California Apparel News

These are not easy times for manufacturer reps. And for those in the misses sector, it’s even more difficult. But as the going has gotten tougher, so have the reps.

Facing pressures from their vendors, dwindling attendance at trade shows and competition from contemporary brands, misses/updated representatives have reacted with hard work and creative tactics.

“Finessing” buyers, cultivating relationships and doing more groundwork have become standard ways of doing business, said a number of reps based on the second and third floors of the California Market Center in Los Angeles.

“You have to make the customer smile,” said Sharon Koshet, who owns Sharon Koshet Sales, which is based in two showrooms on the third floor of the CMC. During market weeks, Koshet breaks out four-star Italian cuisine and hires models to show off her lines. At the recent June market, she even brought in a former Miss Russia to model some eveningwear and threw a party for a buyer who had bought some new stores.

Did all the schmoozing pay off? It sure did, said Koshet, who said she logged near-record sales.

But the amenities are only part of the groundwork.

“Sharon is doing more work in between the shows than anyone,” said David Bershad, national sales manager for WWW Collections, one of several local lines that Koshet reps.

Koshet just returned from a road trip to Denver. She has been doing more direct mail these days and has been e-mailing photos of the latest offerings from her vendors. She also has been organizing special events and social occasions to draw buyers.

“I was thinking about a Botox party,” she joked. “But really, you have to do more things like this—trunk shows and creative events.”

Likewise, other reps on the third floor are doing a lot more traveling these days.

“The buyers are not traveling to the markets like they did five years ago,” said Sunny Myerson of Studio III, another third-floor showroom. “A lot of them can’t afford to go to five markets a year. We have to give them reasons to come here.”

Myerson and partner Bob Meyerson often pack up their van with lines and travel across the Western states to draw new customers.

Last fall, Sue Gershon of Lifestyle Clothiers organized a caravan trip with about 15 other reps to Scottsdale, Ariz., to stage a market at a local hotel. She is planning another trip to Arizona and eventually would like to stage an event in Colorado.

While sales reps have been taking the initiative to draw new customers, the management of the CMC has also made some inroads. Cecil Strickland was hired last August for that reason. The veteran industry executive has been traveling and recruiting in-state and out-of-state buyers to come to the CMC’s markets.

“The goal is to marry the retailer with the tenants we have here,” he said. “With the database we’ve developed, we know who has been here and who has not been here, so we’re trying to find out why they’re not coming back. We’re not just looking to fill the halls. We want to bring in quality retailers.”

Strickland said he has discovered that a surprising amount of store owners have never heard of the CMC or its former moniker, the CaliforniaMart. But with California fashion trending up, the incentives to come and shop are growing stronger, he noted.

But even with fashion, business is a challenge, Koshet said.

“As one buyer from a major specialty chain told me, she has to have something that makes her fall off her chair,” she said.

The specialty accounts that many misses/updated reps deal with have become particularly discerning over the years.

“Designers have made retailers look generic,” Bershad said. “With the majors, it’s all about the bottom line, and as a result, I think they’ve lost some perspective.”

Koshet has found success with locally produced fashions, such as eveningwear by Studio City, Calif.–based designer Roger Perry. A long black “Matrix” coat has been popular with buyers, she said. She has also had success with a flapper dress by Alberto Makali that is reminiscent of the ones worn in the movie “Chicago.” She draws on other local influences from designers Marion Metcalf and Mike Kazancian with a line called Solange, which uses European fabrics and modern styling.

“There’s a misperception that California fashion is all about juniors, but that’s not always the case,” Myerson said. —Robert McAllister