Designers & Agents Kicks Off Fall I Market with Fashion Forum
Designers & Agents (D&A), the biannual contemporary show held in the New Mart, opened its Fall 2001 show with a roundtable of industry executives, show organizers and retailers, who stressed Los Angeles’ role in the national and global fashion community.
“Los Angeles [fashion] is more fun, more inspired and has more sexiness in its fashion than is found in Europe,” said Margot Werts, of American Rag, one of three retailers on the panel, which convened in the New Mart’s fashion theater.
Jeanine Braden, creator of Fred Segal Flair, said she recently returned from Europe, where she found Los Angeles-inspired fashion had taken hold.
“The European market this time, to me, was very L.A. driven—denim and T-shirts—what we’ve been doing forever,” she said.Braden, who also is a co-owner of consumer e-tail site PurpleSkirt.com, said two years ago, when she was pregnant and unable to travel to New York and Europe, she bought all her Flair merchandise from D&A. The buyer said the Designers & Agents show frequently represents a focused sampling of resources she typically sees at Fashion Coterie in New York.
“The show is great because when I go to New York, I am inundated with aisles and aisles and aisles. Barbara [Kramer] and Ed [Mandelbaum] have a knack for sifting people out.”
D&A organizers edit contemporary resources “down to a concise, tight package,” said Carl Dias of Los Angeles-based contemporary and men’s boutique Traffic.
“Time is the most precious commodity I have,” he said.
Show organizers Kramer and Mandelbaum stressed both the show’s steady growth since its beginning in 1999 and the pair’s hopes for the future—which include moving Los Angeles’ market dates up to make the show more internationally accessible.
Mandelbaum said Los Angeles’ current market dates need to “be brought a little earlier in” order to avoid conflict with existing market days both domestically and internationally, “to include the world.”
“That way people who can’t show in L.A. will now be able to,” he added. “As of now, half of the product out there is not being shown here because of this.”
Mandelbaum advocates holding Los Angeles market during the last week of March and the last week of October. He also noted that Los Angeles is poised to be a recognized fashion center—but the dates need to be moved from last on the show calendar.
“The creative content is here, the excitement of the media is here,” he said. “Everything is situated here, waiting for something to occur.Designers & Agents wants to be a part of that.”
Braden said there was some benefit to holding the last place on the fashion calendar. “The L.A. show is last but sometimes, we catch the trends and that’s good for everybody that doesn’t buy designer,” she said.
The design-based attitude and the diversity of Los Angeles “where no one culture predominates” were the two features that Ilse Metchek, executive director of the California Fashion Association, said made Los Angeles a “unique” fashion center.
“You can go to one side of the city and find one style,” she said, “then, go to another area and find another fashion.
“Nineteen of the automobile brands have design showrooms here, so there must be something to our atmosphere,” added Metchek, who is also the executive director of L.A. By Design, a division of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. that promotes design industries in Los Angeles.
Los Angeles dictates its own fashion trends, Metchek stated, before adding, “If New York says that black is in, we’re here to tell you that’s not true.”
Kramer said that D&A grows and finds designers using their own research methods and relying on the recommendations of fashion publications and buyers. Additionally, they have formed a committee that meets to view the recommended designers and select the show participants based on creating a balance for the show between ready-to-wear styles and accessories.
Designers & Agents opened on Friday, March 30, and ran through Tuesday, April 3. The next show will be held during the Nov. 2–5 run of Los Angeles’ Spring 2002 market.
