California Apparel News

Urban Suburban, the California Market Center’s (CMC) young men’s urban apparel trade show, will expand to include more junior lines as well as footwear and accessories for its next run, according to Karen Mamont, director of merchandising and public relations for the CMC.

Lines including Triple Five Soul, Pepe Jeans London and Koperhaus will feature their companion or “girlfriend” lines at the Sept. 30–Oct. 2 show on the CMC’s fourth floor.

“This is the show for the hard-hitting lines that bring together hip-hop, athletic and retro influences,” said Mamont. “With the expansion into juniors, footwear and accessories, we’re proud to say this has become a veritable one stop for retailers in this category.”

Urban Suburban highlights the fusion of music and fashion, which is demonstrated the strongest in the urban category, with such music artist–owned lines as Snoop Dogg, Phat Farm, J.Lo and Rocawear. Those lines and others including FUBU, Ecko Unlimited, L-R-G, Pelle Pelle, Karl Kani, Johnny Blaze and Mecca are the strongest buyer-drawing lines, said Mamont.

“This show contines to get stronger every year, powered by the category’s essential and proven lines,” said Mamont. “These are the names that buyers want to see—the ones that have shown that they can perform at retail and are consistently reordered.”

New additions to the show are four lines introduced at the MAGIC International trade show in Las Vegas last month, including Fila’s urban collection, called Fila Vintage; Who’s Your Daddy, an urban line that began with tops but has expanded to bottoms and juniors; a young men’s line from Carlos Santana; and the Fender-branded line by Da Vinci, which will show both its young men’s and junior collections.

While new lines are added to each show, Mamont said that the CMC takes care to avoid startup lines with no retail presence.

“We really do make sure that the lines are proven, reputable urban lines that are wellknown and that are an attraction for buyers to see,” said Mamont. “We don’t put new startup designers in the show, because we want buyers to come and see lines that have been retailing and are going forward.”

Other highlights of the Urban Suburban show include a live deejay, DJ Addaverse, stationed on the bridge between the “A” and “B” sections of the CMC and a Krispy Kreme lounge with coffee and the popular doughnuts for buyers.

Urban Suburban was championed by Mamont and Rob Ghosn of Ecko Unlimited, who brought the show to the CMC and nurtured it through its expansion on the center’s fourth floor. The upcoming show is Urban Suburban’s fifth installment.

Inviting Competition

Urban Suburban is dwarfed by the mammoth Streetwear section of MAGIC, but the show has had no local competition since it launched two years ago. However, that seems likely to change as new shows throw their hats into the ring. Urban Rocks Fashion, a new urban show merging music and fashion, was originally scheduled to debut in Los Angeles this fall but has now merged with veteran men’s trade show West Coast Exclusive and will debut as a part of that show next February in Las Vegas.

Urban Rocks Fashion is both a fashion trade show and a discussion forum and will feature mainstays of urban apparel, but it will focus on the high end of urban apparel for men and women as well. The show will concentrate on presenting the collections to buyers in hotel suites.

And Billy Foster, owner of Los Angelesbased label Billy Bad Ass Clothing, announced his intention to debut L.A. Urban Fashion Week during Los Angeles Fashion Week Nov. 1–5. According to Foster, his show will take place primarily at the Cooper Building in the Fashion District.

New Urban Showrooms

Regarding the Fashion District’s Gerry Building, which reopened earlier this month, the building’s director of leasing, Larry Hudson, said that while the Gerry has no plans for an urban show, its fourth floor has been targeted for denim and streetwear resources.

“There may be some regular denim mixed in, but it’s all a matter of timing,” he said. “I’m not going to keep any of the areas pure, because you pigeonhole yourself. Let’s say I can only obtain four people who are street—then I will have holes in that floor.”

Hudson said that he wants the lines on that floor to work well together, but he doesn’t want them solely to be urban.

“I definitely have some street-oriented tenants that have already signed or are in the process of signing or that I’ve been speaking to,” he said. “I want it to be synergistic, but I won’t make it a pure situation where I paint myself in the corner. I won’t put streetwear with intimate apparel, but I don’t want to keep junior away from street.”

According to Hudson, junior denim and junior streetwear lines will be added to the mix, including three lines being brought in by Jeff Murrell of Mocha & Associates—Geek Boutique, a junior denim-based line from Canada; OK47, a T-shirt line, also from Canada; and a new street-oriented line licensing the Technics audio equipment brand.

Murrell, who said he should be moved in by the first week of October, plans to bring a deejay and “lounge atmosphere” to the showroom.

Hudson said that the lines coming onto the floor should all follow a similar style.

“A lot of the people I’m dealing with tend to be a new breed of energetic, highly motivated people who don’t sit back and rest on their history,” he said. “It’s really about people being confident about their business no matter who they are next to or what floor they are on. I’ve had people come in twos and threes who want to be together.”