufacturer for Zabin Industries
Ann Kohl Meyers, former vice president of Allied Stores
