California Apparel News

Sarine Berberian may be new to the world of fashion, but her family’s long history in the apparel industry gives her a heads up as she launches her first line of high-end contemporary womenswear manufactured exclusively at her parents’ small sewing factory in Hollywood.

Berberian’s new label, Sarine Marie, consists of well-tailored coats, capes, dresses, jackets, blouses, skirts, pants and jumpsuits made of various fabrics—from Italian and French silks, washed wool and Modal jersey to tweed, jacquards and ponte di Roma. Beaded silk fabric comes from India. Leather, such as washed lamb, is used for vests, dresses and jackets.

For her Fall line, colors gravitate toward solids in rust, dark caramel, burnt orange, plum, fuchsia, deep turquoise, eggplant and gun metal. There are touches of sparkly fabric.

And just to keep things from getting too serious, Berberian has developed a signature print that reflects the season’s colors. She uses the print to accent various pieces, such as the lining of a coat or the sleeves on a dress.

“I like things to look subtle,” said Berberian, who graduated in 2009 from the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in Los Angeles with an associate in arts degree in fashion merchandising.

Her silhouettes are clean with lace being one of the few frilly details seen on some pieces. A leather jacket has removable sleeves to turn the piece into a leather vest.

Berberian started doing the groundwork for her new line in 2011 by researching fabrics, trends and silhouettes for the label, which debuted for the Fall 2012 season. Her wholesale prices range from $75 to $360.

Already, a few celebrity stylists have culled pieces for photo shoots. Recently, Nancy C, a stylist for actress Maiara Walsh, who was on “Desperate Housewives,” selected 13 pieces for a photo shoot in Los Angeles’ Laurel Canyon that will appear in the magazine Regard.

Another stylist, Ali Levine, pulled a few pieces for a musical video being recorded with Japanese pop star Reemah.

Berberian is marketing her line to celebrity stylists to get her name out there. She is also attending a few trade shows, such as Moda Manhattan, where, in February, two salespeople said they were interested in representing her line. She also attended Stylemax in Chicago, where a handful of specialty stores placed orders.

On July 14, she participated in a fund-raising fashion show held at the Mercedes-Benz dealership in Calabasas, Calif., for the Nataline Sarkisyan Foundation Charity, named for a 17-year-old aspiring fashion design student who died before she could receive a liver transplant. The foundation raises money for students who want to study fashion design. Two people came up after the fashion show and bought six pieces.

Inside job

Berberian’s entire line, including samples, is made in her parents’ sewing factory, which is filled with more than 20 sewing machines, a small troop of mannequins, patterns hanging off the walls and swatches of fabric. It is where her mother, Elizabeth, and her father, Koko, did production until recently for Los Angeles contemporary labels such as Rozae Nichols, Raquel Allegra and Whitney Eve.

Sarine’s parents were raised in Beirut, Lebanon. Koko and his brother, Jack, and their mother, Mariam, also in the apparel trade, left after civil war broke out in the 1970s. Koko studied tailoring in Beirut and Paris before the family moved to the United States in the late 1970s.

In the early 1990s, the family opened Bon Choix, a menswear store and tailoring shop at 8026 Melrose Ave. In early 2000, they moved to South Santa Monica Boulevard in Beverly Hills for nearly two years until they closed and decided to concentrate on local production of high-end apparel at their Hollywood factory. Jack still operates Bon Choix Couture as a costume-design studio in Burbank, Calif.

Custom-made apparel has been one of the Berberians’ mainstays. Even when the family had stores, they did alterations and custom-made apparel for a well-to-do clientele that included oil billionaire Marvin Davis and his wife, Barbara; singer Tom Jones; and actor David Hasselhoff.

They also did costumes for the music industry, working with designer Bill Whitten, who designed many of the capes and heavily embroidered jackets worn by Michael Jackson.

If you saw a sparkly outfit worn on stage by Jackson, Neil Diamond, Doc Severinsen, Kenny Rogers or Lionel Richie, it might have been sewn by the Berberians.

Koko also worked with Whitten to develop the sparkly glove that Jackson wore while touring in 1984. The glove was developed and sewn by Koko. The beading was done by Artistic Hand Beading in Hollywood.

The Berberians also worked with Siegfried & Roy, doing all their costumes in 1988 for their extravagant Las Vegas show that featured white tigers and white lions.

Koko remembers working 16 hours a day, seven days a week for three months to get all the elaborate costumes done. Elizabeth was still sewing on the buttons as they drove a van to Nevada to deliver the wardrobe.

Now, they spend much of their time helping their daughter get her apparel line off the ground. Elizabeth dispenses tips on which fabrics will work with various silhouettes. Koko is the expert on quality finish and tailoring.

And Sarine is in charge of marketing and developing the contemporary styles and silhouettes she hopes will become a mainstay in high-end stores.

“I was born and raised in fashion,” Sarine said. “I feel we have a bright future.”

For more information, call (323) 663-9783 or visit www.sarinemarie.com. —Deborah Belgum