Natalie Hara at the Natalie Romano showroom at the Gerry Building.

Natalie Hara at the Natalie Romano showroom at the Gerry Building.

SHOWROOM PROFILES

Natalia Romano

Natalie Hara’s new showroom in the Gerry Building is a dual-purpose space.

The front half of the 1,800-square-foot showroom is reserved for displaying the designer’s Natalia Romano contemporary line, made in Los Angeles. The back half is a design studio—complete with sewing machines, a cutting table, a wall of thread, bolts of fabric and shelves filled with inventory.

Hara, who studied at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, launched her line of dresses, tops, coats, skirts, tunics, shorts and pants in 2009 shortly after graduating from the Los Angeles fashion institute.

For a while, she was represented by outside showrooms. But this year, Hara decided that she and her two sales representatives would bring the selling side of her business in-house.

So in April, she moved from a downtown L.A. fashion district office building to the Gerry Building. “It is nice to meet my customers and put faces on them,” said Hara, whose father, Joe Hara, was in the lingerie business for many years and is an investor in her company. “Knowing my customers helps me cater to them.”

Hara said she was surprised to discover that her typical customer is a woman in her 50s. It is not the 20- to 30-year-old she envisioned wearing her line of smart clothes that range from tight leather pants and spaghetti-strapped tops to ponte dresses and plaid trench coats made of Italian double-faced wool.

“Catering to a stick figure is not practical,” said Hara, who could easily fit into her stick-figure styles. “The average size for a woman in the United States is a size 14.”

Buyers come to the showroom and let her know what is selling well and how to improve her collection, which wholesales for $40 to $150.

Most of her accounts are specialty stores, the largest being Ciao Bella in Johnson City, Tenn. The retail outpost has hosted trunk shows and fashion shows featuring Natalia Romano’s sophisticated and trendy looks. Other stores include Portofino in Beverly Hills and Up Your Alley in Temecula, Calif.

Already, the new showroom is paying off. Last week three T.J.Maxx buyers wandered in without an appointment. “I had no idea they were coming,” the designer said.

Hara always knew she would be a designer, but she never envisioned herself as a showroom manager, too. “So far, I think it’s fun,” she said.