California Apparel News

Visitors to the California Mart during the June 1–5 market week may have noticed several new additions to the building. These additions have been introduced under the leadership of Cal Mart’s newly hired executive marketing director Trish Moreno.

One of the additions is the new directional signage in the building, letting buyers and visitors know where to find parking, food and retail shops. Moreno said the signage will be expanded to each floor of the building in order to make the building easier to navigate. The Cal Mart also added new showroom banners at the entrances of showrooms that were at market for the first time. And Moreno worked with the Fashion District Business Improvement District (BID) to bring added security to the neighborhood during market. The BID Clean and Safe team, which coordinated its efforts with Cal Mart’s own security personnel, was out in force during the week and stayed late on June 3, when the Cal Mart hosted its market cocktail party.

“The idea behind that was to show our buyer base when they arrive for market that we do care about keeping downtown clean and safe,” she said.

Brand Building

Moreno said she is also looking for ways to “raise the coolness factor” for the Cal Mart.

Some of her ideas include branding two areas of the Cal Mart: the Exhibition Hall and the soon-to-be-renovated 13th floor. Moreno said she would like to remodel the Exhibition Hall “so it has a little edgier feel.”Possible changes include new flooring and removing the dropped grillwork on the ceiling to open up the area.

“It’s not a low ceiling—it’s one of the higher ceilings in the building—but because of the grid it appears low,” she said, adding that one of the names she is considering for the space is “The Underground.”

The 13th floor of the Cal Mart is currently under renovation to open up 42,000 square feet on the B wing of the floor as an open exhibition space or party space with panoramic views. Moreno said she is considering branding the space as the “13th Floor” and has already received inquiries about the space for market week in November.

The building is also considering targeting other related businesses as possible tenants, Moreno said, noting that several “cream of the crop” fashion dot-com companies have expressed interest in taking spaces in the building. She also singled out stylists’ agencies as possible tenants who could “benefit greatly from being an escalator away from many of their potential resources.” Similarly, she is looking to bring more retailers’ buying offices to the building.

Arts Connection

Moreno said she is also looking to use areas of the building as artists’ exhibition spaces.

She is talking with Otis School of Design about displaying students’ fashion illustrations throughout the building. She also is looking to display the work of downtown Los Angeles artists in the building, including video artists to present fashion-themed works on the video wall in the lobby of the building, and graffiti artists to present their work in conjunction with urban manufacturers. The building is also considering bringing in artists to create work during Cal Mart events.

“We talked about doing some live art during market week, like bringing in an artist to create large-scale art like a mural or a large canvas in the lobby,” Moreno said, “so that it’s art for entertainment value, and then it would be incorporated into an evening event.”

Some of Moreno’s other plans for the building include:

bull; The planned relaunching of the Cal Mart’s revamped Web site, www.california mart.com, set for next month. The site will include a resource list that allows buyers to browse through the building’s tenants and print a shopping list of showrooms and labels before they come to market.

bull; Planning the return of the California Designer Awards, which have been on hiatus since 1999. The awards will be held in the spring in conjunction with the annual Congenital Heart Disease benefit hosted by the Hertz Investment Group, the parent company of the Cal Mart.

bull; Continuing to unveil the Cal Mart’s 2001 marketing campaign. The campaign is a continuous panel featuring fashion set against a distinctly Los Angeles background. The Cal Mart has unveiled a portion of the campaign at each market and will continue to do so through the end of the year, Moreno said.