California Apparel News

The wide-ranging sprawl of fashion trade shows spread out even further this season when the massive MAGIC Marketplace opened in Las Vegas, offering something for every apparel and accessories retailer, as well as sourcing executives and piece-goods buyers.

Overall, sales representatives were pleased with the outcome of the shows, which covered seven venues and included more than a dozen trade shows, including two venues dedicated to eco-friendly designs, two upscale-lingerie shows and a new show for two-dimensional artwork.

Many said traffic was down slightly, due to economic uncertainty in the housing market and still-high gas prices. But orders were steady, so the consensus was positive.

Strong buying busts economy’s blues at MAGIC

Headlines on tumbling stocks and a wave of home foreclosures in August provoked a sense of caution among retailers, but many said that they still placed large orders for Holiday 2007 and Spring 2008 fashions at the MAGIC Marketplace, held at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Veteran Los Angeles retailer Fred Levine said that he felt comfortable in submitting large orders despite clouds gathering over the economy. “I don’t see widespread panic like I did during the recession of the early 1990s,” said Levine, who co-owns the more than 22 M. Fredric boutiques in Souther California.

The vendors at the Convention Center seemed to agree that buyer traffic was slow, yet business was not bad. “There seems to be less feet on the floor,” said Andrew Kringstein, managing partner of San Francisco–based streetwear label Exact Science. quot;But I saw a lot of good, quality apointments.quot;

More than 120,000 attendees were estimated to have shopped at MAGIC, according to trade-show spokesperson Ernae Mothershed, who said the number was consistent with the attendance at the February 2007 show. This season, 4,500 exhibitors showed at MAGIC and its sister trade show events—Project Global Trade Show and Pooltradeshow—Mothershed said.

If the pace of the show did not seem frenetic, the fashion world’s top retailers still came to browse Holiday 2007 and Spring 2008 fashions. Wal-Mart, Dillard’s, Saks, Nordstrom, Bloomingdale's, JC Penney and Target were some of the major retailers to walk the event, according to Mothershed.

Various exhibitors said that they met with buyers from specialty stores such as Fred Segal, Metropark, Anchor Blue, Demo, Up Against The Wall, Kitson and Urban Outfitters.

MAGIC noted that 27 percent more vendors offered dresses compared to last season. Specialty retailers forecast spring dresses will evoke a simplicity of style.

“Our customers are not going to buy clothes with skulls and tattoos,” said Alfredo Izaguirre, buyer for influential men's store LASC in West Hollywood, Calif. “They don’t want their clothes to look like stuff from Macy's.quot;

Laura Abeyta, owner of Venice Beach boutique (H)armonie, predicted a colorful Spring. “You can’t get away from silvers and golds,” she said. “Jeans will be in all sorts of colors: fuchsias, cobalt blues and yellows. I don’t think that I’ve seen so many colored jeans since the 1980s.”

T-shirts also will be cast in a more colorful light. Natalie Grof, a co-founder of T-shirt label Junk Food, said that jewel-tone T-shirts will be popular for Spring 2008, and plain white T-shirts will also increase in popularity. Mike Chodler, co-owner of Vernon, Calif.-based juniors T-shirt label Realitee Clothing, said that T-shirt lengths were getting shorter, just as the rises in jeans seemed to be getting higher.

The most popular women’s denim silhouettes were wide-legged jeans at misses label Tummy Tuck Jeans, said Ron Perilman, the vice-president of sales. “You’d expect juniors to wear wide legs, but the misses customer is wearing wide legs too,” Perilman said.

Men’s suits with peak lapels were one of the most popular items at Jack Victor, a leading menswear label based in Montreal, said Patrick Chan, the company’s national accounts representative.

Humor was an important ingredient in streetwear styles, according to many vendors. A key element for many T-shirts was dressing up a label’s logo in the font or design of another well-known product, said Jonas Bevacqua, a founder of Lakeforest, Calif.-based LRG. This satire could got a step farther. For example, the Ralph Lauren Polo icon of a man riding a horse inspired LRG to make shirts of a man riding a giraffe.

The MAGIC Marketplace expanded its streetwear selections into two floors of vendors. It included the Progressive Streetwear Marketplace, where some of the most popular streetwear brands, including Obey and The Hundreds, exhibited their lines. But because the section was located behind the raucous hip-hop/urban–themed section of streetwear, some Progressive Streetwear vendors said their clients had a hard time finding the section.

