California Apparel News

October

PHILANTHROPYThe Macy’s Passport Gala, the fashion fund-raiser for HIV/AIDS charities, held its 24th annual event at the Santa Monica Airport’s Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, Calif. Elizabeth Taylor, Sharon Stone and Brooke Shields were among the celebrities who turned out to support the event. The Fashion Industries Guild of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center celebrated its 50th annual charity dinner dance at the Beverly Wilshire hotel in Beverly Hills. Longtime FIG president Kenny Weinbaum was the evening’s honoree, and, to mark the occasion, several past honorees were on hand as well, including Ilse Metchek, Steve Maiman, Barry Sachs, Moshe Tsabag, Jeff Marine, Bobby Margolis, Larry Hansel, Maurice “Corky” Newman, Teddi Winograd, Jay Kester, Lonnie and Karen Kane, Bruce Corbin, Dorothy Scholen, Michael Singer, and Jon Bernstein.REAL ESTATEShifting its focus from design studios to showrooms, the Cooper Design Space welcomed the Los Angeles Fashion Market on Oct. 20 with a renovated fifth floor. The fifth floor, newly filled with designer and contemporary showrooms, joined the second and fourth floors as the latest level to be reinvented as showroom space. The Los Angeles Fashion District added another retail venture to its growing portfolio as one of the district’s major landholders, the KI Group, put the finishing touches on the Maple Union, a 100,000-square-foot retail center at Maple Avenue and Olympic Boulevard. RETAILSan Francisco is not known as a mall city. Still, the Westfield San Francisco Centre, said to be the largest mall west of the Mississippi, debuted in the city near the fashionable Union Square district.Brisbane, Calif.–based retailer Bebe opened a new footwear concept store called Neda by Bebe at the Westfield San Francisco Centre in San Francisco. American Rag Compagnie bowed a new 5,000-square-foot concept store called World Denim Bar adjacent to the American Rag location on La Brea Avenue in Los Angeles. In addition, the Los Angeles retailer opened a 13,500-square-foot American Rag store in Newport Beach, Calif.’s Fashion Island. Los Angeles–based young contemporary retailer Windsor struck a deal with designer and Bravo TV’s “Project Runway” contestant Nick Verreos to launch a line of dresses under the Nick Verreos for Windsor label. The collection will begin shipping to Windsor stores in January, in time for the peak prom season. A new, expanded Nordstrom opened at the Westfield Topanga shopping center in Canoga Park, Calif., and the Seattle-based retailer expects the new store to offer the most designer fashions of all the retailer’s doors. The three-story, 200,000-square-foot store houses all the departments, including fashion, shoes, beauty, housewares and cafes. Pleasanton, Calif.–based discount retailer Ross Stores Inc. purchased 46 store sites from grocery chain Albertsons LLC. Ross plans to convert the old Albertsons sites to Ross Dress for Less and dd’s Discounts stores. The character of Los Angeles’ Fairfax Avenue is up for grabs, according to the businesspeople on the street, which neighbors high-profile fashion boulevards Melrose Avenue and West Third Street. However, the bets are on that Fairfax will be a thoroughfare for fashion retail as a handful of fashion boutiques, including SLB, Reserve, The Elegant Mess, Shobo Shobo, Fight Club and Crooks & Castles, opens on the street. TRADE SHOWSNew York was hopping as retailers traversed the city for the latest Spring offerings at Fashion Coterie, Designers & Agents, The Train and new show Platform 2. Because of the unavailability of two of the Show Piers this season, the Coterie organizer, ENK, split its exhibitors between the Show Piers and the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. Attendance increased to more than 2,500 at D&A, where 215 exhibitors showed their contemporary and young designer lines. European trade show The Train returned to the Terminal Stores in the Chelsea district. The Train organizers also bowed Platform 2, featuring European contemporary resources, at the Roseland Ballroom. Specialty denim trade show The Kingpins held its first Los Angeles edition Oct. 11–12 in downtown Los Angeles. The highly focused, invitation-only trade show featured 13 exhibitors and drew representatives from denim labels including Goldsign, Rock & Republic, Great China Wall, True Religion, Guess, Bread, Stuuml;ssy, Koos Manufacturing and Lucky Brand.Manufacturer representatives reported busy showrooms and plenty of appointments during the Oct. 9–11 run of the Los Angeles Majors Market at the California Market Center.Ryan Walker, the brother of Pool trade show founder Ronda Walker, announced