California Apparel News

The New Mart showroom building, along with the California Market Center and the Cooper Design Space in Los Angeles’ Fashion District, announced Jan. 19 that they would produce February market weeks Feb. 8–10 and Feb. 15–18. The New Mart announcement advised its tenants that participation in these in-person shows is voluntary.

The Designers and Agents trade show announced Jan. 19 that it would cancel its in-person show scheduled to take place in March in Los Angeles due to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. D&A will produce a virtual trade show on the website designersandagents.digital. D&A does intend to produce an in-person show in New York City Sept. 18–20.

The American Apparel & Footwear Association’s president and CEO, Steve Lamar, praised a mandate strengthening COVID-19 mask use on properties owned by the federal government, an executive order signed by President Joe Biden on Jan. 20. “It has become clear that face masks and coverings play an important role in keeping COVID-19 infections down, which is key to keeping American businesses open, American workers employed and American consumers protected,” Lamar said. Lamar hoped that governors and mayors around America would follow the new President’s lead.

ReCircled, LLC, a Denver-based company that develops paths for apparel and footwear brands to become sustainable companies, announced Jan. 20 that it had acquired Circlarity, LLC. Circlarity has developed a computer interface that helps brands manage and monitor retail-consumer return programs. Scott Kuhlman, Recircled’s chief executive officer, said that Circlarity’s interface is the only one of its kind that is commercially available.

PTC, a Boston-headquartered technology company, recently announced the rollout of FlexPLM V12, a redesign of the company’s user interface product lifecycle management platform. PTC says the redesign offers user-friendly features such as faster navigation as well as the new Visual Line Collaboration app, which supports a staff working remotely. “[The COVID-19 pandemic] combined with the continual compression of fashion cycles has given brands and retailers no choice but to double down on technology in order to drive speeds through their organization and bring more profitable products to market faster,” said Bill Brewster, senior vice president and general manager of PTC’s business retail unit.

DeSL, the Cardiff, Wales–founded digital-solutions provider, and New York City girls’ dressmaker Gerson & Gerson announced a partnership to implement the technology firm’s Digital Transformation PLM Essentials package at the childrenswear company. Through the package, the 86-year-old clothier will implement DeSL PLM, Ai Plug-In, PO Management and 3D integration features. “While a technology spend was not really on our radar in what has been an extremely challenging year, DeSL’s configurable software hits most of our longstanding pain points and promises to reduce waste, improve speed and allow tracking of remote teamwork with a high degree of accuracy,” said Gerson & Gerson President Barbara Zeins.