HALE BOB

Hale Bob Opens Direct-to-Consumer Sales After Runway Shows

The Los Angeles–based Hale Bob label held a fashion show on March 17 at Style Fashion Week in West Hollywood, Calif. But Daniel Bohbot, the label’s founder and owner, announced that he will add a direct-to-consumer element to all of his upcoming fashion shows.

“Now we are presenting the line for fewer professional buyers. The consumer wants the product right away,” Bohbot said. “Just after the fashion show, they will be able to purchase the clothes. It will be available to the ones who want it.”

Items from Hale Bob’s Summer 2016 line, dubbed the Coachella Collection, were available for sale the morning after its show on the label’s website (www.halebob.com), according to a company statement. The collection is currently available on the site.

Bohbot plans to produce a runway show with a direct-to-consumer sales element four times a year. The next one is tentatively scheduled for September.

There’s been a lot of talk across the fashion industry on providing direct-to-consumer sales immediately after runway shows, said Mike Vensel, producer of the LA Fashion Week runway show Concept, which was on hiatus this season, and designer for the contemporary line Mike Vensel.

“People know it will happen,” Vensel said of the direct-to-sales model. “But we’re still stuck in old production cycles. There are still minimums and delays.”

If a much faster production cycle is in every company’s future, Vensel said it will be a double-edged sword. It will produce unrelenting pressure on designers and labels to be constantly innovative. “The industry used to take six months to create a new collection; they would ship and take a vacation. Now there are no breaks. You can’t stop rolling.”

A newer model might benefit local manufacturers. “It creates a need for production to be on the same street as a label,” Vensel said.