“People are coming to see us, but they have to walk through a lot of traffic to see us,” said Luis Pulido Jr., founder of Los Angeles-based Grn Apple Tree. He estimated business increased 25 percent from the previous August's MAGIC but said it could have been higher if access had been easier.

Eco-chic was another theme of the recent MAGIC Marketplace. The Berkeley, Calif.–based Organic Trade Association helped produce well-attended seminars on eco-minded fashions. More mainstream boutiques expressed interest in offering ecologically friendly fashions, reported Reneacute; Geneva, the owner of Austin, Texas-based eco-fashion label Reneacute; Geneva Designs.

Trend scouting at Project

Buyers at Project Global Trade Show, held Aug. 27–29 at the Sands Expo & Convention Center, found plenty of on-trend apparel for men and women. Keeping with the trends that started this Spring and continued through Fall, Spring 2008 offerings at Project included feminine dresses, chic streetwear and an understated color palette with pops of bright color.

Roughly twice the size of last August’s edition, Project continued to feature women’s high-end and contemporary offerings alongside its traditional men’s fashions. Los Angeles–based Daughters of the Revolution showed sheer printed shifts. Orthodox, a Los Angeles–based menswear line, bowed its first women’s collection, which was packed with subtly sexy separates, including slim pants and fitted leather jackets. Santa Monica, Calif.-based Modern Amusement bowed women's swimwear, its first foray into women’s apparel, to great acclaim and announced plans for a full women’s sportswear collection due out for Fall 2008. Anzevino & Florence diversified its quirky cool line to include plenty of accessible dresses and tops for women, as well a selection of more high-end conceptual pieces that include leather and specialty metal fabrics.

While feminine pieces ruled the aisles, Dina Selkoe, creative director and women’s buyer for online retailer Karmaloop (www.karmaloop.com), shopped for women's streetwear. “It’s not that easy to find,” she said, even though the category is growing in popularity. Tops on her list were ’80s-redux styles, including colorful T-shirts and retro graphics. Insight, which brouhg its surf/skate-lifestyle brand to Project for the first time, topped her list for its playful and edgy designs.

Menswear buyers bounced between busy T-shirts and minimalist design at Project. Andrew Kline of Tradition in Westlake Village, Calif., said guys are looking to get back to basics. “I’m shopping stuff that is more simple, cleaner,” he said. The Julian Showroom, which brough Retribution, Local God and U R Not In Fashion to the show, had great success with printed knits for Spring. Compton, Calif.–based True Love & False Idols, which is known for its over-the-top T-shirts and hoodies, toned it down for Spring, offering polo shirts and wovens with spare graphics and sherbet hues. Cassette showed plenty of innovative sportswear with subtle details but got a little crazy with a new denim style that features a super-elongated rise for a slouchy fit through the crotch and thighs.

Small Pool—focus on newness

As other shows continue to grow, Pooltradeshow is looking to stay small, said organizer Mindy Wiener. “We’re more about the new brands and trying to facilitate their success. Growing too large would defeat that purpose,” she said. That’s good news for the up-and-coming brands that look to the show for a base to launch and incubate their brands before jumping to the MAGIC Marketplace or Project. Housed in a tent across the street from the Las Vegas Convention Center, Pooltradeshow welcomed 335 brands and S[eco]nd, its new eco-friendly mini show, for the Spring 2008 edition, held Aug. 27–29. While attendance figures were unavailable at press time, Wiener said the show took pains to court a broader range of buyers and estimated that attendance was up.

As Pooltradeshow focuses on serving the next generation of brands, it also is looking to widen the scope of its offerings. Buyers walking the show this season noticed a new, more contemporary focus at Pooltradeshow, where T-shirt brands once reigned supreme. Brands such as Linda Loudermilk, Michelle Yu, Dolce Vita, Velvet Leaf, Aubergine, Idol Radec, Quail and Rojas showed chic sportswear for men and women. With the more directional fashion, Pooltradeshow is hoping to become more of a destination for specialty boutiques looking for contemporary fashion.

