California Apparel News

Despite the balmy weather, department-store and specialty- chain buyers from all over the country converged on the California Market Center ready to buy cool-weather offerings during the April 10–13 run of the Fall 2007 Los Angeles Majors Market. Coming on the heels of a strong contemporary market, the juniors-focused majors market seemed to experience a strong buyer turnout. According to CMC executives, the building does not tally majors buyers, but they estimated a significant increase in contemporary and young-contemporary buyers.

Buyers from Macy’s, Nordstrom, Sears, Dillard’s, Alloy, Up Against the Wall, The Buckle,Wet Seal, Charlotte Russe,Windsor, Diane’s Swimwear, Tilly’s and Torrid shopped the show for hot juniors fashions.

Traffic was high for much of the show, according to Krishan Chaudry, creative director of Los Angeles–based contemporary women’s label Chaudry. Yet the traffic was different from what it was two years ago after the giant Federated-May merger.

The department-store sector is still in the process of reorganizing itself after a major consolidation in 2005, when Federated Department Stores purchased the May Co. in a gambit to make Federated’s Macy’s stores a national chain.

While there may be fewer department stores, these retailers are sending larger delegations of buyers, according to Chaudry. The delegations of buyers are also purchasing items in greater quantities because they have more stores to stock and merchandise.

Retailers wrote orders for Immediates at Chaudry, with delivery dates ranging from April 30 to June 30. Retailers also took notes for Fall and holiday deliveries ranging from July 30 to Sept. 30.

Department stores were just one of the retail sectors that benefited from pent-up demand for Spring fashions that had retail sales skyrocketing in March, according to the New York–based International Council of Shopping Centers. Department stores’ same-store sales averaged an 8.6 percent increase in March. It is the sector’s best performance of the year. Its average increase for January was 6.7 percent. February was 2.1 percent.

Yet the question for many buyers at market was whether new fashions would continue to attract customers to department stores. Russell Orlando, Macy’s East vice president and fashion director of juniors and cosmetics, is confident the boom will continue.

Orlando said the business for bottoms may blossom now that the popularity of leggings, a must-have item in late 2006 and early 2007, has subsided. He also forecast that metallic colors and 1970s-style fashions would capture the imagination of juniors.

Other fashion executives found a warm reception for garments such as T-shirts. Steven Oshatz, president of New York–based Rubber Doll, said buyers are interested in buying T-shirts year-round. They’re focused heavily on prints and knits, from T-shirts to cropped printed hoodies and slouchy striped sweaters, Oshatz said. “Everyone is looking for ’wear now’ items,” he said. Outerwear also proved to be a strong category for Rubber Doll, with California- based retailers opting for lightweight versions of jackets.

Live With Intensity, a new juniors contemporary brand with a focus on career separates for the college girl, made its debut during the Fall market. Backed by a $70 million Chinese company, the New York–based brand was able to land a substantial order from Dillard’s its first time to market, said Roberta Fedorko, the brand’s vice president of sales. “We stood out from the junior resources with our dressyrelated sportswear,” Fedorko said. Key pieces for the vintage-inspired line, which wholesales for $12 to $32, were swing jackets, trouser pants and feminine blouses—“perfect for a job interview.”

Color and texture engaged buyers at Los Angeles–based My Michelle. Cobalt blue, jet stone trim and satin in jewel tones were key for Fall. The mod, feminine trend from Spring continued into Fall with plaid and houndstooth jackets, flyaway jackets and flirty trapeze dresses to be worn with tights. Still, denim got its share of play with silhouettes moving away from the skinny and embracing higher waistlines, wider legs and trouser cuts. At Hot Kiss, denim took two divergent paths. “It’s all about colored denim and trouser styles,” declared Moshe Tsabag, the brand’s founder. On one wall, Hot Kiss hung slim jeans in saturated turquoise, purple, black, lipstick red and sienna. On another hung super-clean dark denim with pork-chop pockets and wide, cuffed legs. Both, Tsabag said, were hot for Fall. At Chinese Laundry, which showed its new denim line to juniors buyers for the first time at the market, straight-leg jeans in dark washes and a silvery denim pencil skirt were big winners. Nikki Turpin, the denim’s sales rep, said some buyers thought the line was a little too clean for a juniors customer. “So, going forward, we’re going to junior it up,” with new washes, embellishments and shapes, she said.

Heather Wurst, the CMC’s manager of the Majors Market, forecast that this burgeoning market would continue to grow. “This is only the third Majors Market that the CMC has hosted in April,” she said. “The success of this market proves that L.A. is not just for Spring anymore,” she said.