As California Fashions Rise, Buying Offices' Business Expands
When New York–based buying office The Doneger Group recently announced plans to open a Los Angeles office, many in the local fashion industry saw the move as an acknowledgement of California designers’ growing importance in the national and international fashion community.
The 59-year-old buying office and fashion- and retail-merchandising consulting firm will open a 3,000-square-foot office in Suite 229 of the A Building of the California Market Center in mid-October, said Janine Blain, Doneger’s West Coast manager. Blain could not confirm the number of people who will work at the site, but she said the office is already productive.
Doneger began disseminating its California intelligence when Blair was hired in August. “We’re concentrating on contemporary, women’s, men’s, accessories, juniors, and surf and skate,” said Blain.
Doneger’s move to Los Angeles is yet more proof of the city’s rising importance as a fashion capital, said Ilse Metchek, executive director of the California Fashion Association. It may also mean Los Angeles’ existing buying offices should expect further change.
“The old world of buying office is gone,” said Metchek. More than 20 years ago, buying offices ordered clothes for department stores, but as those stores consolidated, the number of large buying offices shrank, and the focus of their work with retailers shifted.
“They are now service centers for information,” Metchek said. “They’re not as active as they should be in redefining themselves.”
These days, buying offices provide fashion and trend reports designed for retailers and buyers. Executives for buying offices located in the California Market Center, including Barbara Fields Buying Office, Bregman & Associates and Directives West, said they have changed with the times by providing in-depth coverage of a fashion world that has expanded quickly and continues to move at lightning speed.
Sandy Potter, a principal for Directives West, said that over the last few years her company has expanded its reporting from a focus on contemporary and juniors to men’s, preteen girls’ and accessories. Barbara Fields, owner of the company that bears her name, said she increased the frequency of her fashion reports to monthly, and she expanded coverage to include more Tokyo fashions along with what’s going on in Los Angeles, New York City, London, Paris and the south of France.
Stuart Berman, president of Bregman & Associates, said his company would focus more on the young men’s and junior markets. He’ll also look to build specialty-store and off-price business in response to the continuing consolidation of the department-store market. The company will also focus on reporting more on accessories and surf-and-skate wear.
The buying offices stated that their services remain compelling because they know the business and the needs of major retailers as well as they know fashion.
The buying office’s stock in trade also includes producing seminars and fashion shows. For more than 20 years, Barbara Fields and Directives West have been producing seminars and fashion shows to coincide with the Los Angeles Majors Market in October.
Fields will produce the 25th annual “Million Dollar Item” seminar on Oct. 9 at the California Market Center’s 13th-floor pavilion. The invitation-only event will seat more than 300 executives from retailers including Saks Fifth Avenue, Belk Stores and Wet Seal. Fields will give a fashion forecast for Spring, Summer and Fall 2006.
Directives West will produce two fashion shows in October. Potter will produce the “Modern Bazaar––Spring 2006” on Oct. 10 to coincide with the Majors Market.
The 150-look show will focus on the many different styles coming from Los Angeles contemporary designers such as Hot Kiss, Hippie, XOXO and See Thru Soul. The region’s designers are inspired by styles from around the globe. “We’re the melting pot of America,” Potter said of California’s fashions.
The show will also feature fashions for preteen girls and devote a section to dresses. It will debut three dresses from the new collection of legendary designer Oleg Cassini called OC by OC. It’s made up of special-occasion dresses that will wholesale at $79–$149.
Directives West principal Sandy Richman will produce the “First Stop Los Angeles” fashion show on Oct. 20, which will coincide with the Los Angeles Spring ’06 Fashion Market, scheduled for Oct. 21–25.
The fashion show will focus on contemporary clothes and feature a rare appearance by supermodel Niki Taylor.