“Contemporary was a big push for us,” Wiener said. Reps showed at Pooltradeshow for Canadian contemporary brand Dagg & Stacey, which has showed at Pooltradeshow since its inception, said they noticed the shift to contemporary styles. “When we first started, we stood out because we weren’t T-shirts. Now, we blend right in. There is a lot more competition,” said Stacey Paterson, the brand’s co-designer.

Hot items at Pooltradeshow included candy-colored silk mini-dresses, crisp woven shirts and new takes on suiting for men, dark denim in skinny and wide-leg silhouettes and quirky T-shirts. Skingraft Designs, Elmer Ave and Juuml;nker all showed luxe goth rocker–meets–dandy pieces in suiting, leather, linen and silk. Rojas got plenty of attention for its over-sized T-shirts for men with pockets and its new take on the windbreaker, which included sleeveless trapeze hoodies. Los Angeles-based Frecuencia Modulada showed chich silk jumpsuits and versatile sack dresses.

ISAM at MAGIC

With a slew of new exhibitors, including Ashley Paige’s Girls Gone Wild line; Jacqueline Love's Bella Mar brand; Poco Pano; Love, Surf, Love and L*Space, the InternationalSwimwear/Activewear Market, known as ISAM, saw renewed vigor this season. Organizer Barbara Brady said she aggressively pursued new exhibitors and built the show on the strength of its past performance as part of the MAGIC Marketplace.

Love, who debuted her Resort collection in July at the Miami SwimShow in Miami Beach, Fla., said she felt the timing was right to give the smaller ISAM show a try. West Coast buyers responded well to her chic line of eco-friendly swimsuits, Love said. Salt, a new contemporary brand out of Los Angeles, made ISAM its first-ever show and reported seeing good buyers. Howie Greller of BlueWater Design Group, which produces Local Motion, Trina Turk, Rampage and W swimwear, said this season was a big improvement over past shows, and Allan Schwartz of Manhattan Beachwear said buyers packed his booth to writer orders for 24th & Ocean, Split and Kenneth Cole Reaction.

Still, aisles were on the quiet side, and some major manufacturers, including Raj Manufacturing and Vix, were notably absent. For the second season in a row, ISAM shared space with accessories at the Las Vegas Hilton Convention Center, next door to the Las Vegas Convention Center, where the bulk of MAGIC’s exhibitors showed. Brady echoed many of her exhibitors in saying the show would benefit from being back at the Convention Center. “Brands may not necessarily write more orders there, but there is an energy and excitement there that we miss,” Brady said.

Resort, Casual lead categories at The Exclusive

High-end menswear held its own during the final edition of The Exclusive show, held Aug. 26-28 at The Venetian hotel. The Los Angeles–based show was recently sold to MR magazine's owner, Business Journals Inc., and beginning in February it will be known as MRket.

The last Exclusive show “went out with a bang,” said co-founder Larry Hymes, who will remain with the new entity as director of sales. The show shifted to The Venetian’s fifth-floor ballroom, a much grander venue than its previous location in the Sands. Hymes said the February show will move to a ground-floor ballroom.

“The show did better than we expected,” he said. “Everybody is excited about the new changes.”

The high-end men’s market, which the show caters to, is typically impacted less by economic uncertainty than other sectors of the market, so buyers didn’t balk much as higher prices materialized due to currency fluctuations in Europe, where most of the goods on display originate.

“It’s gotten a little more expensive because of what the dollar is doing in Europe, but no one got too upset with it,” said Linda Beale, owner of the At Ease menswear boutique in Fashion Island in Newport Beach, Calif.

Still, Beale said she didn’t venture too far off from her usual vendors. This season, she invested in a little more color than usual and had already completed most of her Spring orders by the time the show opened. The summer business has been “like the stock market,” she said. “At times it has been slow, and at others, it’s great.”

Reps Jodie Vanderhoof and Audrie Rader of XCVI Men also had a good show, saying they were glad they made the move over from the Project show. Checking out were XCVI’s series of washed cargo and surfer shorts for $44 to $69. “They can go from hippity to yuppity or even Euro urban,” said Rader.

Of noted absence at The Exclusive were denim vendors. But Venice, Calif-based The Stronghold did make a showing and reported a solid show, said principal Michael Paradise, who, with business partner Michael Cassel two years ago, revived the 120-year-old Los Angeles label selling hand-constructed denim for $285 and up. “If we gain 12 accounts here, we’re happy,” he said.

