California Apparel News

There was little consensus at the recent Los Angeles Market Week, except for one thing: There was a lot going on.

Newness prevailed, according to sales representatives and designers who said new lines and new locations helped draw buyers.

Hopes were high going into this market week. Retail sales—particularly for the contemporary category—have been rising in recent months, and many reps and designers have recently returned from strong trade shows in New York.

And the Spring market week is typically the strongest market in Los Angeles. The Oct. 31–Nov. 4 market was no exception, although this time there were more players. New temporary shows hosted events, and several existing temporary shows boosted their presence during the week.

In addition, there was competition in the form of two formal fashion weeks—IMG’s Mercedes-Benz Shows L.A. and Smashbox Studios’ Smashbox Fashion Week. There were also many independent fashion-related events held around town before and during market week.

At the California Market Center, attendance was up dramatically. According to building executives, the CMC boasted the highest attendance for any Los Angeles Market Week in the past six years, with a 24 percent increase over last November in total attendance and a 14 percent increase in new retail companies in attendance. Director of Retail Relations Cecil Strickland attributed it to the CMC’s marketing efforts. “We made a concerted effort to identify retailers not in our database that have never attended a CMC market and that we have the right product mix for,” he said.

Executives at The New Mart reported a 20 percent increase in traffic over the same period last year, although Designers & Agents—often the big contemporary and young designers draw during slow markets— reported a decrease in the number of buyers that turned out for its show.

Immediate business

Buyers are proceeding cautiously into Spring, according to many reps. And many retailers are waiting as long as they can to commit to orders.

Customers today prefer a fast turn, said A.J. Cohen, owner of men’s and women’s specialty boutique Local Joe in Bend, Ore. Early buying can cause a retailer to invest in a trend that never materializes.

Cohen planned a lean inventory for Spring by focusing mainly on knit tops and denim bottoms.

Jennifer Humphries, West Coast sales manager at French Connection, said the traffic on the CMC’s fifth floor was steady but buyers seemed to display a “cautious approach.” She said a variety of skirt styles were leading Spring sales in her showroom, including embroidered A-line skirts and pleated miniskirts in bright colors.

Some said buyers placed orders for denim styles for December and January, hoping to get a head start on Spring, while others said buyers placed immediate orders to replenish their fall inventories.

Mixed traffic reports

Despite the reports of high attendance at the CMC—not to mention the jam-packed parking garage—many market exhibitors said traffic was slightly off. Some related stories of buyers who canceled their flights because of the firestorms in Southern California. Others said their retailers were cutting back on their purchases overall.

“It’s a business of peaks and valleys,” said Henry Dietz of Dietz Associates, who showed in the Pacific Coast Travelers trade show in the CMC, where exhibitors reported sporadic traffic.

Still, buyers from some key retailers came to The Intersection of the Los Angeles Fashion District—The New Mart, the Cooper Design Space, the Gerry Building and the CMC at the corner of Ninth and Los Angeles streets—to scout out new lines. Among them were Neiman Marcus, Macy’s West, Bergdorf Goodman, Harrods in London, and Ron Herman at Fred Segal Melrose, H. Lorenzo, Theodore and Mushi Mushi in Los Angeles.

Many exhibitors at The New Mart, where the occupancy rate is at 100 percent, said traffic was good despite the reports of low buyer turnout.

Kathy Walker, owner of Kathy Walker Sales on The New Mart’s fifth floor, said business was good at her showroom, which offers apparel and accessories by T-Bags, Suss Designs, Priorities, Belka, Alice & Trixie, Horn, Pretty in Punk, Cali, Tulula, Huzzi and Red Haute.

Walker showed Alice & Trixie’s draped silk halter tops and pleated skirts with a montage of iron rose, paisley and polka-dot prints to buyers from Nordstrom’s Savvy department and Macy’s West.

More D&A

Women’s contemporary trade show Designers & Agents, previously held just on the third floor of The New Mart building, has expanded its territory to include the second and 11th floors of the Cooper Design Space.

D&A co-producer Ed Mandelbaum said the trade show’s exhibitor list has almost reached its membership limit of 200 exhibitors; currently, there are 184 exhibitors in the show. This year’s attendance, however, was about 22 percent lower than last year’s, said Mandelbaum.

