California Apparel News

Business always seems to come in waves at the Los Angeles International Textile Show. And the Oct. 30–Nov. 1 run of the show at the California Market Center was no exception, with traffic picking up immediately after the slate of free trend seminars hosted by the CMC and several international forecasting services.

Among the designers spotted shopping the show were Kevan Hall, Louis Verdad, Tarina Tarantino, Karen Kane, Rami Kashou, Eva Franco, Eletra Casadei, Michel Berandi, Eric and Diane Martin, Thom Nguyen and Jared Gold.

“We were busy all day,” said Jin Moon, a representative for Los Angeles–based Euromaglia, which was showing on the CMC’s 13th floor Penthouse Pavilion.

About half of the people at the Euromaglia booth were regular customers of the company, which represents severalEuropean mills, including Italian mills Euromaglia and Textile Look, French mill Tissage du Causse and Spanish mills Tesa IM and Juan Boluda, as well as Silk Fashion from India.

The rest was new business, said rep Leah Demaree, who said she saw new smaller designers and “a lot of out-of-towners, which is good because you usually don’t get to see them unless it’s at the show.”

Show organizers said representatives from St. John, Charlotte Tarantola, BCBG Max Azria, Arden B., Tadashi, C&C California, Hard Tail, Laundry, Babystyle, Bebe, Guess Inc., Haute Baby, Jessica McClintock, Rock & Republic and Lucky Jeans turned out for the show as well.

“This has been a really strong show for us,”said Ben Lee, CMC director of leasing, in a statement. “Every day that I walked the floor, I saw exhibitors consistently writing orders. Overall, we are very happy with the show and while it is already the premier textile show on the West Coast, it continues to get better every year.”

Rami Kashou spent a day and a half at the show on the hunt for “very light wool blends, interesting wool/cashmere knits, jersey knits in rayon or rayon/silk—definitely very soft and warm fabrics—and cottons and cotton voiles,” he said.

This was the only textile show the Los Angeles–based designer attended this season.

“I’ve been pretty satisfied with the people I’ve worked with,” he said, noting that he found several good resources at the show this season. “There’s one company from Paris I’m interested in working with and the rest are from New York.”

Last show of the year

This year, the textile show fell a week after Los Angeles Market Week and two weeks after Los Angeles Fashion Week, allowing designers to spend additional time at the show.

Karen Kane and her team attended two days, as did Kevan Hall, Tarina Tarantino and Eva Franco, who said on the second day of the show that she might be back for a third day.

Los Angeles–based Franco attended Premiere Vision in Paris in September and said she skipped meeting with vendors in Paris who she knew she could see in Los Angeles.

One of the new companies Franco discovered at the Los Angeles show was Inter Colour Inc., a New York–based maker of lining and cotton fabrics. This was the first time at the Los Angeles show for ICI rep David Bloom, who said the company has built a stable of California accounts by scouting new business at apparel trade shows in New York.

The 12-year-old company carries fabrics from Japan, Korea, Italy and the United States.

ICI decided to show in Los Angeles to see if there was more business to be had in California, Bloom said, adding, “It looks like a good thing we did.”

Jewelry designer Tarina Tarantino was at the show on the hunt for fabric, leather, trims and zippers for her new handbag line. The fuchsia-haired designer said she also attends the Linea Pelle show in Italy but had compliments for the offerings at the L.A. textile show.

“One of my designers is from Dolce & Gabanna and she was impressed with the quality of the designs shown here,” she said. “It goes to show you what’s happening in L.A.”

Launch platform

The show provided an opportunity for many textile reps to introduce new products.

Santa Monica, Calif.–based Caldelle Leather was showing a fused pigskin suede with lace overlay and soft and drapey patent leather made from kangaroo skin, as well as a suede with a bubble texture.

Los Angeles–based Gallery Asha expanded beyond its offerings of handcrafted textiles from Africa and South America to include leather pants and Peruvian textiles and woven shirts made from fabric from Mauritania and T-shirts made from fabric hand-dyed in Africa.

European focus

For the second season in a row, Italian and French textile mills shared space in the CMC’s Fashion Theater, under sponsorship by the Italian Trade Commission, for the Italian mills in TexItalia, and Espace Textile, for the French mills the French Pavilion.

Business was brisk throughout most of the show at the Springtex booth in the French Pavilion. According to Julien Provin, most of that was new business and smaller companies.

“We’ve done this show for four years,” said Provin, who was working the Springtex booth with Lucette Leremon. “Most of the business [with large companies] is done with the agents and the customers directly.”

Provin said the French mill used to see more of its U.S. business coming from the East Coast, but that has changed.

“New York used to be more, but since two years ago, it’s changed; it’s 50/50,” he said, adding that just recently the balance has begun to shift back to the East Coast.

There was a rumor on the show floor that the TexItalia might pull out of the textile show next season. While Italian Trade Commissioner Aniello Musella did not dispel the rumors, he underscored the importance of TexItalia’s outreach into the West Coast apparel market.

“For us it’s very important to be on the West Coast,” he said. “On the East Coast, we have [the Premiere Vision Preview textile show] and the presentation of trends for Milano Unica [textile show in Italy]. We cannot cover and be in contact with the American distributors and importers just on the East Coast.”

That should be good news to Cristina Curti, general manager of Italian mill Guest, who reported brisk business throughout the Los Angeles show, but particularly on the last day.

“Today, from the moment we started at 10 a.m. until now, we’ve been seeing people— concrete people—they know what they want and they know the direction,” she said, noting that she saw potential customers from across the western U.S. throughout the show. “We need this show. It’s where we meet people from different parts of the U.S.”