Price and delivery key at WWIN

Price points and domestically produced lines were in demand at the Aug. 27-30 WomensWear In Nevada (WWIN) show, held at the Rio Hotel & Casino.

Buyers were seeking out West Coast’s domestically produced lines at the show to take advantage of quick turnarounds to accommodate in-season buying. Others were seeking price points as some consumers continue to feel the pressure of gasoline prices and the mortgage crush.

Despite the economic trends, WWIN produced lots of business, said exhibitors. The show, which caters to the misses and updated market, was sold out for the 10th time in a row, reported co-producers Roland Timney and Jeff Yunis. About 550 exhibitors were on hand. Organizers did not disclose buyer attendance.

“The exhibitors told us they had a great show. That’s what counts. We’re not into numbers here,” said Yunis. “You can sell 10,000 items at $10 each or 10 items for $10,000 each. We’re only interested in that they’re doing good business.”

Buyers said they were looking for unique items to spur sales. Armida Vallejo, who owns a store in Walsenburg, Colo., stocked up on sportswear from Keren Hart but was also scouting new vendors.

“We found quite a few. The summer has had some good days and bad days—but overall, good,” she said.

Sheila Jackson of Lady J’s Boutique in Princeton, W.V., said WWIN offered some quality plus-size resources, and Denise Cordero of Viola & Co., in Albuquerque, N.M., was reordering “twisted sister” tops as well as other styles from Los Angeles-based Karla Kay Steen.

“I’m turning stuff around in two to three weeks. My clients love that,” said Steen, who also was scoring on a new line of tattoo-print tops and shiny PVC raincoats lined with silk charmeuse animal prints.

Haily Shano of Los Angeles–based Necessi-Tees said the domestic manufacturing angle was being played up at WWIN.

“We cut to order and are booking for Sept. 30 shipments,” she said. “The buyers love the domestic manufacturing we do.”

The company’s lace-trimmed tanks, priced at $14, were hot sellers at the show.

Other West Coast resources reported similar results.

Arlene Henry, who reps lines out of the Californai Market Center in Los Angeles, opened 12 new accounts in 1 and a half days at the show in addition to strong repeat business.

“Anything we can add a belt to is booking,” said Henry. Striped shirts from Staples for about $45 and Holiday/Resot knits from Curio were among the top sellers.

“The retailers are taking advantage of this open-venue show,” she said. “They’re somewhat confused about trends and holding off till they shop the show and get an idea of what looks they want to put together.”

Yunis, whose company, Specialty Trade Shows Inc., also produces the the KIDShow childrenswear show, said the childrenswear show will moveform the Riviera hotel to either Caesers Palace or the Rio for the Feb. 11–13, 2008, show. (Both Caesars and the Rio are owned and operated by said a decision will be made in the coming weeks. He added that an attempt to bring the recent lingerie shows to coincide with his Las Vegas International Lingerie Show in October and and April fell through.

High-end lingerie bows in Las Vegas

A duo of lingerie trade shows—CurveNV and Lingerie Americas— showcased more than 250 intimate-apparel, loungewear and swimwear brands combined and attracted buyers from across the United States and from as far away as Russia.

CurveNV welcomed nearly 2,500 visitors to its three ballrooms on the main floor of The Venetian hotel and featured daily fashion shows. Lingerie Americas offered informative seminars for the more than 1,700 visitors that shopped the fourth floor of The Venetian.

Though ready-to-wear buyers from nearby shows such as Project were seen browsing the aisles, lingerie specialty-store buyers shopping the Spring 2008 collections were the majority.

“This is a destination,” said Laurence Teinturier, vice president of sales for CurveNV. “They know that they have here the entire offer for the shop.”

The new Las Vegas edition of Lingerie Americas, coupled with a larger second edition of CurveNV, lured lingerie specialty- store buyers from attending surrounding markets such as the Lingerie Americas trade show in New York, which was held two weeks prior, and the Los Angeles Fashion Market, held two weeks prior.

“Over 65 percent of the buyers that came to the Las Vegas show were first-time buyers to Lingerie Americas,” said Jonathan Colella, U.S. project manager for Lingerie Americas. Lingerie Americas launched its New York show in 2002, where approximately 300 brands exhibit each season and, on average, 2,500 buyers attend.

