California Apparel News

Beverly Hills-based menswear line Eisbar is looking to carve a niche for itself by diverging from the run-of-the-mill menswear lines of today. Part of the company’s strategy includes branching from its existing base of specialty boutiques into department stores and opening its own retail store.

The line is “a denim line for men, coming almost from a women’s aesthetic,” according to owners Bobby Benveniste and Kiernan Lambeth.

Eisbar began when Benveniste’s desire to leave the law profession and create a T-shirt line merged with designer Lambeth’s hard knowledge of fashion. One year earlier, the former Otis College of Art and Design student put his design training to work during a stint as a design assistant for Earl Jeans.

“I learned a lot at Earl,” said Lambeth. “I absorbed all that knowledge like a sponge, and one of the things they drilled into me was the pyramid: the bottom rung is the basics that drive your business and go every season. The middle is the fashion, which is a little more expensive, and then you have the top of the pyramid, which is completely fashion—maybe it’s just for press, maybe you don’t even sell it. You draw people in with the interesting stuff and then you sell them the basic stuff.”

Lambeth and Benveniste launched the line last fall and named it Eisbar (pronounced “ice-bar”), German for polar bear.

The two acknowledge that the collection is priced higher than other men’s lines, but it is targeted at the boutique-store customer who is looking for a more fashion-forward men’s line. But the current challenge is to move beyond the boutique-store base, Lambeth said.

“For women’s apparel, you can build a whole business out of boutiques. But the men’s business is so much smaller,” he said.

The company recently hosted a trunk show at Bloomingdale’s in the Beverly Center, which was well received although a consultant for the store explained the price points were too high.

“We want to go where the money is at, but we want to be cool, too,” said Lambeth.

Eisbar is seeking to strike a balance between what has already been working in the collection—basics with a design twist—and what people want to see on the horizon.

“We have pieces that we consider the American staple,” said Benveniste. “We have polo shirts, the T-shirt, warm-up pants, and what we’ve done is rework them in a way to be modern for right now. Our whole vibe is updating basics.”

The line is carried in Los Angeles retailers including Ron Herman-Fred Segal Melrose, Traffic, Lisa Kline, American Rag, Theodore and Prototype, as well as Patricia Fields’ in New York, Hub Clothing and Zoe in Arizona and online retailer Guyshop.com.

But the path to success has not always been smooth, the two explained. Eisbar had a sizable order of more then 130 pieces from Antique Boutique in New York, but one week before delivery the store reported that they had filed for bankruptcy and refused the order.

“For us, it was amazing,” said Lambeth. “We had all this stuff to send. It was already made. We bought the fabric, we got it sewed, embroidered and finished.”

The order refusal could have dented Eisbar deeply because they cut to order, but they were able to partially recover with immediate orders from other stores. Now they say they look at the incident as a learning experience and Benveniste said he will employ his legal skills to make certain that future orders spell out the consequences of last-minute order cancellations.

The two have also discovered that they can safely stray away from their fundamental design formula, while trying to develop their future.

“Our first season, we thought we would have to love every single piece and that each one would have to be priced perfectly,” recalled Lambeth.

“We don’t do that anymore,” said Benveniste. “We come out with pieces that people like, but that we know will garner a certain attention and vibe.”

Benveniste and Lambeth were introduced through a mutual friend at Otis, who thought they would work well together. Benveniste had already made overtures to creating his own line and Lambeth was frustrated with his employment situation.

Benveniste had “a very concrete vision of what he wanted, he just didn’t know how to execute it,” Lambeth recalled.

“I needed someone who had technical knowledge like where to buy zippers, how to get labels done, where to get patterns done, and that kind of stuff,” Benveniste added.

As a result, each designer has developed his own area of specialty in the company. Lambeth manages the creative side, drawing up the design ideas and developing the garments into reality, while Benveniste manages the communications of the company, developing the marketing, sales and generally getting people to look at the line.

“I know I’m not a talented illustrator,” said Benveniste. “I can’t even cut a straight line with a pair of scissors, but [Lambeth] can. I think we’ve broken off and figured out what we each need to do.”

The duo have been busy updating the designs and meeting with buyers and potential sales reps, but have limited their trade show exposure to MAGIC International, where they said they garnered several domestic retail relationships as well as a Japanese distributor. However, they said they are still uncertain if trade shows such as MAGIC will continue to work for them—as long as they continue to be a boutique store resource.

“I don’t know if MAGIC is going to be our thing in the future, because we’re a much more high-end boutique line right now,” said Benveniste, “MAGIC is much more basic. The good sellers have the stuff that isn’t too crazy.”

Lambeth said the boutique lines at MAGIC seemed to be idle, while the basic lines appeared to be “writing orders all day long.”

Both Lambeth and Benveniste emphasized that if their department store business blossoms, they will continue to be at trade shows. Eisbar is currently seeking showroom space and looking into hiring someone to rep the line.