Apparel Makers Thinking Twice About Vietnam
Vietnam is being touted as the newest frontier for making affordably priced clothes, and it will become even more attractive after it joins the World Trade Organization on Jan. 11. But Califo...
New Cargo Inspection Facility at Local Ports Could Affect Traffic
Port of Los Angeles officials are making waves to build a multi-million dollar container-inspection facility near the docks to examine cargo containers that pose a high sec...
Tarrant Buys Canadian Rival
Tarrant Apparel Group, the long-time Los Angeles clothing company best known for its private-label blue jeans and its American Rag label sold at Macy’s and other Fed...
Turnaround Experts Take On Outdoor Label
Marty Weening has the cool look of a beat musician or of an avant-garde painter. His hair is parted in the middle and tumbles toward his shoulders....
Anti-Sweatshop Center Marks Fifth Annivesary
One of the first sweatshop cases the Garment Worker Center ever tackled as a new organization was pretty much a slam dunk....
Forever 21 Adds Heritage
L.A.–based fast-fashion retailer debuts concept store Heritage 1981...
In-Store Concept in Asia to Focus on L.A. Designers
The lineup of labels that will fill exclusive L.A. designer stores within department stores in Shanghai and Seoul is still being worked out....
Souped-Up Security at the Port Could Delay Apparel Imports
A shake-up of top customs officials in Los Angeles has import specialists worried that the government’s beefed-up security plans to defend the country’s borders may lead to delays in apparel imports at ...
Roxy, Roxywear Squabble Heads Back to Court
Call it the case that would never die....
Deal Makers for the Apparel Industry on a Roll
Five years ago, an up-and-coming boutique investment banking firm in Los Angeles took a small-but-hot blue-jeans company called Earl Jean Inc. and sold it to Nautica Enterprises Inc....
California Brands Look for a Route to China
Victor Cortese has never exported his clothing line overseas, but he is taking a good hard look at the wide-open consumer frontier offered by China....
Filipino Imports Stopped at Port
Thousands of boxes of apparel and textiles imported from the Philippines are being detained at the airports and seaports around Southern California in a crackdown on transshipping goods from China....
Business Groups Take Aim at Proposed Container Fee at L.A. Ports
If you want to see people get really angry, talk about charging a fee for anything they do....
S.F. Designers Struggle to Find Good Resources
SAN FRANCISCO—When it comes to discovering good patternmakers, sample makers and sewing contractors, up-and-coming fashion designers in San Francisco go to extreme measures to root them out....
San Francisco Fashion Week Spotlights Couture Creations and New Designers
A new location marked the third season for San Francisco Fashion Week, organized to bring more awareness to Bay Area designers....
Capitalizing on Brand Nostalgia
What’s in a name? When it comes to branding, quite a bit....
Swimming Through Legal Waters
A long-brewing lawsuit between a former swimwear executive and the Southern California company that employed him is about to go to court....
Texas Company Buys City Girl
City Girl Inc., a more than 60-year-old apparel company with several contemporary misses sportswear labels, has been sold to a Texas firm....
Going to the Source
Sourcing trips allow apparel manufacturers to scout factories and make contacts overseas...
Ending the Year With Quota to Spare
U.S. quotas on Chinese apparel and textiles won’t be used up this year ...
More Buyers, Fewer Orders at Hong Kong Fashion Week
HONG KONG—Rising fuel prices and political strife in the Middle East had many apparel manufacturers at the Spring/Summer 2007 Hong Kong Fashion Week worried that sales would be adversely affec...
Forever 21's Superstore
When Donald Chang launched his first clothing store in 1984 on Figueroa Street in Los Angeles, it was a mere 900 square feet....
So Cal's Eyes On the Ports
On a clear day, Capt. Manny Aschemeyer and his crew have a sweeping view of the nation’s busiest port complex and a 180-degree vista of the blue-gray Pacific Ocean down below....
Hollywood Isn't the Only Three-Ring Circus
Academy Award–winning costume designer Colleen Atwood ran away and joined the circus....