Christy Horton, owner of the 3,000-square-foot intimate-apparel store Trousseau in Chicago, favored the dates of the Las Vegas lingerie shows more than New York. “The New York [Lingerie Americas] show is too close to South Beach when you’re doing six figures in swimwear [at the Miami SwimShow],” said Horton, who bought the British line Myla at Lingerie Americas and met with her “core” vendors such Simone Peacute;regrave;le and Aubade. “It exceeded my expectations,” she said. “Right now, I’m liking it better than New York.”

Jennifer Manuel Carroll, owner of Bellefleur Lingerie in Seattle, substituted her usual trip to New York in August to check out the scene in Las Vegas. “Curve had more of the newer vendors I hadn’t necessarily seen before,” said Manuel Carroll, who shopped both trade shows for her store, which carries lines such as Chantal Thomass and Betsey Johnson Intimates.

For exhibitors, novel styles equaled healthy business. At Lingerie America's Wendy Glez's turn toward more sophisticated sleepwear in cotton voile and silk attracted new accounts and kept established clients writing. On the first day, designer Wendy G. Crowe said she wrote with 20 accounts. Michelle Landry, designer of Lucy B., launched a new line of vintage-inspired lingerie called Bernie Dexter for Lucy B. at CurveNV that attracted both lingerie and ready-to-wear buyers. Landry said Lucy B. “did four times as much business than we did in New York last year” at the August edition of Lingerie Americas.

The new intimate-apparel trade shows in Las Vegas provided an opportunity for established brands to reach new customers on the West Coast. “It was really our entreacute;e back into the specialty-store arena,” said Wendy Herman, vice president of women’s sales for Calvin Klein Underwear at CurveNV. The global lifestyle brand has not participated in trade shows “in a number of years” and shows through its New York headquarters and regional market showrooms.

Whether or not the same robust number of buyers will return in February 2008 to Las Vegas is a question mark. CurveNV is scheduled to open on Valentine’s Day, which has been dubbed “a second Christmas” for lingerie stores. Many specialty-store buyers are loath to leave the selling floor during the holiday. The February 2008 edition of Curvexpo in New York, weeks ahead of Lingerie Americas In New York, adds further complication for buyers who may be forced to choose between the shows.

Moda LV bows at Accessories The Show

Now in its fourth season in Las Vegas, Accessories The Show brought its siter show, Moda Manhattan, to show upscale women’s apparel side by side with accessories vendors at The Venetian.

Redubbed Moda Las Vegas, the new show featured several well-known designer label, including Badgley Mischka Platinum Sportswear, Carmen Marc Valvo Collection and Marc Bouwer Glamit!

quot;The show was fantastic, but it's the first show,quot; said Vian Hunter designer Lisa Hunter, who showed her Northern California-based line of cocktail dresses and upscale separates at Moda Manhattan earlier this year. “It’s overwhelming as a buyer—I know.”

Hunter sells her line at her own eponymous store in Palo Alto, Calif., as well as specialty stores across the country.

“The foot traffic is great; being next to Project is great,” Hunter said, adding, “The design buyers have been lacking. [But] with my collection, we just need one good store.”

The designer said she saw stores from Atlanta and Charlotte, N.C., and plans to return to the next Moda Manhattan show.

Boston-based accessories line Colette returned to Accessories The Show for the fourth time, once again setting up an eye-catching hot-pink booth.

Owners John and Collette Callahan said they were meeting a mix of well-established customers, as well as prospective new accounts, including buyers from the West Coast, Canada and Saudi Arabia. The two exhibited the line at MAGIC for seven years before Accessories The Show came to Las Vegas, and they had high praise for Accessories The Show’s organizers Business Journals Inc.

“Management is hands-on; the owners will come and sit and talk to you. It’s quite refreshing,” said John Callahan.

The Callahans also show the line at Accessories The Show in New York and noted a few differences between the two shows.

“You won’t see [attendance] numbers like [you do] in New York,” said John Callahan. “But the people who come to Las Vegas are serious buyers. They’re not kicking the tires.”

“The debut [of Moda Las Vegas] was successful,” said Britton Jones, president and chief executive officer of Business Journals.

“The vast majority of exhibitors felt they’d found a new home in Las Vegas.”

Jones was equally enthusiastic about Accessories The Show.