plans for a new trade show to run concurrently with Pool and the MAGIC Marketplace in Las Vegas. The United Trade Show is set to bow in February 2007 and will feature a mix of streetwear and emerging brands. The Oct. 20–24 run of the Los Angeles Fashion Market received mixed reviews, with some calling it a record-breaking market and others saying business was flat. Across the board, however, showroom representatives said the market attracted many key retailers. Berlin-based Bread & Butter GmbH cancelled its upcoming Berlin trade show, set for January, to concentrate its energies on its Barcelona trade show, scheduled for Jan. 17–19. Show organizers said the Berlin show was dropped because exhibitors and buyers preferred to show and shop at the Barcelona show. November

ACQUISITIONSNew York–based Iconix Brand Group announced plans to purchase Irvine, Calif.–based surf-lifestyle brand Ocean Pacific from Warnaco Group for $54 million. This was the second West Coast brand picked up by Iconix. On the day the Op deal was announced, Iconix released a company statement saying its purchase of Santa Monica, Calif.–based Mossimo has been finalized. Iconix also owns Rampage, Joe Boxer and Bongo, all founded in California, as well as East Coast brands Candie’s, Mudd, London Fog and Badgley Mischka. INTERNATIONAL TRADE Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced the Los Angeles–based Fashion Umbrella LLC is fine-tuning the details of two 3,000-square-foot LAdesigns boutiques that will be inside the Golden Eagle Department Store in Shanghai and the Hyundai Department Store in Seoul. Villaraigosa announced the idea during a 16-day Asian trade mission, which included an entourage of city politicians and local businesspeople, to encourage tourism, tout local seaports and pitch Los Angeles products. The lineup of labels for the LAdesigns stores is still being determined, but several local companies participated in a fashion show in Shanghai and Seoul, including Lloyd Klein, Lucky Brand, Hot Kiss, Trina Turk, Karen Kane, Tadashi and the Sabrina Kay Collection.LAWSUITSLos Angeles–based jewelry company Christie Martin Designs Inc. filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court against Los Angeles retail chain Forever 21, charging that the retailer took part in trademark infringement and unfair trade practices against the jewelry company. Designer Christie Martin said the Forever 21 jewelry not only copied her line, which is in the shape of letters in an Old English font but also replicated her logo on the back of the pieces. PHILANTHROPYLucky Brand Foundation celebrated its 10th annual Black Tie & Blue Jeans gala at the Beverly Wilshire hotel in Beverly Hills. Nearly 600 guests helped raise a record $900,000 for a host of children’s charities. Musicians Joe Cocker and Joe Walsh performed for the crowd, and comedian and actor Damon Wayans acted as emcee. More than 400 people turned out for the Little Black Dress event, where about $25,000 was raised for the Pediatric Epilepsy Project. The event, held at a private estate in Beverly Hills, auctioned off little black dresses created by designers including Kevan Hall, Peter Cohen, Jennifer Nicholson, Lloyd Klein and Rami Kashou. REAL ESTATEThe Avenue of the Peninsula, a 375,000-square-foot lifestyle shopping center in Rolling Hills Estates, Calif., was sold to Stolz Real Estate Partners for $96 million. Stolz, based in Bala Cynwyd, Pa., owns 71 properties, totaling more than 11 million square feet. Melrose Place drew interest from several international fashion houses—including Oscar de la Renta, Monique Lhuillier and Chloe—which are scheduled to open new boutiques on Melrose Place in Los Angeles in early 2007. Carolina Herrera opened a new boutique on the tree-lined street in November, and Italian label Marni opened a 21,000-square-foot store on the street in September. RETAILBarcelona-based fast-fashion retailer Mango opened its first U.S. store in the South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, Calif. The 5,737-square-foot boutique is a franchisee of the Spanish retailer. Mango runs more than 920 stores in 81 countries. Los Angeles retailer Kitson struck two deals to take the retail brand overseas. A Kitson mini-boutique will debut at Harrods in London sometime in early 2007. Another Kitson store will open in the luxurious Mall of the Emirates in Dubai. Cartoon Fashions Ltd., a Dubai-based company, licensed the Kitson name in early September and will open a 3,000-square-foot boutique in 2007. Cartoon Fashions previously opened the Ed Hardy and French Connection UK boutiques in the Mall of the Emirates. Retail sales for department stores were up in October, yet sales for many