“Business is good in both venues, but traffic is off due to the firestorms,” he said. “The national media coverage of the fires has chased buyers away, but they’ll be back in January.”

New exhibitors included Deborah Hampton, Terre & Mer, Mixx, Palmer Jones Pink Label, Habitual, Katharine Hamnett London and Sigerson Morrison. Exhibitors presented whimsical and elegant silhouettes made from denim, silk chiffon and pin-striped fabrications.

Sales rep Jeremy Lindberg, whose Seven Showroom in New York was part of D&A’s lineup, commented on how designers were keeping their lines unique by experimenting with different fabric combinations, putting tulle panels on leather miniskirts and patent-leather piping on silk georgette dresses.

New players

The two newest players on the block were the Cooper Design Space and the Gerry Building.

The Cooper Design Space continued to expand its contemporary offerings with newly constructed showrooms on the second floor. Buyers filed into the building to view contemporary lines by a handful of permanent and temporary exhibitors.

Rosalie Rosenberg, owner of Bodhi Bazaar, a better contemporary womenswear boutique in Santa Fe, N.M., was seen cherry-picking lines in the Showtime Showroom, which carries lines by Biscote Paris, Blithe, Dead Sexy, Jack & Jinger, Michelle DeCourcy, Olivia A Couture, Confidential, Bolsa, Choosi, L Jeans and Vanity Couture.

Rosenberg is planning to increase her Spring inventory by 25 percent with new denim styles by Adriano Goldschmied.

Showtime Showroom owner Henry Abeger wrote several orders for his new denim line, Le Temps Des Cerises, which bowed during market. The line features men’s and women’s rigged denim with novelty washes.

Traffic at the Gerry building was still low, although showroom reps remained very positive about the growing recognition of the building as a buyer’s destination.

Some buyers remained price-conscious, according to Roberta Cysne of Estudio 055, an eight-month-old showroom that carries Brazilian brands, including Spezzato and Parresh. Still, the sales rep said she wrote a few orders for new accounts during the market week.

Meanwhile, Mark Encinias, owner of the Blue Print showroom, said his lines got great reactions from several Asian buyers and distributors, who placed orders for Scam-Co., a new T-shirt line that features vintage comic-book graphics.

Newness springs up at CMC

Brighte Companies, the new contemporary show held Oct. 31–Nov. 3 at the CMC, opened with moderate to brisk traffic. But, more important, it made a strong impression with buyers and set the stage for future growth.

Staged by New York–based ENK International in the CMC’s fashion theater and exhibition hall, Brighte Companies featured about 100 contemporary apparel, footwear and accessories lines from mostly East Coast resources. Some came to test the waters while others continued their association with ENK, which had previously put on the Pacific Champions show at the CMC.

This effort was more ambitious. ENK took additional space in the lower-level hall of the CMC and brought aboard emerging designer lines such as Los Angeles–based Kate O’Connor and East Coast designers including Vivienne Tam, as well as a blend of European collections.

As it does at its Fashion Coterie show in New York, ENK went all out on ambiance. Hors d’oeuvres were served throughout the show, and buyers took breaks on brightly colored modern furniture next to a lemonade bar. The exhibition space was bright white with a yellow motif.

“There’s a buzz about this place,” said Zenith Arreglado, vice president of sales for New York–based Peter Nygaring;rd Signature.

Exhibitors said they experienced off and on traffic and mostly quality attendance, including buyers from stores such as Neiman Marcus.

“We’ve been attracting some nice customers,” said Nicole Bouthot, senior account executive with Vivienne Tam. “It’s less hectic here and easy to do business.”

Buyer Georgian Wong of Bel Air Weekendz said she was impressed with the variety of selections as well as with the show’s atmosphere.

The offerings ranged from casual jerseys and T-shirts by Los Angeles–based contemporary men’s and women’s label Eisbar to sophisticated lacquered polka-dot stretch dresses from New York–based Glamour Toujours. Bouthot of Vivienne Tam showed chiffon dresses embellished with ancient Chinese watercolor floral prints, as well as 3-D herringbone knit dresses.

