Mood Upbeat but Buying Cautious at L.A. Market

Reviews mixed for shift in schedule

It was a good week for market in Los Angeles. The warm weather and clear, blue skies had buyers in summer clothing walking between the showroom buildings or grabbing a bite to eat outdoors at one of the local restaurants.

The sunny mood carried over to the showrooms, where showroom owners and buyers were upbeat—albeit, realistic—about business.

That was the case at the new Citizens of Humanity/Goldsign showroom in the Lady Liberty Building, where buyers, including Nordstrom, were coming in at a steady pace. “Our traffic is up from last year,” said Shelley Barham, the company’s West Coast brand manager.

The Fall II/Holiday market does not typically get the same traffic levels as the big Fall and Spring markets, but, for some, this market week proved to beat expectations.

With showrooms spread around the fashion district and a host of temporary trade shows happening at the same time, buyers had plenty to see.

Top on many showroom owners’ minds was a shift in the market schedule from one that spanned the weekend to a Monday-through-Thursday run. Many reps praised the move, arguing that retailers’ busiest days in the store are Saturday and Sunday. But others opted to open on Sunday to catch some early-to-market business. CMC split on new schedule

Veteran California Market Center showroom owner Liza Stewart said dropping traditional weekend hours and scheduling buyer meetings Monday through Thursday worked well for her Liza Stewart Inc. showroom. “It’s a new era. The industry has changed. Why not have weekday shows?” she said.

While she had not finalized her sales reports, she said her clients’ buying indicated they were feeling more confident about the economy. An estimated 60 percent of her orders had long lead times. In tougher economic times, retailers tend to order Immediate goods, she said.

Another veteran showroom owner, Michael Gae of the Rep Et Trois showroom, said the new schedule did not work for his accounts. Still, he forecast his sales will increase 20 percent compared with last June—with a caveat. He expects this year’s sales from June market will be 50 percent below June 2008.

Gae cited store closings—many victims of the Great Recession—as one reason why his June business dropped from two years ago. However, he also thinks the new schedule did not help. This market, he had appointments with major accounts, including Macy’s and Nordstrom, and also saw some specialty chains such as BlueBlack, based in New Jersey. However, he said he missed many of his national and local accounts because of the new weekday schedule. “People are traveling less, and if you take away the weekend, when people’s schedules are flexible, no one is going to be able to travel,” he said.

Retailers reported shopping the show included Dillard’s; Fred Segal Silk; Sarah Shaw of San Francisco; Want of Toronto; Flutter in Pasadena, Calif.; and the Wendy Foster boutiques of Santa Barbara, Calif. Although many retailers and showrooms said business was picking up, boutique buyer Michelle Hong, merchandising director of Blu#275;Black, said consumers continue to be price-conscious. It has been hard to sell fashions with prices above $100, she said, adding, “We’re getting away from the expensive brands.”

Retailers No Fear Inc., based in Carlsbad, Calif., and independent San Francisco store Dun Up Boutique shopped at Focus, the CMC’s emerging-brands trade show, which was located in the building’s Penthouse. For vendors Matt Geiger of Los Angeles–based brand Nature’s Mistake and Burag Celikian of Los Angeles–based brand Arka, exhibiting at the show was worth it because both brands were able to set up meetings with Japanese buyers. “It was not flowing with buyers like Agenda,” Celikian said, referring to the prominent streetwear show. “But we made good contacts here.”

For Alexana Lambros, co-founder of emerging Los Angeles brand Dollimou, the most recent run of Focus was an improvement over previous shows. “There are more buyers, more foot traffic,” she said. Half of the buyers making orders for Dollimou asked for fashions with Immediate deliveries.The New Mart upbeat

It isn’t a return to the heyday of fashion markets, but the mood at The New Mart during this Fall/Holiday market was upbeat, according to exhibitors.

“The final numbers aren’t in yet, but this market seems to be going very well and is on track to match the [attendance] figures of recent June markets,” said Ethan Eller, general manager of The New Mart. “The New Mart is busy, tenants are happy and everyone is excited to not be working on a weekend. This Monday-to-Thursday schedule was an experiment, and there seems to have been no negative impact [on the market] whatsoever. It looks positive for going to a Monday-to-Thursday format in 2011.”

Jason Yi, sales manager for the Miss Me showroom, said buyers were in higher spirits and placing stronger orders than he’d seen in a while.

“I think they are feeling the effects of the economic upturn,” Yi said. Another indicator that things are looking up for specialty boutiques is that buyers seem to be curtailing their close-to-season buys in favor of further-out orders. “Everyone is feeling more confident,” he said. Items that were getting scooped up for Fall and Holiday were tops that merchandise well with the current military trend and twill bottoms.

