ALL SHADES: The Necessitees line is known for its wide array of colors in all its silhouettes.

ALL SHADES: The Necessitees line is known for its wide array of colors in all its silhouettes.

NECESSITEES

Serendipity at the Heart of Necessitees

Sometimes a clothing line pops up out of a serendipitous moment no one was expecting.

That is how Necessitees came about 12 years ago. Hallie Shano was sitting in her self-named multi-line showroom at the California Market Center in downtown Los Angeles when a man in a baseball cap, T-shirt and shorts walked in and asked if she was interested in starting a T-shirt line.

That man was Han Chung, who had a business making a cotton/Lycra ribbed knit fabric using flying saucer–size machines in a small warehouse near the Los Angeles Fashion District.

Shano—whose showroom represented labels such as Joan Vass, Chava, Babette Ballinger and Nina Leonard—knew the misses and knitwear markets well. So she thought she could take her knowledge and create a different kind of T-shirt line. “I was hearing from customers that there was a void in the market,” Shano said. “It was that one size does not fit all boobs.”

With a fashion market coming up in a few weeks, Shano put together a few basic silhouettes in a handful of colors and asked Chung to make some samples in a few weeks.

He took the ideas back to his wife, Debbie—who wears many hats as designer, pattern maker and sample maker—and they cut and sewed a few samples in no time flat. Meanwhile, Shano searched around for a cute name for the label and put together some clever hangtags while incorporating vertical labels instead of horizontal labels to be slightly different.

That first LA market, Shano said, she sold $3,500 worth of merchandise at prices that ranged from $7.50 to $9.50 per T-shirt. Some of her specialty-store buyers were willing to test the misses T-shirt line, which was made of 94 percent cotton and 6 percent Lycra, providing some extra room for the bustier woman searching for a fashionable top to wear with the new premium-denim trend that was sweeping the country. “There wasn’t a misses T-shirt line out there like this, and the denim market was just starting to hit,” Shano recalled.

Her first array of colors ranged from baby blue, baby pink, yellow and lavender to red, black, white, navy and brown. Now the label is offered in 60 hues in stock year-round at the company’s 10,000-square-foot warehouse not far from the LA Fashion District.

After that first year, the Necessitees brand got more attention and more sales reps. The brand offered all its T-shirts in six different sleeve lengths and 10 neck silhouettes.

Shano took the line with her when she was traveling with her other labels to trade shows and various markets. She also enlisted Ambrosia & Co., a multi-line showroom with spots then in Atlanta and Dallas, to pump up sales. “They were on fire and got the word out,” Shano recalled. “And one of our first reps was Patty Witt in Seattle. She was so good at promoting the line in that territory.”

The new label hit a nice niche. It retailed for under $20, delivered quickly and was made in Los Angeles. The shirts were selling at Nordstrom, Dillard’s, spas, hotel gift shops, gyms, catalogs and with private-label concerns. “The volume was getting insane,” Shano said.

Two years after launching, Shano and her partners got some additional customer input about the line and starting expanding into other silhouettes and incorporating more jersey.

Shano dropped her multi-line showroom and dedicated herself to developing and designing Necessitees, which now includes dresses, jackets, pants, skirts and tops with wholesale prices ranging from $16 to $40.

One of the best-selling items is a long jersey skirt with an elastic waistband and tiered layers that end in raw edges. Called the “Soho” skirt, it wholesales for $26. Other top sellers are maxi-length knit dresses that are shirred on the side and a knit jacket with shirred sleeves. “The volume that we do in these jackets is mind-blowing,” Shano said.

They all come in bright colors, which is probably why Florida is one of the company’s top markets.

As the company grew, Chung decided to sell his knitting machines and concentrate on his cutting-and-sewing operations. But the fabric still comes from Los Angeles factories.

The line is sold in catalogs and at more than 500 specialty stores across the country.

One of those stores is Etcetera Etc., a small womenswear boutique on Balboa Island in Newport Beach, Calif. “We do like them,” said Susan Ferguson, the store’s assistant buyer and salesperson, who said they carry some basic T-shirts, tops and jackets. “They are made in America. They have a bigger fit, which appeals to our customer, and their prices are very fair.”