California Apparel News

The Summer ’04 run of Los Angeles Market Week, held Jan. 16–20, exceeded expectations for many reps as retailers turned out in force to shop among downtown Los Angeles’ four showroom buildings: the California Market Center, The New Mart, the Cooper Design Space and the Gerry Building.

The January market is typically smaller than the Fall and Spring markets in April and November. But this year, market organizers reported record attendance, and exhibitors noted increased traffic.

Registered buyer attendance was the highest it has been at a Summer market in eight years, according to the CMC, the largest of the four buildings. The CMC reported attendance from stores including Bella Bella and Landry’s in Texas, Bjorn Stova in Utah, the Four Seasons Resort in Hawaii, Gus Mayer in Alabama, Lord & Taylor in New York, Mills Touche in Arizona, Norm Thompson in Oregon, and White House/Black Market in Maryland, as well as from California-based specialty boutiques such as Gary’s Island and Kitson.

The apparel market overlapped with the Los Angeles Gift & Home Market, which ran Jan. 13–20. This helped to boost traffic among buyers from both the apparel and home and gift categories.

“We’re thrilled to kick off 2004 with such a tremendous buyer response to both our fashion and gift segments, and most importantly, to see our floors packed with satisfied customers,” said Paul Lentz, the CMC’s general manager. “Los Angeles continues to be a key destination for the world’s top retailers, and we’re proud to be the West Coast hub of modern retailing.”

Retailer traffic from the gift show made for a more hectic and prosperous market week, said Margaret Cox, owner of the Margaret Cox and Associates showroom in suite A331 of the CMC. More than 85 percent of the showroom is devoted to item-driven sportswear/ contemporary misses apparel, and 15 percent is made up of gift items, such as Timmy Woods Handbags, novelty wood-carved purses that lined the showroom window.

Gift retailers found Cox’s showroom merely by walking around the building or by making appointments with her after seeing her name listed in the gift market directory.

“I saw more buyers this time because of the gift market,” Cox said. “It was nice to get such a mix of traffic, but there were pluses and minuses. Some stores who do gifts and apparel said it was too much to do in a few days. Others were thrilled because they could get everything done at the same place.”

About 1,150 buyers visited The New Mart during market week, an 11 percent increase over the 1,037 buyers who registered during the January market last year.

“The bitter cold of the New York market might have scared buyers away from the East Coast; there were very few who were interested in traveling across the country this time of year,” said Ethan Eller, manager of The New Mart.

Showroom owners in The New Mart and the CMC said traffic was unusually strong for a January market, which is typically the transition market for Spring/Summer apparel and accessories.

“We’ve been steady from day one, which proves that retailers had a good season,” said Vera Devletian, president of Vera Cristina, a contemporary misses label in Los Angeles that is represented by the Sharon Koshet Showroom on the CMC’s third floor.

Mary Etten Curry, who carries linen womenswear at the Flax showroom in suite A369 of the CMC, said business has been on track for the past six months. In recent years, economic jitters had buyers placing orders cautiously, she said.

“People are getting out of that safety zone,” she noted. “They’re ordering ahead and trying new colors.”

The recent market totals exceeded those of last year’s January market at the Hatch Showroom on The New Mart’s 10th floor, according to sales rep Nicole Ho. “Market was so busy, it was amazing,” she said.

Buyers from TNT in Toronto, Stacey Todd in Studio City, Calif., Curve in Los Angeles and Nordstrom in Seattle dropped paper on denim, spaghetti-strap dresses in bright colors, and tube-strap dresses from lines including Lacoste, Michelle Mason, Tree, James Perse and Chip & Pepper.

Gene Zuckerman, owner of Gene Zuckerman & Associates on the CMC’s fifth floor, was similarly enthusiastic about the turnout.

“There were ’A+’ stores both in contemporary and advance contemporary categories,” he said. “We saw a tremendous amount of stores from all regions—East Coast, Midwest, for example.”

Buyers placed orders for March and April deliveries, according to Zuckerman, who said one popular line was Sao Paulo, a Dutch sportswear collection with wholesale price points ranging from $18 to $300.

Buyers might have been more apt to spend because of a strong Holiday sales season, said Gene Zuckerman sales rep Judy Collier.

“Normally, people would have bought a lot of Spring and Summer in November, but they were all nervous about retail selling last year, and they didn’t buy as many goods as they normally buy,” she said. “Now they’re all scrambling.”

Momentum building for Cooper and Gerry

The news wasn’t as euphoric at the Cooper Design Space and the Gerry Building, both relative newcomers to market week. But reps at both buildings said they have seen signs of improved traffic with each successive market.