At Chan Luu buyers were placing larger orders for Holiday than they had in recent memory, said Shannon Phillips, the brand’s showroom manager. Jewelry, specifically the designer’s leather wrap bracelets, proved to be the must-have items. The Holiday ready-to-wear collection also earned buys, with buyers opting for soft cardigans in soft shades embellished with embroidery or sequins.Local focus at Cooper

Traffic reports were mixed at the Cooper Design Space, where some showrooms said traffic was stronger than expected for a June market, while others said it fell short of even last year’s numbers.

“The past two days have been surprisingly busy,” said EM Productions owner Lisa Elliot-Rosas on the third day of the show. Elliot-Rosas said she preferred the Monday-though-Thursday schedule to a market that runs through the weekend.

EM Productions carries labels such as Seneca Rising, Society for Rational Dress, Myne, Grae, Vida and Grey Ant.

Denise Williamson, owner of the Williamson Showroom, also based in the Cooper building, agreed.

Williamson represents collections such as Kimberly Ovitz, Les Halles, Raf by Raf Simmons, Bespoken and Chimala.

“I think it was a smart move,” she said. Williamson, who runs showrooms and public-relations consultancies in New York and Los Angeles, said, “Normally, the third day of a show is slow, but we’re busy today.” Williamson, who had dropped by the EM Productions showroom, said she had primarily seen local buyers at market. Elliot-Rosas said although traffic was largely due to local buyers, she also met with buyers from Seattle-based Nordstrom and Holt-Renfrew in Canada.

Steeve Bohbot, owner of the Connected showroom on the Cooper building’s first floor, said he and his sales reps worked with a few key accounts at market, but the turnout was less than last year. He said March and October are his strongest markets in Los Angeles but added that his showroom is open year-round. “Come down any time; we will take your order,” he said.

Bohbot also praised the shift to a weekday schedule.

“I love the way they did it,” he said, adding that weekdays are better days for retailers to be out of their stores. “The buyers’ busiest days are over the weekend,” he said.

There were a few reps who said they would prefer a weekend market.

Autumn Sneed, sales manager for Los Angeles–based tee and dress line Cali, was showing the line out of the Place Showroom. Sneed said buyers asked if the showroom would be open over the weekend. (It was not, but the building was open.)

“A lot of the buyers have Sunday and Mondays off,” said Sneed, who said East Coast buyers, in particular, preferred to shop over the weekend and return to their stores on Monday. Place also carries Denim of Virtue, Lucca, Isabel Lu and Boulee.

“A lot of people asked us if they could come in on the weekend,” said Raluca Dumitrescu, a rep in the Joey Showroom, which carries Black Halo and House of Harlow. For market, the showroom was also showing Fluxus, Rockstar, Kao Pao Shu and Dina Bar-El.

“We started on Friday,” Dumitrescu said, adding that she and the other sales reps had begun calling to book appointments “way before” market.

The Cooper building is open seven days a week, according to Mona Sangkala, the building’s leasing director. Sangkala said there were a few showrooms setting up on Sunday, but only one retailer dropped by. Traffic mixed at Lady Liberty

Traffic at the Lady Liberty Building, where the enormous showrooms range in size from 5,400 square feet to 6,400 square feet, was mixed.

Nary a buyer was inside the gargantuan Tricot Showroom, which carries primarily European lines such as Custo Barcelona, Les Prairies de Paris and Shams. “It’s a little slow, but I feel everyone booked a lot of stuff during the last market,” said Kristen Archdeacon, the showroom sales manager.

Things were a little more lively at the Kascade Showroom, which carries both men’s and women’s lines, including J Brand Men’s, Takel, The Original Retro Brand and Rufus. “We have been constant,” noted showroom owner Chris Cantrell. “Typically this market is slow.”D&A condensed, diversified

The Designers and Agents boutique trade show returned to The New Mart for a June 14–16 run that featured a wider range of products as well as a condensed exhibitor roster. This season, 60 brands participated in D&A, a handful more than the same show last year. Bringing newness to the show floor were brands selling children’s furniture, bedding, art and gift items. SHFT, an environmentally focused new-media company, also set up shop at the show, showcasing sustainable products such as skateboard decks and hand-held espresso makers that require no external power. The show’s producers, Ed Mandelbaum and Barbara Kramer, also brought back the Green Room, an area dedicated to 18 brands that use sustainable practices.

Most exhibitors reported steady traffic for the three-day show, and nearly all said they and their accounts were pleased with the shift to weekday dates. Also pleased, exhibitors said, were buyers who came to the show to work.

At Walter, buyers scooped up Fall goods delivering for 6/30 and peppered in Holiday items. Seasonless dresses, Mongolian-fur vests with cardigan details, and dresses with simple silhouettes and scads of sequins earned Holiday orders. Trendy basics proved key for Fall.

