Project Balances Fashion and Price Point
LAS VEGAS—Perennial contemporary and sportswear favorites, as well as a handful of notable newcomers, presented jittery buyers with edited Fall 2008 lines at the Project Global Trade Show, held Feb. 13–15 at the Sands Expo and Convention Center .
While most of the show’s exhibitors reported a busy opening day and steady traffic for the duration of the show, they did report cautious buying and copious note-taking.
Strong performers across the board were triedand- true staples, including clean denim in crisp silhouettes, lightweight sweaters perfect for layering, sleek leather jackets in trench and motorcycle styles, and tailored vests and wovens for men and women.
“There was a real sense of unity across the board. There was no outstanding new trend,” said Karen Meena, vice president of Ron Robinson at Fred Segal. “Everyone seemed to have the same idea, and it seems, just like buyers, vendors are being very cautious.”
While Meena said she splurged on a few key items for Fall, for the most part she opted to focus on well-priced staples from her core vendors. “I felt very price-conscious— and normally Fred Segal doesn’t need to be at all.”
Darren Gold and Christos Garkinos, owners of West Hollywood, Calif.–based menswear store Alpha, were on the hunt for new lines and new product categories, including shoes. The store is enjoying a 50 percent surge in sales this month over last year, Garkinos said, crediting the shop’s mix of home deacute;cor, gifts and apparel. “We’re using our hard lines to offset what’s happening with clothing,” he said. The retailers were looking for “basics with a twist.” “That’s what our customer wants,” Garkinos said.
Los Angeles–based designer Eva Franco said she prepared her Fall 2008 collection with an eye toward lowering her prices. “The [slowing economy] has definitely changed the way I design. I choose my fabrics very carefully, and I’m using a lot more screen printing, rather than other moreexpensive treatments, and my lines have gotten cleaner,” she said. Still, Franco didn’t sacrifice style, often creating the same silhouette in a highend fabrication and again in a cleaner, lower-priced version.
Plenty of brands used the show to launch new projects.
Modern Amusement showed its first-ever women’s collection with excellent results. “It is a nod to our menswear, but it has its own sense of whimsy with a little street mixed in,” said John Moore, the company’s creative director. Key pieces for the line included a cropped motorcycle jacket, sexy silk chiffon blouses and a slim wool coat. The line, which launched with one capsule collection, will triple in size come Spring 2009, Moore said.
Elliot Hans, one of the original co-founders of Morphine Generation, brought Literature Noir, his new collection for men and women, to the show with a focus on distressed luxury. Printed cashmere scarves, T-shirts in silk Modal with frayed hems, shrunken leather jackets and raw edges on tailored wovens abounded.
Erik Hart, the man behind Morphine Generation, showed his new self-named high-end line of apparel. “This is my brand-new baby. Morphine Generation was sort of confused; there were T-shirts and high-end stuff all together. It made sense to separate the two visions and focus on each individually,” Hart said.
Clearly excited by the line, Hart poured significant design details and cash into the Erik Hart collection, which he said “takes classics out of context.” Imported fabrics from Japan and Italy become tailored separates for men and edgy, sexy pieces for women, all with Hart’s own brand of dark dandy aesthetic.
Distilled, a modern separates line for men from San Francisco, offered fashion-forward pieces, including a tailored red flannel jacket, with a unique production process. Launched by Stanford grads Matty Merrill and Sep Kamvar—one a mathematician, the other a former streetwear designer for Triple 5 Soul—Distilled keeps costs down and production flexible by using garment-dye fabrics. —Erin Barajas