“Now in our fourth run, Accessories The Show was by far and away our most successful show,” he said, noting that attendance increased 35 percent over February’s show.

Although Jones called the combination of Accessories The Show and Moda Manhattan a “winning combination” in New York, he noted that the Las Vegas editions have a slightly different draw.

“The focus of our Las Vegas shows is to deliver better retailers from west of the Mississippi who don’t travel to New York on a regular basis,” he said.

Next season, Business Journals will combine its three Las Vegas trade shows—Accessories The Show, Moda Las Vegas and the newly acquired The Exclusive—which will be renamed MRket.

“The shows will run right next to each other at The Venetian,” Jones said. “Stores from the better community will be able to shop for upscale men’s women’s and accessories.”

United returns

Still the new kid on the block, United Trade Show drew a mixed bag of streetwear, surf/skate and contemporary brands to the Alexis Park Resort Aug. 27-29. Coming off a highly successful July show in New York, United drew mixed reviews from exhibitors this time around. Some responded well to the show’s “anything goes” aesthetic, which included no exhibitor list, a helter-skelter layout and plenty of booze. Other exhibitors said they would like to see the show better merchandised at a larger venue.

Some brands took advantage of the show’s dizzy focus. Andrea Hamilton of Plastic Island, a Korean contemporary brand, was pleased with the show, which featured mostly T-shirts. “Look at us! We stand out like a sore thumb,” Hamilton said, standing in a booth surrounded by feminine dresses and tailored separates. Smoke & Mirrors, a new Los Angeles-based contemporary line, took a similar tack, showing vintage-inspired dresses in a booth sandwiched between two surf-inspired brands.

Newport Beach, Calif.-based Atwater, a surf-lifestyle brand, reported a good show due mostly to interest from key retailers, including Nordstrom. Scott Madison, a co-founder of the brand, said that “for the money, this is a good place to be.” Orders at United didn’t compare to what buyers at this month's Action Sports Retailer Trade Expo will write, but it is important to reach out to new buyers, Madison said.

Fashion up front at Off-Price Specialist

The Off-Price Specialist Show focused on fashion during the most recent edition, which took place Aug. 24–28 at the Sands.

More than 12 students from the Las Vegas Campu of the International Academy of Design & Technology shopped among the most stylish looks from the show’s more than 450 vendors, informally modeling the clothes and setting up displays on mannequins around the trade event. Don Browne, a spokesperson for the show, said that the sourcing collaboration with the IADT would be continued at future shows.

Recent bad news from the credit and housing markets might have caused buyer traffic to decrease an estimated 5 percent, Browne said. Still, with more than 9,700 buyers attending the show, Browne said order writing was consistent with past shows.

Major off-price retailers such as Value City were said to have not attended the event, and some top-performing vendors reported tough business at the show. Tony Peters, vice president of sales at Schoolcraft, Mich.–based sales decreased 15 percent compared with the August 2006 show. “We’ve never had that kind of decrease,” he said.

Sourcing at MAGIC, ASAP

Sourcing executives and piece-goods buyers once again had two venues to Global Sourcing Show at The Venetian and the larger Sourcing at MAGIC show at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Returning to ASAP was Shilpa Creations Export, a manufacturer of cotton woven apparel for men, women and children, which took up four booths at the show to exhibit the extent of its production capabilities. Shilpa Creations has offices in Los Angeles and Montreal and manufactures in a factory in Bombay, India, where production, including printing and embroidery, is done in-house.

“The serious buyer can come here,” said representative Rharati Shah, who works out of Shilpa’s offices in Montreal. “We create an atmosphere to put them at ease.”

Shah said she saw representatives from well as sourcing executives from large companies, including TJ Maxx, as well as sourcing executives from Canada, Guatemala, Spain, Brazil and Hawaii.

Ningbo K Garment Company Ltd., based in Ningbo, China, returned to ASAP after a season at Sourcing at MAGIC. The company switched back to the smaller trade show to have a more prominently placed booth, according to James Jiang, a representative of the company’s import and export department, who translated for Bao Guo Fu, the president of Ningbo K Garment Co.

Indeed, the Ningbo K Garment Co. booth was close to the entrance to ASAP, helping the company garner interest from sourcing managers from New York, New Jersey, Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

The company, which was founded in 1983, began selling to the United States five years ago, and today U.S. sales represent 50 percent of the company’s business, said Jiang.

