Vivienne Westwood to Show at Hong Kong Fashion Week
Vivienne Westwood and Andreas KronthalerFor all the years that I have been going to Hong Kong Fashion Week, this is probably a first.Fashion doyenne Vivienne Westwood will be presenting a runway show at Hong Kong Fashion Week, scheduled for...
Trina Turk Gives Some Design Tips to Otis Students
Trina Turk, in the center, works with Otis studentsThird-year students at the Otis School of Art and Design in Los Angeles got some expert advice from well-known Los Angeles designer Trina Turk on how to...
Out on a Lim
Phillip Lim at his West Hollywood store opening. Photo by John Schulli/Berliner StudioFashion designer Phillip Lim, now based in New York but raised in Southern California, is making a special appearance at the Los Angeles Museum of Art on...
Five Four Launches Retail Chain
Stepping into the corporate offices of Los Angeles apparel maker Five Four is much like entering a college dorm. ...
Where the Wild Things Roam
Don’t be alarmed if you’re driving down Main Street in the heart of the Los Angeles Fashion District and see a bold, zebra-striped building near 8th Street.Sam Cui, the owner of the two-story...
Picking Up Business in Material World's Wake
It’s no secret that in the past two years, trade shows have had a hard time attracting exhibitors and attendees because of the steep economic downturn....
Plaid Fad for Holiday
Los Angeles-based label Dilascia's Bakery. Photo by Felix SalzmanThe word out on the retail street is that flannel and plaid shirts did well in late October and are likely to be a hit item for the holiday season.At least that's the wisdom...
Even a Slow Economy Can't Keep Fashion Entrepreneurs Down
Try announcing you’re starting a new apparel line during this deep economic downturn and friends are likely to haul you off for a psychological examination....
Lightning Bolt Hangs Ten in Manhattan
Surfs up for Lightning Bolt, the relaunched surf and swimwear line that is finding that surf lovers don’t necessarily live by the ocean. They reside in Manhattan too.Lightning Bolt USA, now based on the edge of the Pacific Ocean in Venice, Calif., plans to open a pop-up...
L.A. Market Sees Retailers Thawing Out for Spring Season
You could feel the economic chill lifting inside the various showrooms scattered around downtown Los Angeles during the Oct. 16–20 run of Los Angeles Fashion Market Spring 2010....
L.A. Fashion Market Dates to Shift in 2010
Fall II, Holiday/Resort markets shifts to earlier dates, Tuesday–Friday schedule....
Looking to Marie Antoinette for Inspiration
Los Angeles Fashion Week is always filled with a few quirky displays of creativity to accent a look or make an artistic statement.Case in point were the wild wigs and their artistic toppings...
Copyright Case Ends in a Trial-Court Win for LA Printex
Over the past several years, LA Printex Industries Inc. has carved out a small claim to fame. ...
GlobalTex Launches Three-Day Show
The fabric trend trees at GlobalTex add a soft light and valuable information to the showRound two of GlobalTex, the international textile and sourcing fair, opened today at the Los Angeles Convention Center.This...
Diving Right In
Andy Blab, center, with Otis studentsThe Otis College of Art and Design, whose fashion department is located in downtown Los Angeles at the California Market Center, churns out a consistent supply of talented swimwear designers for the...
2010 Will See a Slow Liftoff That Will Gain Speed
If the storm is over, where’s the sunshine?...
Competition Fierce in Discount-Sales Business
Inside the spacious Los Angeles Convention Center, thousands of premium-denim jeans hang as far as the eye can see—enough jeans to fill several retail stores end to end....
Two Shows for the Price of One
The Los Angeles International Textile Show had a busy vibe as it kicked off on Wednesday with scads of textile booths located on the 7th, 12th and 13th floors of the California Market Center as well as in the fashion theater and the basement...
More for Halloween
Just in time for Halloween, Hips Curves, the Los Angeles-based Web site that sells plus-size lingerie and other accoutrements, has relaunched its online presence to add a new line of mix-and-match Halloween outfits. Think sexy costumes that include a...
Curfew Stymied Honduras' Apparel Production
A 42-hour countrywide curfew imposed after deposed President Manuel Zelaya was secretly ushered back into Honduras on Sept. 21 forced factories in the country’s apparel hub to send workers home and shu...
Customs Revs Up Apparel and Textile Inspections
U.S. customs inspectors at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have begun to pore over apparel and textile imports coming in from Asia, trying to determine if the goods are undervalued or misclass...
Seven Adds Up to Warehouse Sale
What do apparel manufacturers do when they have a lot of inventory sitting around their warehouses with no place to go?They call Jimmy Tung, the chief executive of The Warehouse Sale in Burbank, Calif., who has been conducting fire sales for clothing makers...
Popping Up in San Francisco
For the longest time, the New York-based label Phi has been a tough commodity to find in northern California.But that changes on Sept. 2 when a Phi pop-up store materializes inside the Carrots boutique in San Francisco.The new store within a store will launch...
Fire From the Fashion District
From the Fashion District in downtown Los Angeles, the vista of the huge Station fire that started near La Cañada Flintridge looks like an atomic-bomb explosion.By 4 p.m. on Monday, the fire had gobbled up 21 homes and 105,000...
Party Time for FGI
A look from Los Angeles label The Battalion If you're a member of Fashion Group International, (or just a mere fashion lover) you're in luck.The fashion-centric networking group is organizing a little...
