Light Looks, Crowded Aisles at D&A

NEW YORK—Designers & Agents saw a 20 percent year-to-year increase in attendance at its March 1–3 run, held at the bright, lofty Starett-Lehigh Center in New York’s trendy West Chelsea district.

Organizers declined to give hard attendance numbers, but the aisles were crowded as buyers surveyed the offerings of 115 exhibitors representing 200 collections.

“D&A has always been good to us,” said Los Angeles designer Coco Kliks, who shows at Designers & Agents in New York and in Los Angeles. “Yesterday was the single best day ever,” she said on the second day of the show, noting that she saw buyers from stores nationwide.

Los Angeles designer Christopher Enuke was similarly enthusiastic, noting that he received many reorders for his Oligo Tissew denim line. Retailers who stopped by included Bloomingdale’s and Colorado-based Max, as well as several Japanese stores.

Scott Schuman was at the show representing San Francisco– based designer Deborah Hampton, whose reacute;sumeacute; includes a stint with Michael Kors, when he worked on the Iceberg line. Schuman said buyers from Saks Fifth Avenue and Barneys New York stopped by to review the line, which includes cotton, silk and cashmere pieces manufactured in India and Italy.

“The retailers that come here and the exhibitors that come here are of a like mind,” said Ed Mandelbaum, who, with Barbara Kramer, organizes the tightly edited show. “We put the right people together.”

For Los Angeles line Great China Wall, the D&A show provided an opportunity to meet with the company’s East Coast accounts that do not travel to the Los Angeles market. The line—carried in stores such as Maxfield’s, H. Lorenzo and Theodore in Los Angeles and Henry Lehrer and Scoop in New York—features embroidered denim, appliqueacute;s, and embroidered and printed T-shirts, sweater jackets and coats. Also on display was a pair of tie-dyed raincoats in yellow and green. The company embellishes and alters vintage items and recently began producing a new denim line in Japan. The jeans are shipped to Los Angeles, where they receive the Great China Wall embellishment in the company’s design studio in the Fairfax district. “Our clients are growing with us,” said Nader Naderi, who represents the 5-year-old company.

“When we first started, we had more customers,” he said. “Now our customers’ business has grown—some more than double.”

Los Angeles designer Carl Jones was at D&A to preview his new Malibu Vintage collection of men’s and women’s denim, Tshirts, polo shirts, jackets and accessories that “represent the California lifestyle.”

The line features new washes and treatments that give items a vintage hand. T-shirts bear California-inspired graphics and embroideries with themes such as surf, classic cars, motorcycles and rodeo. Some of the T-shirts feature whip-stitching and printed appliqueacute;s. Jones brought a small sampling of denim and corduroy jeans that featured the Malibu Vintage wave-and-sun logo and came in a variety of cuts. Malibu Vintage will show its full denim collection at Los Angeles Market Week in April.

Hunting for newness

This was the second Designers & Agents–New York show for Ohio retailer Julie Truog.

“We’re able to find newness—things that are a bit on the edge for us,” said Truog, who owns the Find Me! boutique in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, a Cincinnati suburb.

Truog said she brings in new shipments every day and looks for lines that her customers might not find at other retailers. “We try to find items that they aren’t going to see in a department store—so they do not see themselves coming and going,” she said.

Find Me! carries contemporary collections from Nougat, Nanette Lepore, Womyn, ISDA, Johnny Was, Da-Nang and Harari. This season, Truog said knit ponchos from Murielle were particularly strong for her customers.

Retailers Kathy and Thomas George were at the show looking for new lines for E. Street Denim, their 12,000-square-foot store in Highland Park, Ill. The store carries 50 or 60 jeans lines and tops at prices that range from “the high $50s to $350,” Thomas George said.

D&A is one of many trade shows the couple shops. Kathy George said she thought the New York D&A was their 10th trade show this year.

“I don’t come to the show with preset ideas,” said Thomas George. “I’m looking for new, fresh ideas.”

Alison A. Nieder