Robbie Wargo, owner of the Onofrey womenswear showroom on the Gerry Building’s sixth floor, was among a handful of showroom reps that described traffic as slow but steady.

Wargo said he prefers to take a proactive approach to luring buyers into his showroom. “You do get people over here, but you have to talk them over,” he said.

Lois Evans, owner of the Lois Evans Showroom in the Gerry Building, has taken a similar approach.

“I’m a destination,” she said. “My accounts come over here, and then they go to other buildings.”

Most tenants reported buyers spent plenty of money during market week.

In the Cooper Design Space, Blue Bird Showroom owner Aimee Friedman—who splits her bright and airy showroom space with longtime friend Stacy Eric, owner of the Agency Showroom—said specialty store buyers from Karizma in Corona Del Mar, Calif., Blush in Scottsdale, Ariz., and Elyse Walker and Tryst in Los Angeles, wrote orders for immediate and April 15 deliveries. The young contemporary showroom features an even mix of sportswear and accessories by indie designers, including Nisa SF, Blume Underwear, 8Trak, CC Skye, Bijou One and Tanja Pignateli.

“We just hope traffic continues to grow,” Friedman said. “It seems the Cooper Building is the new hot spot—it can only get better.”

New resource Blume Underwear in Los Angeles makes women’s undergarments inspired by the uniforms of bluecollar workers. The line of cotton tank tops and briefs features details such as personalized patches and deconstructed necklines with button panels. A buyer from Kitson in Los Angeles placed an immediate order for 1,000 pieces, Friedman said.

This market saw the launch of the Luxe Pet showroom in a temporary space in the Cooper Design Space. Showroom owners Kim Rivera and Laura Lane said they will move to a permanent showroom in suite 202 before the next market. Buyers navigated the co-op showroom—which included pet-related products from Little Lily, I See Spot, SheaPet, Tarina Tarantino and Bolsa— while several dogs modeling Little Lily shoes and I See Spot T-shirts scurried underfoot. Also showing in the space were Luis Steven, a new manufacturer of bags that convert from briefcases to backpacks with room for computers and lettersized files and envelopes; PersoNatalie, a line of lip gloss that comes merchandised with a CD by new artist Natalie Bonelli; and Sobella, a line of bags with removable jeweled handles that can also be worn as necklaces.

Buyers surrender to trends

Camisole tops with lace details, layered floralprint skirts and novelty T-shirts topped buyers’ lists, according to Terry Sahagen, owner of the TSS Showroom on The New Mart’s 10th floor. Sahagen said buyer traffic was nonstop during the five-day run of market week. She noted buyers from Nordstrom and Macy’s West scooped up styles by WestonWear, Ruth, Blue Angels and Ashley O’Rourke and mostly placed orders for immediate deliveries.

Indeed, retailers said they were positioned to open their wallets for Spring and Summer trends.

Ashley Mutrux, co-owner of Electric Ladyland, a 1,200- square-foot specialty boutique for men and women in Scottsdale, Ariz., said his budget was up for Summer ’04. Mutrux came to market with a list of core resources that included Great China Wall, True Religion, Serfontaine and Chip & Pepper.

“Our customers really like Chip & Pepper’s ’Walk of Shame’ denim,” he said. “I think it’s the lowest rise they’ve ever seen.”

Los Angeles–based specialty boutique Traffic entered market week with a flat budget but has plans to increase its orders as Spring gets underway, according to buyer Carl Dias.

“If there’s a style that’s trending, we want to have enough money in our reserves to make that purchase,” he said.

Dias said the denim craze is showing no signs of slowing down, but trousers with feminine details are making a big impression on consumers. His aim is to add dressier items, as opposed to vintage looks, to the retailer’s Spring/Summer mix, which includes Capitol Tailors’ blazer and trousers, silk handkerchief halter-top styles by Lotta, and lightweight and cowlneck cardigans by Inhabit.

Busy at D&A Annex

Traffic was nonstop at women’s contemporary and young designer trade show Designers & Agents Annex, where boutique buyers searched for loose-fitting Summer styles with lots of layering.

In a market ripe with better denim styles, buyers from the Pacific Trading Co. in Santa Cruz, Calif., took careful notes at the CP Shades booth, which offered clean, brightly colored long skirts with ruffle details, capri pants and gauchos in linen fabrications.

D&A co-founder Ed Mandelbaum said this market seemed especially strong because buyers who did not travel during November’s firestorms were eager to check out new offerings for Spring/Summer ’04. “The economy seems to be in an upswing, and that puts people in a buying mood,” he said.

