California Apparel News

LAS VEGAS—The industry got back to business during the recent run of trade shows here, where buyers braved sweltering temperatures to travel between multiple shows and multiple venues.

At the center was the MAGIC Marketplace, which tweaked its split-venue format this season to add its indie Pooltradeshow to the lineup of men’s resources—and a few upscale contemporary women’s collections—at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center. This season, Mandalay Bay hosted MAGIC’s contemporary and premium-denim show, Project, as well as the trade show giant’s Menswear, S.L.A.T.E., Street, Premium and Workroom shows.

Over at the Las Vegas Convention Center, WWDMAGIC featured women’s resources alongside footwear brands showing at MAGIC’s FN Platform, now in its second season, and Sourcing at MAGIC, which featured more than 700 exhibitors, including domestic and international apparel factories, textile mills, original-print providers, and other supply-chain resources.

“The minute we opened up, we were busy—since 9 a.m.,” said Greg Fiene, president of Clothing for Modern Times, the Canadian fast-fashion maker with its U.S. design headquarters in Los Angeles. Fiene joined the company in February, and for the August shows, the company divided its booth in two to showcase its two core brands, Urban Behavior and Costa Blanca. Fiene said on opening day, buyers from Macy’s, Ross Stores and Bebe were among the visitors to the booth. “Everybody has been here today,” he said on Aug. 17.

In addition to MAGIC and its Project and Pool shows, buyers had many other trade shows to shop, including the Off-Price Show at the Sands Expo and Convention Center; MRket, Accessories The Show, Moda Las Vegas, Capsule and CurveNV at The Venetian; Women’s Wear in Nevada at the Rio All-Suites Hotel; and ENKVegas, which returned to The Wynn after a season at The Bellagio.

Retailer Darren Gold, co-owner of West Hollywood, Calif.–based men’s boutique Alpha, spent two days in Las Vegas before heading to the East Coast for the New York Gift Show. He spent the first day at Project and then headed to ENKVegas and Capsule on the second day. Despite the rushed schedule, he said he was finding good resources for his store.

“Everything is solid,” he said. “It’s sellable and well-priced.”

“I heard a lot of buyers complaining that we’re hard to find,” said Drew Bernstein, owner of Los Angeles–based Kill City and Lip Service. Bernstein’s Kill City booth was tucked into a far corner of Project near the entrance to Menswear. His Lip Service booth was upstairs in the back of MAGIC’s Street section. “I’m stoked because our line looks so good and we’re getting better doors here [at Project]. The majors that we’ve had [come to the booth] love it. But it’s a bummer because I know there are [more good buyers] floating around, but those people can’t find us.”

Los Angeles retailer Diane Merrick was shopping the Zirconmania booth at Moda Las Vegas, where she praised the Los Angeles–based line.

“I always find something interesting here. Every time I buy something from [Zirconmania owner Jacob Hassidim], I make money. It’s one of those sleeper lines.”

Merrick said she’d spent her first day at Project and had dropped by WWDMAGIC before heading to Moda on her second day at the show.

“The shows have been fabulous,” she said, adding that she found a few new resources, including several interesting accessories lines.

At lingerie show Curve, the news was the addition of several swim brands to the exhibitor lineup. To kick off the new category, Curve hosted a burlesque-themed runway show on Aug. 17 at the Crazy Horse Paris theater at the MGM Grand.

“We’re trying to do something different from the usual catwalk. We hope we didn’t shock you,” said Curve President Jean-Luc Teinturier.

Swim exhibitors were enthusiastic about the fashion show—and the response from retailers. “We left that show with a big buzz; our clients loved it!” said Debby Martin, sales manager for Irvine, Calif.–based L*Space, which was one of the swim collections featured in the fashion show. Martin said she was pleased with the retailer turnout at Curve but noted that the company did quite a bit of outreach to retailers before the show. “We make flyers, create an invite to send to the reps—and cold calling to new accounts.”

Complete coverage of all the Las Vegas shows will appear in next week’s issue.