California Apparel News

NEW YORK—Texworld USA, the New York–based textile show run by trade-show giant Messe Frankfurt, got off to a strong start for its July 19–21 run in Manhattan’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.

Lululemon dropped by the Buhler Quality Yarns booth early on opening day. The fast-growing activewear retailer was among several well-known brands shopping the show, which also included Chico’s, Anvil, Gap, Polo Ralph Lauren, Urban Outfitters, Carhartt, ISDA, Lily Pulitzer, Motherswork, C&C California and J. Crew.

Several exhibitors said they’d book appointments with majors such as Nordstrom, while others said they were scheduling meetings with major retailers back at their New York offices.

This season, private-label manufacturer FesslerUSA took a larger booth, but traffic still spilled out into the aisle.

“We’re always busy, but we promoted the heck out of this show,” said Brian Meck, vice president of sales for FesslerUSA.

The company was showing micro-Tencels and a micro-Tencel/Supima blend and a Polartec/fine Merino blend for lightweight base layers. (The company also carries fabrics made from Viloft, an insulating fiber made by Austrian fiber maker Lenzing.

Mt. Pleasant, N.C.–based Tuscarora Yarns was showing a yarn made with recycled indigo cotton, which gave it a fine indigo slub in the final product. The company also recently developed its Recover line of 50 percent recycled cotton and 50 percent recycled polyester.

“So it’s a 100 percent recycled product,” said Andy Long, Tuscarora’s vice president of sales.

Long said he was meeting with prospective end users such as Nordstrom, Urban Outfitters and Carhartt to show the latest developments and send the specialty store to its partner mills.

“If we can see two more people, that’s a successful show,” he said.

One of Tuscarora’s partner mills is SG Knits, which was at the show with the latest offerings from its Los Angeles–based knit mill, as well as samples from its Dominican Republic apparel factory.

Lauren Greenberg, SG Knits vice president, said she saw several large brands at the show, including many that were interested in the company’s manufacturing facility. “People want that full package,” she said. “I see that we’re growing because of it.”

Buhler, Tuscarora and Fessler were part of the Lenzing Innovation Pavilion, which featured a mix of international yarn and fabric mills that use Lenzing’s Tencel, Modal and Viloft fibers.

Also showing at Texworld was first-time exhibitor Yatin Narula, director of Delhi-based Shyam & Co. of Morth Pvt. Ltd., which manufactures embellished scarves in India. The company, which has its U.S. sales office in Los Angeles, produces private label for West Coast manufacturers such as Michael Stars, Levi’s and BCBG but decided to show at Apparel Sourcing to meet more East Coast brands. In addition to its private-label business, the company sells its scarves under its own Vismaya label to stores such as Lord & Taylor, Anthropologie and Steinmart. And SourcingFor the third season, Texworld USA was co-located with the International Apparel Sourcing Show and Home Textiles Sourcing Expo. This was Texworld’s 11th edition in New York.

At the Apparel Sourcing Show, Joyce Xu was looking for new U.S. prospects for her Chinese company, Shenzhen Ever-Sunrise Garment Co., based in Shenzhen with a second factory in Jiangsu. The company employs 900 workers who make intricate dresses for Japanese and American companies, including BCBG, Elizabeth & James, Jessica Howard and White House Black Market.

It’s a pretty good flow,” said Xu, who is based in the company’s New Jersey office. “But we did a lot of research before the show.”