BNKR Flagship to Downtown LA
Retail
Australian retailer opening its U.S. flagship near the Ace Hotel.
Coachella Style for Fashionable Procrastinators
e-commerce
Coachella Music and Arts Festival revelers looking for a last-minute style update are in luck. Los Angeles–based e-tailer Revolve is offering same-day delivery to California’s Coachella Valley and surrounding areas during the festival’s two weekends.
South Coast Plaza’s DTLA Splash
South Coast Plaza shot its 2015 Spring Portfolio Lookbook in downtown Los Angeles. The cosmopolitan lookbook was celebrated with a gala dinner for fashion writers on April 7 at Perch, a bistro overlooking downtown's skyline.
Donald Pliner Leaving the Footwear Label He Founded
Manufacturing
Donald Pliner is leaving his position as creative director of the Donald J Pliner Company to “pursue new creative endeavors,” according to a statement released by the luxury footwear designer.
American Apparel Hires New Menswear Designer
Weeks after firing creative directors Iris Alonzo and Marsha Brady, American Apparel made a big hire in March by bringing on board Joe Pickman, a graduate of Parsons School of Design in New York and the former men’s design director of the Band of Outsiders label.
Sequential Brands Buys Major Stake in Jessica Simpson Brand
Sequential Brands Group announced it is purchasing a majority stake in the Jessica Simpson brand, including the Jessica Simpson Collection master license and other rights. No purchase price was given for the deal that should close in 90 days.
Fashion Industry in Focus
New Mart TV
Peter Kim, founder and CEO of Los Angeles–based Hudson Jeans, discusses the premium denim brand’s new Forever Forward campaign and mission in a video on the New Mart’s newly launched video portal, the New Mart Network.
ILWU Delegates Approve Tentative Agreement for Members’ Vote
West Coast Ports
The five-year tentative contract agreement between longshore workers and their employers has been given the thumbs up, paving the way for a vote that will set the contract in stone.
Tech Companies Look to Consumers and Connectivity to Drive Apparel Industry
Technology
From the shifting nature of analytics to consumers’ growing influence to the consumer connectivity of the “Internet of things,” key technology issues and their impact on apparel retailers and brands were discussed by technology experts who recently gathered in Los Angeles.
LA Men’s Market Moves to CMC Penthouse
Trade Show
LAMM is moving into the 93,000-square-foot penthouse floor of the California Market Center showroom building when its Holiday 2015 show takes a bow on April 7–8, said Kellen Roland, LAMM’s founder.
Targeting Women Who Want a Touch of Edginess
Ethereal
Designer Anita Rinaldi-Harnden is a big believer in garment-dyed clothes. For the past 20 years, she has worked with this special dyeing technique and fell in love with the endless possibilities it renders.
From Flights of Fancy to Feathered Jackets
Mother Plucker
Just east of downtown Los Angeles and you’ll find designers wandering among hundreds of bins of brightly colored feathers, racks of feathered boas and displays of feather flowers, elaborate feathered epaulettes and collars, and, of course, wings.
Fashion Week El Paseo
Haute in the Desert
Opening night of Fashion Week El Paseo put the spotlight on eight Southern California designers: Trina Turk, Eduardo Lucero, Kevan Hall, Anthony Franco, Lloyd Klein, Chagoury’s Gilbert Chagoury, Oliver Tolentino and Candice Held.
The U.S. Dollar Is on Fire: The Pros and Cons for U.S. Apparel Manufacturers.
Finance
The U.S. dollar is sailing at a 12-year high. A strong greenback means that if you travel overseas, hotels and restaurant dinners are cheaper. It also means raw materials produced overseas, such as fabric, zippers and buttons, have suddenly gone on sale.
Hank Pola Scholarship Winner
Events
Members of the Los Angeles fashion community met at the museum at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising to present FIDM student Karoline Korpor with the Hank Pola Scholarship.
Strong Dollar Makes Business Tough for Exporters
Retail | Finance
Since the beginning of 2015, Mike McGinley’s European retail partners have been telling him that they cannot afford his West Hollywood, Calif.–based LASC line of men’s activewear and swimwear—after years of selling LASC at their shops.
Patagonia Hits the Road Repairing Clothes
Environment
Patagonia's mobile worn-wear tour will repair used clothing to wear longer.
Simon Drops Macerich Bid
Retail
Simon Property Group, one of the biggest mall landlords in America, dropped its bid to acquire the Macerich Co., headquartered in Santa Monica, Calif., avoiding a possibly costly and lengthy proxy war.
American Apparel Reducing Work Force
Manufacturing
Some 180 workers are being let go by the Los Angeles apparel maker.
SwimSpot Pops in Glendale
It’s always kinda nice when it comes to weather in the L.A. area. But summer must be just around the corner. Swimwear brand SwimSpot just opened a seasonal pop-up at the Glendale Galleria.