Cargo Carriers Pushing Higher Shipping Rates to Stem the Red Ink
For the past year, retailers and apparel importers have had few good-news packages delivered their way....
Blowout at Brooks Brothers
Max Pierce, the dtowntown Los Angeles store manager You can tell that Wall Street has been pretty badly hit by the economy when Brooks Brothers decides to hold its very first warehouse sale in its downtown Los Angeles store.Los Angeles isn’t the only location for...
Immediates, Accessories Fare Best at Slow L.A. Market
Tucked into a busy trade show calendar, the Holiday/Resort market in Los Angeles is never one of the larger markets, but for its Aug. 7–11 run the Los Angeles Fashion Market was exceedingly qu...
Supply-Chain Blogs Help Navigate Tricky Problems
In the past few years, as the economy has taken a dip and the supply chain has become more complicated, a host of blogs have popped up giving sage advice for businesspeople trying to increase profits ...
Rearranging Spaces
Showroom owners turn to feng-shui practices to maximize their work spaces....
Barneys Sale Heads to Downtown Los Angeles
Italian boots marked down from $410 to $124Fans of the Barneys warehouse sale that started today will be in for a rude surprise this year.The mammoth discount blowout on high-end goods isn’t at its tried-and-true traditional location…Barker Hanger in Santa Monica, Calif.Instead, it has moved...
Buy a T-shirt, Plant a Tree
We have all seen the T-shirts with a message. But Tees for Change takes it one step beyond. Every time a customer buys a T-shirt, they help plant a tree. At the moment, they are up to a little more than 10,000 trees planted in mostly developing...
With Stansfield, C&C California Hopes to Recapture Its Cool
Inside Claire Stansfield’s roomy office, the bright fluorescent lights are turned off and soft table lamps cast a soft glow on the walls....
Riding the Waves With Photography
Surfwear maker Hurley has a roster of artists it sponsors to keep the creative powers working.One of the more outstanding is Clark Little, a former pro surfer turned photographer. Little’s specialty is capturing...
Morrie's Is the Place for Bargains
Bargain hunters are a breed of their own. But during these tough economic times, the breed is multiplying. Just ask Gary Pazornik, who with his sister, Maxine, runs one of the oldest independently owned off-price clothing stores in the Los Angeles Fashion District. Not only...
A Slow Recovery and Rising Unemployment for 2010
The number of people without jobs will climb in California and Los Angeles County through 2010 as the economy takes its time getting back on its feet....
Economy Is a Challenge at Hong Kong Fashion Week
HONG KONG—Outside in the hot, humid air, Florian Gashi took a break from Hong Kong Fashion Week to puff on a cigarette and collect his thoughts....
Plying the Waters to Get to Hong Kong Fashion Week
HONG KONG—If the idea of watching too many fashion shows or seeing too many apparel booths overwhelms you at Hong Kong Fashion Week, one way to catch a breath of fresh air is to hop aboard the Star Ferry from Hong Kong Island, where the...
Six Degrees of Separation at H.K. Fashion Week
HONG KONG—Here at Hong Kong Fashion Week, there are always some event that makes you think there is only six degrees of separation between you and everyone else, even if they live on...
Center Stage at Hong Kong Fashion Week
Espen Salberg, center, with the models who showed his Spring/Summer 2010 line at Hong Kong Fashion WeekHONG KONG—Hong Kong Fashion Week is a great place to debut your fashion if you...
Hong Kong Fashion Week Kicks Off
Michael Lau at Hong Kong Fashion WeekHONG KONG—The hot and humid weather in Hong Kong made it all more appealing to hide out in the air-conditioned Hong Kong Convention Centre for the...
Betting That 7 For All Mankind Beats the Odds
Inside the 7 For All Mankind headquarters in Vernon, Calif., the ambience is befitting one of the biggest premium-denim lines in the United States. The former warehouse turned architectural g...
Illegal Yarns in Central America Hurting U.S. Textile Factories
U.S. yarn makers started suspecting something was fishy in Central America two years ago when fabric knitters in that region said they could buy U.S. yarn for only $3 a kilo instead of the prevailing ...
Price-Conscious Buying at Los Angeles Market
The mood at the June 12–16 Fashion Market was up as buyers perused everything from Immediates to Fall and Holiday styles. “It was the most positive market I’ve seen in a while,” s...
Gas Prices Should Peak in July and Then Decline
With gasoline prices creeping up six weeks in a row, retail experts are fretting that consumers will start feeling financially drained and put lockboxes on their wallets when buying clothes....
L.A. Designer Kevan Hall Opens Gallery Space in Malibu
Kevan Hall's designs were recently seen on the runway at The Colleagues event during L.A. Fashion Week in March. (Photo by Volker Corell)Kevan Hall is moving to Malibu—at least, temporarily. The designer, whose creations have been a...
Will Congress Help the Apparel Industry With New Trade Law?
Could the third time be the charm for a trade bill lowering tariffs on apparel and textiles from some of the poorest countries in the world?...
Central America Bets on Speedy Delivery to Grow Its Apparel Industry
GUATEMALA CITY—As Central American apparel and textile factories try to maximize the benefits of the free-trade agreement with the United States, they are learning that their one advantage is shaping u...
Trade Growth Is a Must for Economic Recovery
Even though the U.S. economy is in the doldrums, protectionist barriers shouldn’t be erected to impede the free flow of goods, according to former U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor, who spoke rec...
Designers Find Growth in New Distribution
To wander through the studios of Los Angeles’ designers during these taxing economic times is to see creativity working in overdrive....
