California Apparel News

Put this one in the “What goes around comes around” file.

Arpeja of California was a longtime women’s apparel manufacturer in Los Angeles whose labels were Young Edwardian, Young Innocent, Young Victorian and Organically Grown. It was under the Young Edwardian label that Los Angeles designer Sue Wong cut her teeth.

All the labels, started by Arpeja owner Jack Litt, were popular in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. At one time, Organically Grown was reported to have sales of nearly $100 million. Then in the late 1980s, the Organically Grown label was sold to The TJX Companies Inc., the $17.4 billion Massachusetts company that runs discount stores T.J. Maxx and Marshalls.

Organically Grown became the East Coast corporation’s own label for nearly 20 years.

Enter Larry Brandt, Arpeja’s former East Coast sales manager who had been running his own consulting company for 15 years in Los Angeles. Brandt and his partner, Bob Stein, wanted to start an organic line, noticing the trend for anything organic has been hot.

Six months ago, when Brandt was lunching with a merchandise manager from T.J. Maxx, he started talking about his organic concept. “She mentioned they [T.J. Maxx] owned the best name in the industry,” he recalled. And a light bulb went on.

Brandt approached T.J. Maxx about buying the label and negotiations ensued. In August, he and his partner acquired, for an undisclosed price, the master brand name, Organically Grown, forming the Organically Grown Group LLC, based in Encino, Calif.

They are now licensing the name to various manufacturers, whose goods must adhere to the Global Organic Textile Standard. (GOTS is one of several organic standards and is prevalent in Europe. Its requirements are more stringent than the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s standards.)

So far, three companies have signed on as licensees for Organically Grown. Kids Headquarters in New York has the license for childrenswear; Delta Galil Industries Inc., an Israeli company with U.S. headquarters in New Jersey, has the license for loungewear, sleepwear and underwear; and Kayo of California, a 40-year-old Los Angeles manufacturer, has the license for misses, petites, plus sizes and maternitywear.

The Spring ’08 womenswear collection of moderately priced organic wear will be showcased, starting in March, on TV shopping network QVC, Brandt said, and then all apparel will be rolled out to mid-tier stores and department stores by holiday 2008. “The objective here is to have volume-priced organic apparel for the whole family,” said Brandt, noting his company is looking for licensees for home deacute;cor, juniors apparel, footwear and accessories.

Recently, Wearology Ltd., a publicly traded firm in India that controls more than 10,000 acres of organically grown cotton, acquired a 50 percent interest in the Organically Grown Group, Brandt said.

Organically Grown joins a growing number of companies launching labels that use organic materials free of chemicals, pesticides and other harmful ingredients. The movement has grown to include designer labels such as Stella McCartney and Los Angeles–based Linda Loudermilk, as well as a growing base of contemporary labels. Barneys New York recently opened an organic department, and Los Angeles–based retailer American Rag and Seattle-based specialtydepartment store Nordstrom are also expanding their organic offerings, as well. “I really think we’re on the right track,” Brandt said. —Deborah Belgum