‘Optimistic’ Outlook at Fashion Market Northern California
FMNC
Booth space was sold out at the April 3–5 run of Fashion Market Northern California, which is held at the San Mateo Event Center in San Mateo, Calif., and attendance was on par with last April, according to Suzanne de Groot, executive director of the show.
Design in the Desert
With LA Fashion Week wrapped, the fashion crowd next heads to Palm Springs, Calif., for Fashion Week El Paseo.
Stony Apparel’s Maiman and Litman Help Raise More than $800,000 for City of Hope
Events
Stony Apparel founders Steve Maiman and Tony Litman received the City of Hope Spirit of Life award on March 12 at an event that raised more than $800,000 for the research and medical center.
Diane’s Says Get Festivaled
Diane’s Swimwear wants to help you get ready for festival season, which kicks off on April 15 with the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival.
Obituary: Textile Representative April Booth, 67
Textiles
Los Angeles textile-industry veteran April Booth died on March 12 of natural causes at her home in Visalia, Calif.
Italian Denim Mill Candiani Opens L.A. Design Center
Candiani in LA
Designers and denim brand owners turned out to celebrate the opening of the Candiani Los Angeles Design Center on March 16 in downtown Los Angeles.
Fall ’16 Market Draws Mixed Reviews
Fall ’16 Market
For some at the recent Los Angeles Fashion Market, it was an opportunity to place Fall 2016 orders. For others, it was a chance to replenish depleted inventory.
Shopping=Empowerment
Joie Rucker and Caroline Calvin, the designers of Los Angeles-based brand Calvin Rucker are hosting a sample sale to benefit Girl Up, the United Nationals Foundation’s campaign to help adolescent girls around the world.
Label Conscious: Designed in California
Manufacturing
CFA’s trademarked hangtags put the emphasis on country of design.
Single Goes Curvy With Single Plus
Single Goes Curvy
What started as an exclusive for Saks Fifth Avenue has branched into a new collection and a new customer base for Los Angeles label Single.
XCVI Movement: Crossover Contemporary
XCVI Movement
Los Angeles–based contemporary label XCVI introduced a new athleisure collection, called XCVI Movement, at the beginning of the year.
Thomas Wylde: L.A. Collection Looks to Build the Brand and the Business
Luxe and LA-based
For 10 years, Thomas Wylde built a reputation as a high-end collection that balanced its luxe pieces—and equally high price points—with a rock ’n’ roll edge.
Factory Direct Returns for 3rd Season With Production Resources for Small and Mid-Sized Companies
Low-MOQ sourcing
Sourcing trade show Factory Direct returned for its third run at The New Mart with a tightly curated mix of factories, design development houses, technology providers, and other resources for small- and mid-sized apparel companies.
Light Traffic, ‘Enthusiastic’ Buyers at LA Textile Show
Scouting for Textiles
The traffic reports were mixed, with some textile mills and representatives saying the last day was busiest at the Los Angeles International Textile Show, held Feb. 29–March 2 on the top floor of the California Market Center.
Obituary: Marik Zeltzer, co-founder XCVI, 70
Manufacturing
Marik Zeltzer, who cofounded the XCVI brand with his wife, Gita, died on Feb. 23 after suffering a heart attack. He was 70 years old.
Robot Meets Mannequin
A Professor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s Institute of Textiles and Clothing has developed a dress form than can shift from a size 2 to a size 12—and back again—with the flip of a switch.
Wholesale Jewelry Show IFJAG Bows in Las Vegas
Long-running wholesale jewelry show IFJAG debuted its first Las Vegas show during its Feb. 15–19 run at Bally’s Las Vegas Hotel and Casino.
Call it a Comeback
Two years ago, former financier Jacob Harrison Long set out to revive a shuttered 19th century textile mill in Connecticut with the hopes of launching a collection of American-made woolen fabrics.
Curve@MAGIC Debuts New Format for Lingerie/Swim
Trade Shows
This season, rather than show in an enclosed space next to WWDMAGIC at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Curve@MAGIC was held within WWDMAGIC in an area easy for buyers to spot with large signage, balloons and strings of pastel panties between the booths.
Pool Relocates Within Project
Trade Shows
After several seasons moving around the Mandalay Bay Convention Center, the Pooltradeshow has a new home within the Project show at Mandalay Bay.
Diverse Mix at Project, Project Womens, The Tents and The Collective
Trade Shows
Buyers visiting the Mandalay Bay Convention Center had a lot to see during the Feb. 16–18 run of trade shows produced by MAGIC and Project parent UBM Advanstar.
D&A to Launch U.S.–Made Concept in Partnership With N.Y. Economic Development Group
Trade Shows
At the September run of Designers and Agents in New York, a new concept will bow showcasing designs that are made in New York.
Bustling Milano Unica Show Prepares to Relocate Next Season
Milano Unica
Traffic kicked off early during the Feb. 9–11 run of Milano Unica, the textile trade show that focuses on upscale fabrics.
Buyers Navigate Multiple Venues, Categories at Las Vegas Shows
L.V. Trade Shows
When visitors arrived at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas for the Feb. 16–18 run of Project, Project Womens, Pooltradeshow, Collective and The Tents, the registration line snaked around the lobby, forcing buyers to wait up to 30 minutes to get their badges and enter the trade show.