Over at Sourcing at MAGIC, Indonesian textile and apparel conglomerate Argo Manuggal set up a large booth to show the scope of its offerings. The company is one of the largest in Indonesia, according to representative Yimmy Yapeter, who said the company showed at ASAP in the past but decided to try MAGIC this season. Argo is a fully integrated company with textiles and garment manufacturing facilities for wovens, knits and denim. The company produces primarily for European brands, although it counts Liz Claiborne and O’Neill among its U.S. customers, Yapeter said.

“That’s why we have to exhibit here; maybe we’ll expand out business in the states,” said Yapeter, who said he met representatives of VF Corp. and Hudson Bay, among many small companies and start-ups at MAGIC.

“If you have three or five serious customers, it should be good enough,” he said.

Pakistan-based Irfan Textiles Ltd. returned to the Pakistan pavilion at MAGIC with a newly launched organic-fabrics division called Hawks Bay. The tagless shirts are available for men and women in jersey, pique and interlock fabrications. The company will soon add fleece sweats and yoga pants to its offerings.

“We felt, as a responsible company, we owe a little to the earth and to put less burden on the earth,” said M. Ahmad Irfan khan, company director.

E.C.O. returns, and Printsource bows

For the second season, ASAP shared its space with the E.C.O. Trade Show, where environmentally conscious apparel, textile, beauty and home deacute;cor companies exhibited their wares.

New to the show was Boulder, Colo.-based Beckons, which makes brightly colored yogawear in a facility in San Diego using from organic and sustainable fabrics.

Founded by Ann Sather and Becky Prater, the collection fills a missing niche in the yoga-apparel market, Prater said.

“It’s bright, cheerful, organic and feminine,” she said. “What we felt was missing was fashion colors, fit and organic in yoga. We created a line that is organic without looking all organic.”

The collection launched in February and is selling in ready-towear boutiques, yoga studios, outdoor apparel retailers and spas.

Returning E.C.O. exhibitor B Green is practically a veteran of the eco-conscious market. The 20-year-old company, based in Rancho Dominguez, Calif., began producing private-label apparel from organic fabrics after receiving requests for ecofabrics from several customers. Today the company stocks nearly a dozen eco-friendly fabrics and provides private label and domestic full-package production in a facility that can handle knitting, dying, finishing, manufacturing and silk-screening under one roof. The company uses low-impact dyes, whitens its fabrics with hydrogen peroxide rather than bleach and is in the process of getting organic certification for its entire supply chain.

The company met with Dillard’s buyers at the last show as well as with another major retailer. The company currently sells to high-end spas and resorts, including The Four Seasons and Watermark Spa, as well as speciality retailers across the United States and in Canada and Japan.

“In the past couple of years, our business has been exploding,” said B Green’s Mike Farid. “Two years ago, it was 10 percent organic. Last year it was 25 percent organic. Now this year it’s 45 percent. It’s really snowballing.”

In 2001, B Green launched its own line, also called B Green, beginning first with underwear and loungewear made from organic materials. The collection has expanded to include activewear in several eco-fabrications including the newly launched suede fleece and French terry.

In addition to the booth at E.C.O., B Green exhibited at MAGIC, as well, according to Farid, who said having a greenfocused trade show helps buyers narrow down the eco resources.

“You don’t have to walk for a day and a half to see the green booths [here],” he said.

The newest addition to MAGIC’s sourcing section was Printsource at MAGIC, a partnership with New York-based textile-design trade show Printsource.

“It was much better than I thought, said Duncan Hemphill, managing director of London-based textile-print studio Amanda Kelly. Hemphill said the company exhibited among fabric suppliers at MAGIC several years ago but had little success.

“It’s helps to be part of Printsource,” he said, adding that he primarily saw West Coast designers at the show.

It was a similar story at ETC and ETC Vintage, a print and vintage textile studio with offices in New York and Los Angeles. Representatives Kristin McQuillen and Jason Lyon, both based in the company’s New York office, described the show as “better than expected.”

“Now that they have it all together, people think ’Oooh, I’m here, I’ll check out some prints.’” said McQuillen.

Lyon said he saw several designers he already knew.

“And we talked to some people we wanted to know,” McQuillen.