California Apparel News

LAS VEGAS—For the 16th edition of Sourcing at MAGIC, held Aug. 20–23 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, show organizers put the spotlight on several regions, including the Americas and several ASEAN countries, including Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.Within the Americas pavilion was Sourcing’s first-ever Made in Los Angeles pavilion, featuring textile mills, contractors and private-label manufacturers based in Los Angeles.One of those exhibitors was Ark Apparel, a design development service and contractor specializing in denim. Noah Landis, project manager for Ark and designer of Kent denim, was on hand to explain the services offered by the company, including patternmaking and grading, sample making, design and hardware development, and small-run production.“Unless you’re doing 1,000 units, you can get dropped [from your contractor],” Landis said.In contrast, Ark’s minimums are 50 units per style per color, and the company can deliver in three to four weeks.Ark’s services attracted the attention of David Lauterstein and Frederick Kearney, chief executive officer and creative director of New York–based Nasty Pig, a 15-year-old brand with distribution in boutiques such as Patricia Field in New York, Selfridges in London and Mister S in San Francisco. The brand, which started as a fetish line with a primarily gay clientele, has expanded its customer base in recent years, and sales have taken off.Lauterstein said he and Kearney were at Sourcing looking for domestic resources to provide an alternative to China, where Nasty Pig produces much of its collection.“The big thing is lead time,” Lauterstein said. “In China, the workmanship is incredible, but it takes nine months to go from concept to delivery.”

Another new exhibitor at Sourcing was Los Angeles–based ERA Brands, a vertical knit mill and private-label maker. Essi Faraji said he was getting a good response to his Made-in-L.A. message.

“We’ve had a lot of people walking in, and they’re excited,” he said.ERA Brands has minimums of 240 pieces and can deliver in four weeks. The company produces private label for retailers such as Arden B., Bebe, Hot Topic and Urban Outfitters.Faraji said the consumer needs to understand the relationship between offshore production and U.S. jobs.“What we need to do is educate people,” he said. The consumer needs to understand that “for a couple of dollars extra, they’re saving jobs. We need to keep the dollar here.”There were also plenty of returning customers, including April Booth of Eclat, a Taiwanese knit maker with an office in Southern California.Booth said the first day of the show was busy and after a quiet start, the second day proved good, as well. She met with a Canadian company that produces private label for Reebok and met with another Canadian customer she had landed at the previous show. In addition to companies looking for fabric, Booth said, she had a few inquires about full-package production. Eclat offers full-package in Taiwan and in Los Angeles.—Alison A. Nieder