California Apparel News

Two major showrooms are hitting the street in downtown Los Angeles’ Fashion District.

At The New Mart, two veteran showroom representatives are combining their efforts to move into the 15,000-square-foot space once occupied by Manufacturers Bank on the building’s ground floor.

Betsee Isenberg, owner of the 10 Eleven and Theory showrooms, and Kay Sides, a partner with Isenberg in the Hatch showroom, are combining their 10th-floor New Mart showrooms and transferring them to the street-level space the bank had occupied since 1976. The bank moved out on Oct. 31.

When renovations are completed in March, Isenberg and Sides will have one of the most exclusive showroom spaces in the Fashion District. The two plan to have a cafeacute; inside their space, as well as a small retail store. They hope to incorporate the bank vault into the showroom to display some of their jewelry and accessories lines, which include L. Frank Jewelry and Lena Wald Jewelry, Sides said. It will be the first streetlevel showroom ever at The New Mart, which first opened its doors to showrooms in 1983, when Esprit moved into the 12-story brick building located at 127 E. Ninth St.

“This gives us an opportunity to take our showrooms to a new level,” said Sides, who represents labels including Chip & Pepper, Mason, Tree and James Perse. “This will give the designers a little more identity.”

Meanwhile, The News, which has a decades- old showroom in New York’s SoHo district, is expanding and moving into a groundfloor space inside the Cooper Building, the 1927 structure located at 860 S. Los Angeles St. The new showroom encompasses about 3,500 square feet and is expected to open right before the April Los Angeles Fashion Week.

Currently, The News represents about 20 contemporary U.S. and European lines, although not all of them will be carried at the new Los Angeles showroom.

“Los Angeles has become a very important market, and I work more and more with Los Angeles designers,” said Stella Ishii, owner of The News, whose lines include White, Wink, Development and Habitual. “Los Angeles’ lifestyle and clothing are taking over the country.”

Ishii said she had been searching for a unique space that was different from any of the “cookie-cutter” showrooms she had seen. She found the ground-floor space off the Cooper Building’s lobby, which had been vacant for two years after women’s retailer Tabari (now closed) moved to a different location in the Cooper Building.

The two new street-level showrooms will add momentum to The Intersection, the combined effort by the California Market Center, the Gerry Building, the Cooper Building, The New Mart and Designers & Agents to establish a showroom hub in the Fashion District. —Deborah Belgum