California Apparel News

After almost two decades of only manufacturing juniors fashions, Los Angeles–based Rhapsody Clothing Inc. is making its first venture into the contemporary market.

Liberty Sage took a bow at Coterie trade show in September. It will make its first shipment on Jan. 30. Bryan Kang, Rhapsody’s president and chief executive officer, said that the time is right to sell a contemporary line because consumers want a contemporary alternative compared with the fast fashion that has been wildly popular over the past few years.

“They enjoyed disposability,” Kang said of consumer choices in the recent past. But times and tastes have changed. “Our customer wants silk, not polyester.”

Contemporary styles, typically defined as better-priced clothes for women, is different enough from juniors, which are considered clothes for teens and pre-teens. The markets and manufacturers for juniors and contemporary rarely mix.

While some of the world’s best-known fashion brands are labeled as contemporary, there is still opportunity in the crowded market, said Ilse Metchek, president of the California Fashion Association, a prominent trade group. “The timing is right because teen spending on fashion is slowing. There’s an oversupply of teen fashion,” she said.

In June, Kang hired a contemporary designer, Mario Baltazar, to lead his company’s contemporary initiative. For its debut collection, Liberty Sage will offer 50 styles. It’s intended to outfit women for the office and casual dress.

The line’s styles include a tuxedo-style jacket and pant, a chiffon overshirt, a T-shirt with a chain-link print, a maxi-dress with a variegated stripe, a knee-length tunic dress, and denim-driven tops.

Baltazar hopes that Liberty Sage will eventually be a lifestyle brand. Gene Zuckerman, the brand’s national sales manager, hopes to place it in better department stores.

Liberty Sage’s core wholesale price points range from $48 to $68, and its entire range goes from $42 to $80. Rhapsody cast a very wide net for its target market. It will range from young women to those in their middle age. “Women in their 40s and 50s have the buying power,” Zuckerman said.

Kang said that women from all age groups will be attracted to Baltazar’s designs. Baltazar hopes to attract multitudes of women to the line because it will be easy to wear. “The fit is made to make every wearer comfortable,” Kang said. “Necklines that are not too revealing and skirts that are not too short.”