Bebe Expands L.A. Studio, Monah Li Exits

Company also faces workers’ rights lawsuit

San Francisco’s loss will be Los Angeles’ gain as Bebe Stores Inc. beefs up its Southern California presence. The Brisbane, Calif.-based manufacturer and retailer of contemporary clothing is moving its production team in February to its 5,100-square-foot studio in downtown Los Angeles’ fashion district, according to a company spokesperson.

People close to the company also say Bebe is looking to expand its 11th-floor operation at the Cooper Building downtown and is scouting out new offices to eventually relocate the entire staff.

Sally Kruteck, Bebe’s director of public relations, wouldn’t comment about further moves but said the company’s design team of 30 employees has operated in Los Angeles since September.

“The designers were already there and we needed to get production there as well to move things through,” she said.

One employee will be noticeably absent—local designer Monah Li. Just one year after Li joined Bebe as head designer of the Los Angeles studio, she completed her last day on Dec. 14.

“It was mutual. I had been thinking about it for the past three months,” Li said. “When Manny [Mashouf, Bebe founder and chief executive officer] moved to L.A. in September, it became real corporate.... He’s like a prophet. He knows what the next thing is and gets so involved in the design aspect that there’s nothing left for me to do.”

Kruteck said the company hasn’t planned on filling Li’s position but plans to benefit from the growing design team. Bebe hired designer Karen Okada last May and announced the appointment of Neda Mashouf, wife of Manny Mashouf, as general merchandise manager of design in November. Neda Mashouf has served as a Bebe director since 1984 and has held various merchandise positions with the company.

“Bebe enjoyed the 13 months that Monah worked for us and it was time for her to part and pursue other interests and endeavors,” said Manny Mashouf, in a statement. “We had a great experience working with her and wish her the best.”

Li, who ceased her own clothing line and closed her retail store in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles as part of her obligations in joining Bebe, plans to return to her designing roots. She’s bowing her Monah Li Couture line of reconstructed vintage separates next week at Traffic in Los Angeles’ Beverly Center and Sunset Plaza in nearby West Hollywood. The Judy Kurgan Sales showroom in the California Mart will represent the line, which retails for $200 and up per piece. There’s also a 400-page memoir on the way called “Bent Vienna,” which is being bandied about by HarperCollins Publishers and St. Martin’s Press. Sewers File Lawsuit

Separately, Bebe and its contractor Apex Clothing Co. are targets of a federal lawsuit filed Dec. 18 in Los Angeles on behalf of seven garment workers. The sewers allege that they suffered from “oppressive and inhumane conditions” and worked 10- to 12-hour days at the El Monte, Calif.-based factory without receiving overtime, often due to falsified time cards. They are seeking back pay and unspecified damages for pain and suffering resulting from violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Ping Wang, one of the employees, spoke out about the abuses at a press conference held in front of the Bebe clothing store in Beverly Hills, Calif. Wang said that when she and her colleagues confronted their employer last August about the practices, they were terminated and their pictures were posted on a wall, targeting them as problem recruits for other factories.

Members of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, which is representing the plaintiffs, assert that Bebe is the workers’ employer based on established legal theory.

“Joint Employer Liability holds that employers are liable for the conditions in which employees labor,” said Julia Figueira-McDonough, a staff attorney at the center. “Bebe is a brand-name retailer who’s coming into the factory on an ongoing basis and is setting the prices of the garments. These are indicators that they control operations.”

John Parros, the company’s president, hadn’t seen the lawsuit when he said in a prepared statement, “Bebe is concerned about all people who manufacture our wearing apparel. We have an enforcement program in place to make sure that our goods are manufactured in compliance with labor laws in California and the U.S.”

Nearly a $300 million company, Bebe currently operates 159 stores and plans to open 25 to 30 units in fiscal 2002, targeting a larger format in the 3,500- to 4,500-square-foot range.