Erin Glanz of the True Collaborative Fashion showroom in the Cooper Design Space brought Prairie Underground and Clary Sage to the D&A show for the first time in several seasons.

“Since the D&A show isn’t at the Cooper this time, we thought we’d try to see buyers in both locations. We noticed a drop in walk-in traffic at the showroom whenever D&A isn’t in the building, so this is an experiment for us,” Glanz said. “It’s a great way for us to meet potential new accounts or accounts in new territories and reconnect with stores we haven’t worked with in a while.”

Going for Brighte

Slightly more than 40 vendors packed the CMC’s fashion theater for the June 14–16 Brighte show, organized by ENK International.

This was the third Brighte show for Harald Jonassan, president of Jane Wang, the New York dress company he launched almost two years ago.

Jonassan said the show had its high moments and slow moments but order taking was fairly steady. “The first day was not too busy, but the quality of the stores has been very good,” said the Swedish clothing executive. “The people coming in are looking for a niche in the market, like us.”

The Jane Wang label embraces silk jersey dresses with artistic designs created by designer Jane Wang. Most of the dresses, which wholesale for $120 to $168, are day to evening styles that are long on clean lines but decorated in a sophisticated, creative flair.

Jonassan said he was seeing a lot of orders for Immediates but everyone was paying full price. “We started shipping Spring in January, and we haven’t sold anything at discount yet,” he noted.

Brighte proved to be a good place to introduce new labels. Voom by Joy Han, a Los Angeles contemporary label, was showing its latest creation, James & Joy, a lower-priced division with goods shipping in August. The viscose knit tops and dresses, made in Los Angeles, wholesale for $15 to $38 and are geared for a wide age range.

Jane Yim, the company’s sales manager, said she was seeing buyers primarily from specialty stores in the Western half of the United States as well as Japan. “It seems everyone is buying Immediate goods,” she observed.

Also introducing a new label was Los Angeles–based Sledge, which has added a lower-priced tops line called Caramel. Most of the knit tops have a tie-dyed look and are meant to be worn with blue jeans or other casualwear. They wholesale for $19 to $38. “We’ve had a great reaction,” said Monique Abergel, the company’s director of merchandising and design.

However, she said the three-day trade show could have been busier. “The show has been fair,” she said. Star Show

The Star Show joined the lineup of events at the CMC with a group of exhibitors in the exhibition hall on the lower level.

The show, organized by Greentide FT Corp., had a quiet debut in January at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

The second run featured fewer young contemporary resources and no eveningwear but instead offered more denim and embellished tee resources. More than 80 companies exhibited at the 140-booth show, said Star representative Allison Kim.

The show also featured several well-known urban brands, including Rocawear, South Pole, Academiks, Baby Phat, Live Mechanics and Marc Ecko.

The second run of the show got mixed reviews. Vendor Peter Chang, vice president of juniors line Mixteen, said he wrote a couple of orders during show and retailer Ross Stores had browsed the show. Another vendor, Eddie Ahdoot, president of Payvand International, said business was poor. “It’s been very quiet,” he said.

For Star exhibitor Michael Hall of Happy New Star Inc., the show was just beginning to find its identity. He helped organize 33 vendors of prominent urban labels— including Rocawear, South Pole and Academiks—to take out booths at the show. Traffic was light, but independent boutiques Bad Boy in Los Angeles and Urban Flava of Hawaii shopped this section of the show. “We’re optimistic,” Hall said. “If we stick with it, we can turn it into something.”

Michelle Gardner, the West Coast rep for Rocawear, said she decided to exhibit at the Star Show to support a trade show with an urban focus in Los Angeles.

“There are not a lot of shows for urban on the West Coast,” she said, citing the MAGIC Marketplace in Las Vegas and UrbanSuburban in San Francisco among the few venues for urban labels.

Gardner has a showroom on the CMC’s fourth floor but opted to show at the Star Show to capture walk-up traffic.

“It’s a good opportunity to see people from out of state.”

Similarly, Chris Watkins operates his Showroom 407 out of the Gerry Building, but he decided to try his luck at the Star Show. Watkins said traffic was good on the first day, but things had slowed down by day two.

“I had several appointments but several walk-ins, too,” he said.

Although many exhibitors said buyer traffic was slow, some said the show needs time to establish a reputation in the industry.

“The Star Show is just starting out; they need to increase buyer traffic,” said Richard Yoo, a sales representative with I Love Marilyn, a Los Angeles company that sells embellished tees that feature images of Marilyn Monroe. The company was among a few returning exhibitors.

Randy Kim of Los Angeles–based T-shirt line Ace Trading said he preferred the open format of the Los Angeles Convention Center.

“Last time was better than here,” he said, adding that he’d only met with local buyers.For more market coverage, including Brighte and Star Show, see ApparelNews.net.