specialty stores went down, according to the International Conference of Shopping Centers. Los Angeles–based fast-fashion retail chain Forever 21 opened a new concept store, Heritage 1981, aimed at a hip customer aged 20 to 30. The Forever 21 customer ranges in age from 15 to 50. The company is in the process of converting 19 of the 44 Rampage stores it purchased from San Diego retailer Charlotte Russe earlier this year to Heritage 1981 stores. French couture designer Lloyd Klein opened a retail and design atelier on Beverly Boulevard in Los Angeles. The Lloyd Klein Couture Laboratory bowed at a Nov. 14 grand-opening party, where actors Tara Reid and Faye Dunaway were among the guests. Swedish fast-fashion retailer H&M opened its second Southern California location in the Beverly Center on Nov. 9, when more than 900 people lined up to visit the 20,000-square-foot store. The retailer opened a store in Pasadena, Calif., in September. Plans call for stores in Irvine, Calif., and Costa Mesa, Calif. The retailer’s first California store opened in San Francisco in 2005.On the heels of record third-quarter results, Los Angeles–based apparel maker and retailer Guess? Inc. announced plans for a new apparel/retail venture, G by Guess. The new mall-based retail chain is the latest addition to the company’s retail roster, which includes the 2-year-old Guess Accessories and Marciano store concepts. G by Guess, which is priced between the company’s contemporary offerings and its lower-priced Guess Factory goods, represents a new price point for the company. TRADE SHOWSTraffic came in waves at the Oct. 30–Nov. 1 run of the Los Angeles International Textile Show at the California Market Center. Among the designers spotted shopping the show were Kevan Hall, Louis Verdad, Tarina Tarantino, Karen Kaen, Rami Kashou and Thom Nguyen. Lingerie-industry consultants Laurence and Jean-Luc Teinturier announced plans to bow lingerie show Curvexpo in Las Vegas at The Venetian hotel at the same time as the MAGIC Marketplace and satellite shows in February. The new show was announced shortly after New York–based lingerie show Lingerie Americas also announced plans to host a Las Vegas show running concurrently with MAGIC. The Lingerie Americas show is set to bow in August 2007. December

ACQUISITIONSLos Angeles–based private-label denim maker Tarrant Apparel Group purchased Canadian denim maker Buffalo Group for $120 million. Buffalo manufactures denim and apparel for sale in Bloomingdale’s, Nordstrom, Lord & Taylor and Macy’s. The company also operated 45 Buffalo by David Bitton stores in Canada. Buffalo will maintain its Montreal headquarters and its design studio in Los Angeles. Vernon, Calif.–based BCBG Max Azria inked a deal with Paris-based retail giant Carrefour for a new ready-to-wear collection, designed by BCBG and set to bow for Fall/Winter ’07 in France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Portugal and Greece. PHILANTHROPYDivine Design, the annual fashion and interior-design fund-raiser, raised more than $1.2 million over the course of the five-day shopping event, held at the former Robinsons-May building in Beverly Hills. All proceeds from the event were donated to Project Angel Food, which, since 1989, has been delivering free meals, nutritional counseling and support to men, women and children affected by HIV/AIDS.RETAILNovember ended with a bang, but it would not have happened without the help of Black Friday, the sales-driven Friday after Thanksgiving, according to the International Conference of Shopping Centers. Shoppers spent more than $8.96 billion on Black Friday, Nov. 24, 6 percent more than last year, according to the ICSC. TRADE SHOWSThe Los Angeles Lingerie Association announced it will bow its new lingerie trade show for January market at the Gerry Building in downtown Los Angeles. The show, organized by the Lois Evans Showroom, will feature temporary resources in the 2,100-square-foot space on the building’s fifth floor.MAGIC International, organizer of the MAGIC Marketplace in Las Vegas, struck a deal with New York–based textile and surface-design trade show Printsource New York, which will join MAGIC’s Sourcing at MAGIC section at the Aug. 27–30 run of the show. ObituariesSid Morse, former executive with the CaliforniaMart (now called the California Market Center), 71 Wener G. Scharff, one of the founders of women’s dress and sleepwear line Lanz, 90 Rosa Gurerro, office manager for the Textile Association of Los Angeles, 42 Svend Ingerslev, retailer and member of the Board of Directors of the Rodeo Drive Committee and the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce, 68Bridget Hansel Andrews, former Rampage Clothing Co. executive, 43