N.Y. Label Vermani Relocates to Orange County

Designer label Vermani Collezioni has relocated from New York’s bustling garment district to the suburban sprawl of Irvine, Calif., in a move made to speed up its production pipeline.

The company has relocated to a warehouse near the Irvine Spectrum to take advantage of Orange County’s proximity to the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif., through which the company’s Asian-sourced garments are shipped.

“We had used the port in New York, but it’s smaller, so shipments can get backed up,” said company principal June Farahan.

Vermani is an 8-year-old label headed by Justin Farahan. It specializes in better knits and wovens in the contemporary and misses updated categories. The company has a distribution channel of more than 500 doors including Dillard’s, Vertigo at South Coast Plaza and specialty stores throughout the country. It has also done private label for Nordstrom, Arden B., White House/ Black Market, Guess and Dillard’s. Wholesale price points range from $30 to $170.

One of the company’s first moves in California was to hire former St. John Knits designer Christina Brenner to become Vermani’s senior designer.

“Now that we are here, we hope to expand and diversify our business. We have worked with West Coast companies in the past, so hopefully it will be an easy transition,” said June Farahan.

Farahan said the company looked at relocating to the Los Angeles Fashion District in downtown, but settled on Irvine because of the abundance of newer facilities and less traffic. For more information on the company, visit www.vermani.net.

—Robert McAllister