Port Security Measures Could Delay Cargo
Port workers may be hauling more than cargo this time next year....
Apparel Importers Start Filing for Tariff Rebates
The check is in the mail....
Customs Investigating Apparel Smuggled Into United States
Customs officials are searching for the exporter of more than 200 containers of apparel that were classified as furniture parts and toys before being shipped to the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach...
Apparel Producers Hope CAFTA Brings New Business to Region
GUATEMALA CITY—The 15th annual Apparel Sourcing Show held here May 16–18 and attended by 4,725 people underscored the widely held belief that Central America is a region in transformat...
Peak Shipping Season Set for Smooth Sailing
Peak shipping season, which runs from July to October, is shaping up to be a winner this summer....
Slow but Steady Growth in 2006
Rising real estate and gas prices may put a crimp in California’s economy ...
2009 Might Not Be the End for Apparel Quotas
U.S. apparel manufacturers and importers have high expectations that 2009 will be the year of free trade with China....
No Day at the Beach
Swimwear maker Beach Patrol put into receivership ...
Sourcing in Central America Has Many Advantages
David Gren used to travel all over the world to buy fabrics and find factories that could convert them into stylish clothing for teenagers and younger children....
Material World Looks to L.A. for Next Move
First there was Miami Beach, then New York, and now Los Angeles....
Daytime Pick-Up Fees to Increase at L.A.-Area Ports
Fees to pick up cargo containers during daytime hours at L.A.’s two ports are increasing by 20 percent on April 3....
Ports Trying to Balance Economic Gain with the Environment
If 2004 was the year of congestion at L.A.’s port complex and 2005 was the year of solution, what does that make 2006?...
L.A. Fashion Week Takes on International Flavor
This season’s Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at Smashbox Studios is taking on a certain foreign flavor, much like Los Angeles itself....
Calif. 'Sweatshop' Bill Falls Short
Two years after the state enacted an anti-sweatshop bill, little has been done to enforce it. Not one single contractor, be it a garment contractor or a food contractor, has been cited with violating ...
Fabric Mills Important to Sourcing Decisions
The next three years for U.S. clothing manufacturers will be a challenge as they try to balance the pros and cons of producing in various countries around the world....
Apparel and Textile Imports Top Priority for Customs Officials
Quotas on apparel and textiles will probably disappear at the end of 2008, but importers should be prepared for Congress to impose anti-dumping duties in 2009 if low-priced, Chinese-made clothing star...
Knitted Sweaters Unraveling in Red Tape
The headaches have already begun when it comes to importing apparel from China....
Colombia Relying on Free Trade Agreement for Competitive Edge in Textiles
MEDELLIacute;N, Colombia—Inside a brick and corrugated-tinroof building near the center of this textile capital, 900 workers are shaping blue jeans destined to be sold under the Naut...
World Market
A contingent of California companies are among the many exhibitors testing the expanded Hong Kong Fashion Week....
Ports Preparing for Cargo Push as China Exports Grow
The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif., used to be known as the places you didn’t want to send your cargo if you needed it in a hurry. All that changed in 2005 when the ports extended their ho...
Apparel Companies Waiting as CAFTA Countries Update Laws
The Central American Free Trade Agreement was supposed to spell s-u-c-c-e-s-s for the region’s apparel industry. Instead, it is translating into frustration....
Bidding for Quota
The practice of selling quota visas revived...
Booming With the Baby-Boom Generation
Da-Rue of California, the Los Angeles company whose sportswear line and retail outlets cater to the grandmother crowd, is flirting with a younger generation to grow its business....
Fed-May Merger Could Lead to Big Chargeback Headaches
The consolidation of two of the country’s largest department- store chains means that chargebacks will probably be on the rise next year for apparel manufacturers....
Customs Steps Up Inspection of Imported Pants From China
Call it the pants fiasco....
7 for All Mankind Moving Showroom
A move to the Cooper Design Space is adding up to more showroom space for 7 for All Mankind....