Several buyers buzzed about New York–based young contemporary line Mint, which offered keyhole halter dresses and multi-layered ruffle skirts with bright polka dots for deliveries on May 15.

Accessories designer Beth Frank described business as a “feeding frenzy” at her booth, which offered studded leather belts with novelty buckles, reworked vintage watches on leather straps and vintage leather coats with hand-painted details. With wholesale price points ranging from $25 for a vintage watch to $550 for a hand-painted leather jacket, the line received about $10,000 in orders from retailers including Theodore’s, Dari and Gilda’s, Frank said.

A handful of manufacturers came to the show with new offerings to present to specialty retailers.

Los Angeles–based Capitol Tailors debuted a novelty T-shirt collection made with micro-Modal and Supima cotton. With wholesale price points starting at $22, silhouettes included square-neck tanks with spaghetti straps, cowl-neck camisoles and off-the-shoulder short-sleeved tops.

Buyer Jodi McMillen of specialty boutique Blaec in Santa Barbara, Calif., said her customers are drawn to Capitol Tailors’ eclectic apparel mix, which includes blazers, slim-leg trousers, miniskirts and short-shorts in denim fabrications for summer deliveries. McMillen said she planned to raise her budget this year and opt for more stylish looks and fewer basic denim styles. Capitol Tailors’ clean-cut, tailored silhouettes were well-suited to her needs, she said.

Industry veteran Orly Dahan, owner and vice president of Los Angeles–based juniors and contemporary resources Tag Rag and Goldhawk, bowed a young designer sportswear line called Tag + Jeans at the show.

“We felt we were missing out on beautiful denim,” Orly said. The 100-piece collection, designed by Yves Castaldi, features button-up shirts, 12-ounce striped denim capris and racer jackets.

New label LovethisLife is a novelty T-shirt collection aimed at men, women and infants. The Malibu, Calif.–based line consists of cotton T-shirts, briefs and baby clothes with novelty screen prints. Buyers from Planet Blue and Fred Segal Fun placed orders for the collection, which now has more than 100 accounts, said owner David Culiner.

Brisk business at Brighte Cos.

In the CMC fashion theater, New York–based trade show producer ENK Productions once again hosted Brighte Cos., a collection of contemporary and designer labels ranging from well-known brands such as A.B.S. by Allen Schwartz and Nygaring;rd to new companies such as Cheeky Brand. Among the retailers shopping the show were Ron Herman at Fred Segal Melrose and Moselle of Los Angeles, as well as buyers from the gift shops of the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino and the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Nathaneal Harkham, owner of Los Angeles–based Cheeky Brand, is the son of David Harkham, founder of U.S. Boys, and the nephew of Uri Harkham, founder of Harkham Industries and its Jonathan Martin and Hype labels. Cheeky Brand, which launched in March, offers novelty Tshirts silk-screened with irreverent graphics or phrases. For example, a pink shirt features the word “Tickled” and a red shirt features the word “Seeing.” Aspen, Colo.–based specialty store and diner Boogies picked up a T-shirt with a silkscreen hamburger.

“So far, it’s been fun,” Harkham said. “I’ve met a lot of new accounts.”

Cheeky sells to specialty boutiques, including the Hype stores, as well as department stores. The family connection has been helpful, Harkham said, but he stressed that he wanted to launch a unique company. He decorated the Cheeky booth like a grass hut and accessorized it with surfboards and Hawaiian prints. Harkham, dressed in a Hawaiian shirt, passed out candy to buyers walking the show.

“We want to be about making it fun again,” Harkham said. “We want to be the Willy Wonka of T-shirts.”

At A.B.S., account executive Leila Mostafavi said she worked with retailers from Japan, Canada and Australia, as well as those from the United States. Allen B. by Allen Schwartz, the company’s denim label, showed next to the A.B.S. booth. Buyers purchased items from each collection and merchandised them together, Mostafavi said, pointing to fellow rep Lauren Morris, who wore a velvet vintage- inspired jacket from A.B.S. with a pair of Allen B. distressed jeans.

The January run of Brighte Cos. featured 42 exhibitors in the CMC’s fashion theater. Coleman McCartan, ENK’s special events coordinator, said the plan was to spread the show across the CMC’s fashion theater and exhibition hall for the large April and November markets and host smaller shows in January and June.

At the launch in November, the sold-out show featured about 150 exhibitors in the fashion theater and exhibition hall. Show organizers expect to sell out the two spaces again in April, McCartan said.