Agenda Heads to CMC
Agenda is revving up its fashion focus and bringing its progressive street brands to the California Market Center during the Oct. 31–Nov. 4 run of Los Angeles Fashion Week.
Agenda will share the eighth floor of the CMC with the Wahine trade show, a small group of women’s contemporary apparel and accessories designers from New Zealand.
Agenda is a blend of music, fashion and art with a focus on California lifestyle apparel for men and women. Organizers Luis Pulido and Aaron Levant launched the show in January 2003 in Long Beach, Calif., and San Diego as sort of a side dish to the more mainstream Action Sports Retailer Trade Expo.
Although Pulido declined to discuss the terms of the contract with the CMC, he said the arrangement is part of a multi-year contract.
Buyers from Valsurf in the San Fernando Valley, Active in the Inland Empire, Fred Segal Santa Monica and The Closet in Orange County are expected to come to the show to view more than 100 lines by independent streetwear labels including Puma, Greenappletree, Leche, Matador, Fresh Jive, Lithium, The 7th Letter, Discotheque and MNT. Agenda’s organizers have added new exhibitors to the lineup including Stussy, 55 DSL, Zoo York, Rvca, PF Flyer and XLarge.
Agenda’s quick rise in the trade-show world is reflected in its exhibitor list, which has more than doubled since the event’s inception earlier this year. Since then, Pulido and Levant have formed a parent company called Milk Distribution, which will produce the trade show and its own apparel line, Greenappletree. “We started out as an art show, and now we’re trying to increase the visibility of our apparel offerings,” Pulido said.
Executives at the CMC were enthusiastic about the union. “We know this show is representative of a category that is really blowing up across the country, and we believe Agenda has identified and assembled the kinds of lines our progressive retailers want to shop,” said Kelly Whitlow, director of trade shows and special events for the CMC. —Claudia Figueroa
