California Apparel News

Menswear buyers at the recent West Coast Trend Show were hunting for novel and fresh items to entice customers through the doors, as 2010 is proving to be a challenging retail year filled with highs and lows.

“It’s the power of new,” said Michael Black, a sales rep for Saltaire and Tailorbyrd, two casualwear men’s lines selling for under $100 per item at retail. “Those who are into ’last-year-itis’ are in trouble.”

Sales representatives at the fifth season of the West Coast Trend Show, held July 31–Aug. 2 at the Embassy Suites LAX North, located near Los Angeles International Airport, were trying to provide that touch of newness for Spring 2011 with scads of bright colors, madras shorts and soft fabrics.

Lively hues that belong on a sandy beach were fueling the Spring necktie collection designed and sold by Geoff Nicholson, whose company, Geoff Nicholson Neckwear, is based in San Juan Capistrano, Calif.

One of his predominant colors for Spring 2011 is a gentle but eye-catching turquoise. Other neck-tie styles included a pink-and-white gingham design and lavender and white stripes.

Added to his collection this season are lightweight cotton and linen Italian scarves wholesaling for $28 to $38. Heavy scarves have been a tried-and-true staple in many men’s wardrobes, but a summer scarf is something entirely different. “I feel like you have to take the retailer out of their comfort zone,” said Nicholson, who wrapped a colorful scarf around his neck to show how it went well with a blazer or summer sweater; it is an item most stores don’t carry.Variety sellsRetailers may have weathered the worst of the economic downturn, but they are still struggling to keep their businesses healthy.

Paula Zurowski and Romy Jue, the new co-owners of By Hand in Berkeley, Calif., said sales were up 15 percent over last year but it was still an ongoing effort to keep customers shopping. “We are looking for new men’s lines to freshen things up,” said Jue, who said the store’s customers are primarily academics at the University of California, Berkeley and local residents. “We’ve ordered some younger-looking lines.”

She said they were ordering wide and shallow to provide as much variety as possible, with retail prices varying from $65 to $140.

Chris Bryant, the owner of Outlander, a menswear store in the well-to-do San Francisco suburb of Hillsborough, Calif., was relying on tourist traffic to keep her same-store sales up 5 percent over last year. “We are looking for interesting things to tempt customers into the store,” she said. “Oftentimes they look through the front window, and if they don’t see anything new, they don’t come in.”

However, Bryant wasn’t being conservative in price. Her philosophy is that customers can go anywhere to buy inexpensive basics. She wants to keep some of her basics but also inject interesting merchandise not found at other stores in the area. Beating the retail blues

Despite retailers’ concerns, sales reps were being cautiously optimistic about the year even though many retailers were fighting to find credit.

“Business is a challenge for most stores,” said Ken Haruta, organizer of the biannual West Coast Trend Show and a sales rep for lines such as Scott Barber, Corneliani, Report Collection and Hey Billy.

Haruta, however, was optimistic about the show. Sales reps took 88 suites this season, compared with 71 suites in February. There was a 7 percent rise in buyer attendance compared with February and a 23 percent attendance increase from one year ago.

The magic retail price point for casual menswear apparel was below the $100 mark, with manufacturers upgrading the feel of their fabrics and counting on soft, brushed textiles to make their goods seem more valuable.

Glenn Adam, who represents the St. Croix Collection, based in Winona, Minn., said June and July were tough for most retailers. His shirts and handcrafted sweaters sell at high-end specialty stores such as At-Ease in Newport Beach, Calif., and Brady’s Clothing for Men at the Hotel del Coronado, located near San Diego. Woven shirts wholesale for $86 to $105, so Adam was emphasizing the quality of his goods and their Made-in-USA label to make a sale.

Donna Gavin, a sales rep for True Grit, a casualwear company based in Newport Beach, Calif., said buyers were looking for new items and also sticking with tried-and-true merchandise. “They are keeping their inventories in check and following up when things sell and then doing their off-price at the end of the season,” she noted.

But the diminishing pool of menswear retailers was worrying some sales reps. Larry Pickens—salesperson for brands such as Alexander Julian-Private Reserve, Kinloch Anderson and Skip Gambert & Assoc.—estimated that since 2006, 25 percent of small retailers have gone out of business, 30 percent can’t get credit and another 40 percent are ordering one-third less than four years ago. “There are more salespeople than retailers,” he said. “It’s the sign of the times.”