Express Trade Opens Los Angeles Office
Finance
New York–based Express Trade Capital Inc. now has a West Coast office, which is headed by Dina Davletshina.
Turkish Denim Mill Bossa Opens Showroom in LA
Denim
To celebrate the opening of its new showroom in downtown Los Angeles, Turkish denim mill Bossa hosted a grand opening party and denim trend presentation on Jan. 15.
Capsule Moves to Pier 92
Capsule's New Home
For its Jan. 26–28 run, Capsule trade show moved to a new location, Pier 92 on New York’s west side, from its previous location at Basketball City on the city’s Lower East Side.
Project Exhibitors Hustle for Business Amid N.Y. Snowstorm
NY Hustle
One day after a historic snowstorm dumped two feet of snow on New York, menswear trade show Project opened its doors for its Jan. 24–26 run at the Javits Center. The storm cut into traffic on opening day, but exhibitors scrambled to rebook appointments and make the most of the remaining days of the show.
MRket New York Bows Activewear Section, Fashion Installations
Fashion + Active
Outside the Javits Center, people were bundled up in winter coats and snow boots, but inside at the MRket menswear trade show, men in shorts and T-shirts were taking their turn on the Cycle for Survival bike to help raise funds for rare cancer research at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
Liberty Fairs NYC Skirts New York Snowstorm
Fair Weather
Most buyers arriving for the Liberty Fairs NYC show at Pier 94 in New York missed the historic snowstorm and the resulting travel cancellations.
Milano Unica’s Second Run in New York Coincides With Historic Snowstorm
Trade Shows
NEW YORK—Late in the afternoon on the last day of the Milano Unica trade show, two designers were walking in and out of booths showcasing luxury Italian fabrics.
Texworld USA Offers a Showcase of International Textile, Fiber and Trim Resources
Trade Shows
Before winter storm Jonas slammed into New York on Jan. 22, organizers of international textile show Texworld USA said preregistration was up 25 percent for the show’s Jan. 24–26 run at the Javits Center.
Denim from the 19th Century to the 21st
Denim
Levi Strauss filed the first patent for a distinctive pair of work pant made from a twill fabric in 1873. But denim work pants—or jeans—had been worn even earlier. The Fashion Institute of Technology recently organized “Denim: Fashion’s Frontier,” an exhibition charting the history and evolution of jeans, at the Fashion and Textile History Gallery at the Museum at FIT in New York.
Barbie, Just Like Us
Toy giant Mattel has unveiled a newly revamped Barbie collection designed to more accurately reflect the diversity of the children who play with the doll.
Fashion’s Mini Michel
Fashion on Film
Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Berlin has unveiled the secret talent behind French fashion show sound engineer Michel Gaubert. It’s his assistant Petit Michel and he’s a total doll.
Zoolander 2's Beauty Spot
"Zoolander 2" features Kristen Wiig as beauty mogul Alexanya Atoz famous for a product called “Youth Milk.”
Crew Knitwear Hires Former Kellwood Exec as CEO
Manufacturing
Los Angeles–based Crew Knitwear, maker of the Bobeau and H.I.P. brands, has hired Tricia Franklin as chief executive officer.
L.A.–Based Brentwood Associates Buys Boston Proper
Retail
Boston Proper, the multichannel retailer owned by Chico’s FAS Inc., has been acquired by Los Angeles–based private-equity investment Brentwood Associates for an undisclosed amount.
Active Collective Returns for Second Solo Show
Focus on Activewear
Active Collective, the activewear and athleisure show that bowed last year in Huntington Beach, Calif., returned for its second solo show with 90 exhibitors showing their collections Jan. 15–16 at the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort.
Focused Buyers Turn Out
LA Market
January market in Los Angeles is typically a low-key affair with retailers looking to fill in depleted inventories after the holiday season or buyers looking to review lines in a more-relaxed setting before the crush of the Las Vegas trade shows in February.
Space Couture
Virgin Galactic teamed up with Y-3, the Adidas/Yohji Yamamoto collaboration, to create flight suits for Virgin's commercial spaceships.
Showroom Profile: Mystree
New Lines
On Jan. 1, Jerry and Judy Wexler moved into their new showroom on the sixth floor of The New Mart. At 1,200 square feet, the new space is more than 400 square feet larger than their previous location on the second floor of the California Market Center.
Showroom Profile: Succarra
New Lines
The Succarra showroom is in New York, Dallas and Atlanta, but until six months ago it did not have a home in Los Angeles. That changed with the opening of the newest Succarra location at the Cooper Design Space.
Obituary: Sales Representative Mitch Stedman, 90
Manufacturing
Longtime sales representative Mitch Stedman died on Dec. 30 at the age of 90. A familiar figure in the California Market Center (previously called the CaliforniaMart) and a fixture in the California apparel industry, Stedman and his late wife, Susan Barry, are remembered as consummate professionals who loved the apparel industry.
Finance One’s Shanghai Office Assists Local Importers, Provides Networking Services
Finance
Finance One opened its first international branch last fall in Shanghai after a five-year process to secure new business partners in China and ensure that the Los Angeles–based factor has done its due diligence regarding international laws and regulations for overseas trade and financing.
