California Apparel News

Local buyers made for solid business at the California Market Center (CMC) gift and home accessories show April 7–9, which also saw a sprinkling of boutique owners from Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas in attendance.

It was the second show for CMC organizers since their arrival last August to Los Angeles with the purchase of about 1 million square feet of showroom space from the former California Mart. They held their preview show in January.

Organizers, who say the April show is the smallest of the year’s four-show lineup, expected attendance to hit 3,000 to 5,000 buyers, barely a tenth of the attendance anticipated for the center’s grand opening show July 16–23, which will run in conjunction with the July 20–23 California Gift Show at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

“We saw a lot of drive-in traffic, which is typical for this show—it’s a very regional market,” said Lori Eddleman, senior vice president of marketing for the CMC. “We received a great response from our direct mail package, which included badges. A number of buyers walked in with those badges.”

Eddleman said most of the retailers were smaller boutiques and specialty stores visiting the eight showrooms on the CMC’s 12th and 13th floors. She expects to see more of the national chains, including Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale’s, Williams-Sonoma and Pottery Barn, at the center’s summer show. By then more than 30 showrooms will occupy the ninth through 13th floors, she said.

With the arrival of gift showrooms at the CMC, executives are hoping buyers will shop the center’s apparel showrooms as well. Buyers at the show received pamphlets listing the suite numbers of apparel showrooms that would remain open throughout the event.

Mickey Lang, president of California Marketing Associates (CMA), which sells about 80 lines at the CMC, said he expects the mix of apparel and gift vendors at the center to benefit both groups.

“Our first two orders we received upon opening here were from apparel buyers,” he said. “That’s the nature of business these days. If you go down to Third Street [Promenade in Santa Monica, Calif.], you’ll find an eclectic mix of retailers selling gifts and apparel.”

Debra Carruth, executive sales coordinator for Firestone Associates, agreed. “Everybody’s crossing over now,” she said.

That was how Ed and Jan Thompson, co-owners of Agua Fria Hardware Feed in Blue Jay, Calif., shopped. In addition to purchasing artwork, fountains and planters for their garden-motif store, they branched out into pajamas and robes by Crabtree & Evelyn to complement the company’s soaps and perfumes they found at the CMA showroom. The CMA sales representatives suggested a visit to the NAP New York showroom on the center’s 10th floor for the clothes.

“We’ve got a great partnership with CMA—they send us customers, we send them customers,” said Angelina Perez, the sales representative for NAP, adding that the Thompsons’ robe order represented $2,000.

The crossover strategy, however, still has some bugs, due to the difficulty of navigating the complex’s three connected buildings.

“Nobody up there knows how to get down here,” said Ed Thompson, referring to the gift show floors upstairs in the center and the apparel showrooms on lower levels.

Eddleman acknowledged that it will take some time for tenants to learn how the buildings work.

“We’re trying to stay on top of it with directional signage, and we’re positioning people outside to act as greeters and point people in the right direction,” she said.

Otherwise, most buyers said their trips to the center were successful.

“The personal service was absolutely incredible,” said Jan Thompson, who spent $20,000 in two days at the show. “The sales representatives were very accommodating with great suggestions and ideas.”

Among the items appealing to apparel buyers were tin purses and CD cases made from California and Hawaii license plates by Littlearth Inc., hand-painted reading glasses by Art Wear and funky slippers, fuzzy pillows, bubblegum-colored nail polish and jewelry by Ms. Dee, according to Carruth.

She said bed and bath items as well as such home furnishings as throws and pillows were also sought out by apparel buyers.

Wedding items were top of mind for Sue Garber, who owns S.C. Garber in Santa Monica, Calif., but she expressed disappointment at the lack of selections at the show.

“Truthfully, it’s a lot of the stuff I’ve seen before,” said Garber, who added that she remains optimistic that the bigger show in July will provide more options. “This can definitely be a good resource for the small business who can’t afford to travel elsewhere.”

Other buyers lamented that Los Angeles has a long road ahead before it can effectively compete with such gift show leaders as Atlanta and Dallas. It’s a challenge Eddleman said the CMC is already tackling.

“It’s our goal to establish Los Angeles as a West Coast buying destination,” she said. “We have a great opportunity here to bring manufacturers back to this market who have left for a variety of reasons. We’re currently establishing leases with major manufacturers who haven’t [been] in L.A. for the past 10 years. This will help put Los Angeles back on the map.”