California Apparel News

With newly painted interiors and tag lines that read “style starts here,” the California Market Center in Los Angeles officially unveiled its new look during the overlapping gift and apparel markets.

The joint market—and accompanying marketing campaign—opened the doors to a multi-category merchandise market aimed at becoming the key source for apparel, gift and home products in the West.

Gone are references to the California Mart, which has been the namesake for the 3 millionsquare- foot center since the ’70s. In are 50 brightly colored exterior banners that emphasize the fashion, gift and home element of the center as well as a brighter color palette, which includes lime green, throughout the interior of the atrium and lobby. New monument signage is conspicuous at Main and 9th streets and upcoming window treatments will decorate the Olympic Boulevard side of the building. An updated Web site at californiamarketcenter.com (the California Mart web site will be phased out this week), new source books and directories and an ambitious advertising campaign are also in progress. An official unveiling luncheon takes place on Jan. 17 for media and VIPs, but other visitors to Los Angeles Fashion Week and the California Gift Show can attend other events including a presentation by designer Bob Mackie, an evening of cocktails, buffet dinner and comedy by the Groundlings comedy troupe and trend-watch seminars by the Faith Popcornfounded Brain Reserve and color expert Lee Eiseman. It’s all part of a new campaign that the center’s management, which includes dmg world media, Market Center Management Company and George Little Management, LLC, hopes to result in traffic growth and new leases.

The CMC already has lured a number of vendors away from the L.A. Mart, which has historically been the gift and home center for Los Angeles, but the CMC wants an edge. In addition to emphasizing the cross-merchandising opportunities for gift and home and apparel vendors, the building is also adding small touches like the piano players in the lobby during market and highlighting tenants’ merchandise in product showcases throughout the building.

One of the goals of the new image campaign was to create lots of energy, said Jennifer Uner, executive director of advertising and communications for the CMC.

“We based a lot of the design and branding on California’s style and the lifestyle marketplace so popular here,” she said. “We’re at the intersection of fashion, gift and home, and that’s what we’re speaking to with this campaign.”

The center’s management didn’t skimp on its re-branding campaign. It used noted Santa Monicabased Louey/Rubino Design Group to do the imagery, logos, etc. Photography for the fashion, gift and home campaign was shot by Macy’s and Fredericks of Hollywood photographer Larry Bartholomew, who used Smashbox Studios to produce the center’s images.

“It’s nothing like the Dallas Market Center (which is also owned by Market Center Management),” said Uner. “We drew everything up from scratch and didn’t borrow anything from Dallas. We wanted the CMC to have its own identity.”

Before the Dallas-based group moved into the center, showroom occupancy was stagnating at about 70 percent, but the addition of gift vendors have moved that up substantially.

Uner would not disclose the cost of the image campaign, but the investment is necessary to compete, she said, since the market for gift, home products and apparel remains ultra-competitive. She said feedback thus far has been positive.

Tenants like Ginny Wong said, “anything can help, but it’s the lines and product that are going to bring people in.” —Robert McAllister