California Apparel News

San Francisco’s rough-and-tumble industrial section took a hit in the late 1990s, when skyrocketing real estate prices sent many apparel companies to more affordable Bay Area cities. But the district is poised for a turnaround as a new crop of designers sets out to define San Francisco style.

“Most well-known designers, like Calvin Klein and Michael Kors, did everything on their own for years before they got discovered,” said Deborah Hampton, who grew up in England but received much of her early design training in New York from both highly recognized designers.

Now, Hampton is part of a growing group of San Francisco designers who are taking advantage of the city’s remaining manufacturing base and reestablishing the city’s standing as a design center.

This burgeoning design community has helped fill the void left by large-scale apparel makers Gap Inc., Levi Strauss & Co., Bebe, Koret of California and Byer California, which moved much of their manufacturing out of the area.

Among the city’s emerging labels are Erica Tanov, Carve Designs, Nice Collective, Fabuloid, Nisa San Francisco and Manifesto.

Fashioning the rebound

A perfect example of San Francisco’s fashion renaissance is the Residents Apparel Gallery. The tidy 850-square-foot retail store, on Octavia Street in Hayes Valley, boasts about 50 collections by local apparel and accessories designers. As an independent design collective, RAG charges its designers between $25 and $50 a month to display their goods on clothing racks.

RAG is set up like an art gallery. A sign that features a photograph and biography of the designer is displayed prominently above each clothing rack. Handbags and jewelry are displayed nearby on tabletops and shelves. The gallery’s floor is green, and the walls are decorated with bright, colorful oil paintings made by local artists.

The boutique’s 29-year-old owner, Blakely Bass, opened the store two years ago to help local designers earn a little cash for their designs; RAG’s designers receive 70 percent of the profits from each sale. The company has developed a list of loyal customers who come to the boutique in search of unique fashions by Anya San Francisco, B.O.I.C., Bonito Wear, Desiree Salas, Evarize, Muse San Francisco, Titus and Gypsy Loic.

Collective consciousness

Music and European men’s style are the influences behind Nice Collective’s avantgarde clothing line. With wholesale price points between $30 and $250, the line is geared toward 18- to 35-year-old men and women. Styles include T-shirts, thermal tops, casual non-denim pants, deconstructed button- up shirts, jackets and cashmere sweaters.

The line is sold at such better retailers as American Rag in Los Angeles, Armoire in El Paso, Texas, Abersons in Tulsa, Okla., and Barneys New York in New York and Beverly Hills.

Joe Haller and Ian Hannula launched the line 13 years ago, making themselves vanguards of San Francisco’s new design movement.

The duo met in San Francisco and formed a music collective—consisting of a record label, a deejay agency and a T-shirt company— in their home. They worked long hours in different professions to launch the line, which initially received support from friends, including the musician Moby, who wore their T-shirts to photo shoots. Soon the line caught on with other musicians and stylists, and word began to trickle through the city.

Made by local contractors, the line incorporates themes such as exploration, hidden codes and technology. It includes T-shirts with screen-printed numbers and shirts with codes that can only be solved by folding the garment in quarters. Several pieces come with subway maps of metropolitan cities, including Tokyo, London and New York.

“We’re anti-logo driven, and we have a fascination with things that are fresh and unique but with a familiarity that you can relate to,” Haller said during a recent interview at the designers’ Richmond compound, which boasts an “alien” skull and a 9-foot python encased in a glass aquarium.

Currently, Haller and Hannula are collaborating with No Doubt front woman Gwen Stefani on her womenswear line, L.A.M.B.

Catering to eclectic tastes

Nisa San Francisco launched in 1996 and has grown to include a retail store in San Francisco’s Mission District, as well as more than 100 retail accounts, including Villains Vault, Therapy, Yellow Rat Bastard and stores in Asia.

Nisa means “woman” in Arabic, and the company’s whimsical apparel collection is well suited to San Franciscans’ eclectic tastes.

“There are so many thrift stores in the Mission District,” said co-owner Shinobu Sering. “People here mix and match thrift store clothing and designer clothes. The city is our inspiration.”

The womenswear line combines modern design aesthetics with thrift store sensibilities. A mohair and acrylic long-sleeved cowlneck sweater, wool trousers, an obi dress, a layered skirt, a cotton jersey novelty T-shirt and a racer jacket are just a few looks for Fall 2004. Wholesale price points range from $15 to $45.

Los Angeles–based retailer and designer Moss Mills said the line offers a unique perspective on fashion. “Nisa San Francisco doesn’t follow what’s happening in the market; it has its own concepts that it combines with great fabrics and silhouette structure,” Mills said.

From NY to SF

The Deborah Hampton label’s clean, modern styles have garnered a following on both coasts.

Hampton is not a newcomer to the fashion industry. She got much of her design experience working with Klein and Kors before she moved to San Francisco in 1998 to be with her husband, photographer Paul Moore. For a while, she sold her clothes at her eponymous boutique in Hayes Valley, but she closed the shop in 2000 to focus on her wholesale business.

During a recent visit to her studio, Hampton was eager to discuss her Fall 2004 collection, which consists of edgy, yet classic readyto- wear pieces that are suitable for the Bay Area climate. Perhaps taking a cue from her East Coast mentors, Hampton uses high-quality fabrics to emphasize the line’s vintage element. With wholesale price points between $68 and $268, the line features a tie-dyed silk and pleated muslin cami, stretch pin-striped trousers with gold embroidery detail, a heavy poplin ruffle skirt and cashmere sweater tops. The line will be carried at Neiman Marcus, as well as at other specialty retailers.

Hampton’s style bridges East Coast sophistication with West Coast cool, according to her former boss.

“Deborah brings sleek, sophisticated sportswear with strong attention to detail and quality to the laid back California fashion scene,” Kors said.

Vintage-inspired, San Francisco style

Two years ago, apparel manufacturer and designer Schuyler Brown partnered with designer Chrissy Kaufman to form Fabuloid, a colorful line of vintage-inspired apparel for young women. The pair set up shop in the basement of Brown’s Victorian-style house in the Bernal Heights section of San Francisco.

Kaufman adds a retro-modernist flavor to the line, which wholesales from $34 to $68, with pieces like “Kicky Polka Skirt,” a playful, triple-layered confection in silk jersey, gold fiber and stretch taffeta. Other pieces include a silk puff-sleeve blouse with motherof- pearl buttons and a pair of wool trousers.

While most of Fabuloid’s production takes place in the city, much of its fabric is sourced from out of state or overseas, Brown said. For Spring 2005, the line uses stretch twill and poplin prints, metallic wovens and embroidered organza silks from India.

“There’s definitely an opportunity to do high-value design and manufacturing in San Francisco like no other city,” Brown said. “It’s a skilled-needle town that has the knowledge and expertise to put out apparel lines.”