Knitwear maven Kate O’Connor found that her signature knit ponchos fit in well with West Coast women even in the warmer months. “You can just throw it on, and that’s what women here like,” she said.

O’Connor also showed lace pieces in coral shades, as well as striped knits in oranges and greens.

Some, such as New York–based T-21, chose Brighte Companies to debut new lines while others, including Glamour Toujours, tried to reach more West Coast buyers. Meanwhile, Alice + Olivia, a former D&A exhibitor, chose the event to show its expanded selections.

Rory Tahari’s T-21 features sport-inspired transitional pieces that could be worn day and evening, said sales representative Ashley Neglia of the Joanne Fiske showroom at The New Mart. Among the items Neglia showed were tailored slacks and polished-cotton jackets along with a number of other pieces made from sport fabrics.

Alice + Olivia moved well beyond its signature pants collection to include minis, cashmere and chiffon tops, as well as stretch-cotton pants.

Abridged Agenda

This market also saw the debut of Agenda, a young men’s and young contemporary trade show typically held as a satellite show to the Action Sports Retailer Trade Expo (ASR) in San Diego.

In San Diego, Agenda had about 70 exhibitors, according to Aaron Levant, who organized the show with Luis Pullido. This time, Agenda featured an abridged exhibitor list of about 36 lines, including Stussy, 55DSL, Fresh Jive, Grnappletree, Looseleaf, Lithium and Zoo York. Exhibitors set up in a raw space on the eighth floor of the CMC, where graffiti artists painted a mural on one wall and a deejay kept the mood mellow.

“We are really happy with the show—we met a lot of surf-and-skate customers,” said Levant, noting that buyers from Tilly’s, Val Surf, Active, The Closet, Hot Topic and Becker Surf turned out for the show’s Oct. 31–Nov. 2 run.

Levant and Pullido said they plan to return to the CMC for the Fall market in April and want to continue participating in just the CMC’s Fall and Spring markets for now. “Maybe we will plan some fashion shows for the smaller markets—just to get the word out,” Levant said.

Designer Mona Freaka of Irvine, Calif.–based young contemporary line Megami Boogie previously exhibited her 1-year-old line at ASR in San Diego in August but made the switch to Agenda when she heard it would be exhibiting during Los Angeles Market Week. “I wanted to be part of market week— not just part of a trade show,” she said.

Grnappletree rep Jeremy Davis was similarly interested in participating in market week. “It’s good for a lot of these brands to be associated with the [CMC] and fashion week,” he said.

Davis said that although walk-in traffic was slow, he met a few new stores and had scheduled appointments with retailers before the show. “At the Agenda show in San Diego, I had tons more walk-throughs, but I wrote more orders this time,” he said.

Retailer Kero Kogo said he heard that Agenda would be at market and dropped by the show before making the rounds at the other showroom buildings. Kogo is president of Long Beach, Calif.–based West 21 Inc., which owns Krow, a boutique in Long Beach that carries young men’s and some women’s apparel.

This was the first time Sean Whorton, a buyer for Irvine, Calif.–based Tilly’s, had shopped Agenda, and the trade show was the only stop he planned to make while at market.

“We’re taking a look to see who’s out there,” he said. “It’s a good forum—really laid-back.”

—Alison A. Nieder also contributed to this story.Sweet, Sexy Spring

Despite wildfires that plagued Southern California, Los Angeles Market Week was n full bloom with new trends and optimistic forecasts for Spring.

So what’s the flavor of Spring? All things sweet and elegant with a classic vintage touch.

Seemingly, contemporary apparel businesses are ready to move away from athletic styles and take their chances on clean, colorful floral and paisley prints, poplin dressings, A-line skirts, fitted suits and elegant sweaters, according to exhibitors at the five-day market that closed Tuesday.

But, it’s not all sweetness and light. Several manufacturers restructured their lines to include halter, off-the-shoulder and one-shoulder styles. And the market has not completely dismissed its bread and butter: denim.

Several exhibitors and retailers placed bets on cutting-edge accessories to drive sales during the Spring months. Leather handbags with cutout astrological symbols and personalized initials, plastic jelly bags in sleek, sophisticated styles, and wide leather belts paired with delicate dressings were just a few novelty looks shown for Spring. —C.F.