California Apparel News

The urban apparel market is starting to struggle after experiencing a long stretch of growth. Stalled efforts to promote the urban scene in Los Angeles have not helped.

Market research company The NPD Group, based in Port Washington, N.Y., projects that the urban market, which went through an 18 percent growth spurt in 2003, will experience flat sales of $2 billion in 2004. NPD attributes the slowdown to the culling of brands by department stores and the shift into dressier categories by both vendors and retailers. Designers such as Ryan Kenny of urbanwear brand Rocawear have been doing well with dressier items such as Italian cotton dress shirts and cashmere blazers, and JLo has been getting into higher-end fashions.

In Los Angeles, an effort to grow the urban market through the California Market Center’s Urban Suburban fashion show has stalled. The show, planned for last October, was cancelled when CMC organizers opted to put marketing money into its new L.A. Majors concept, which focuses on juniors apparel for major brand retailers. Urbanwear showrooms did stay open for the event, but not everyone was happy with the emphasis on other categories.

Changes in the air

Now, with the CMC in escrow and a new owner set to take over in February, plans to market the building’s urban sector, located on the fourth floor of the C wing, have been put on hold, a CMC spokesperson said.

The fact that some of the CMC’s Urban Suburban showroom tenants have migrated to neighboring buildings has also delayed the building’s plans for the category. CMC marketers have been considering merging the CMC’s 11th-floor streetwear section into the Urban Suburban show, but that’s not jibing with the 11th floor’s main tenant, Aaron Levant, who runs the Agenda streetwear apparel show and owns several clothing lines.

“It doesn’t fit well with what we’re doing here,” Levant said. “The fourth floor is hardcore hip-hop and urbanwear. The stores and markets are different.”

In the past 18 months, key urban brands such as Baby Phat and Meoshe have left the CMC and moved into the nearby Gerry Building, which is also up for sale. Triple Five Soul, which is repositioning itself into a more contemporary mold, moved from the CMC to the Cooper Design Space.

Enyce and Akademiks left The New Mart and moved into the Gerry.

The CMC still houses Ecko Unltd., GUnit, Apple Bottoms, Southpole and others.

“It would be cool if we could all be in the same place. It would be easier for buyers,” said Kenyatta Sands, owner of the BP Inc. showroom in the Gerry Building, which sells Meoshe, Meezan, Johnny Girl and Johnny Handsome.

Consolidating forces

Urbanwear designer Billy D. Foster, president of the independently produced L.A. Urban Fashion Week, said he had approached the CMC about bringing his event to Urban Suburban.

“We had 3,000 to 4,000 at our last event [in November],” said Foster. “I don’t think Urban Suburban was as successful as it could have been. The problem is that everyone is on a different platform and they need to be on the same platform.”

Foster said with coordination among the appropriate parties, an urban show on a smaller but similar scale to Los Angeles Fashion Week could be achieved. “Buyers come to Los Angeles because of the diversity of fashion here,” he said.

But some vendors think the current layout is fine.

“It’s not difficult to hop across the street,” said Naomi Diamond of the Enyce showroom in the Gerry Building. “The market has always been a little spread out.”

“It’s not like the building alone attracts the retailers,” added CMC tenant Rob Goshen, who runs the Ecko Unltd. and G-Unit showrooms. “We can’t wait around for Sean John and Enyce to come here.”

Goshen said one problem in gaining traffic is the fact that the CMC’s urban showrooms are placed next to the building’s traditional menswear vendors.

“You can’t fix C without fixing A and B [which include many menswear showrooms that carry suits and ties],” he said. “Buyers walk the whole floor.”

Most urban showroom reps, who count on big department store business, have been showing by appointment and do not rely heavily on local shows. But several acknowledged that shows such as the MAGIC Marketplace in Las Vegas have helped. There is also a rival Urban Suburban Show in San Francisco. The show, organized by Mike Levy, is held at the Embassy Suites in South San Francisco.

As the market gets tighter, a more cohesive local effort could benefit urban brands in Los Angeles. Several majors, including Macy’s West, have dropped a number of leading brands from their lineups. Macy’s and another Federated Department Stores Inc. chain, Bloomingdale’s, have recently seen double-digit declines in urbanwear sales, analysts said.

Brands such as OutKast Clothing, Eminem’s Shady Ltd. and the Snoop Dogg Collection have struggled. That has some companies transitioning into more traditional and less baggy silhouettes. Phat Fashions, for example, is offering polo shirts and blazers. Orange County–based LRG Clothing and crossover brand Le Tigre have also been pumping new life into the category.

Ed Foy Jr., chief executive officer of Secaucus, N.J.–based eFashionSolutions, produces Web sites and e-commerce sites for JLo, Rocawear, Baby Phat, Apple Bottoms and Shady Ltd. He said that if there’s a shakeout hitting urbanwear, the main power players should endure the challenge.

“At the end of the day, it’s the Sean Johns and Russell Simmonses who will provide the foundation,” Foy said. “The brands get the customers into the stores, and it’s the quality that will get them to spend their dollars. As long as the big brands stay with the trends, they’ll have staying power.”

Foy admitted the urban market is over-saturated, but he said the crossover appeal to middle America is helping to sustain sales. “They’re getting what the major markets had a year ago,” he said.

Women’s sales are also helping. Baby Phat, developed by Simmons’ wife, Kimora Lee Simmons, has online sales five times larger than those of the line’s menswear predecessor, Phat Farm, said Foy. Now the company is selling cellular phones. It has a new license for footwear and Lee Simmons has developed a jewelry line. Simmons sold his Phat Fashions Inc. to the Kellwood Co. earlier this year for a reported $140 million. Both Simmonses continue to provide creative direction for the lines.

There has been talk about a major brand such as Puma coming into The Intersection, where the CMC, Gerry Building, The New Mart and Cooper Design Space meet. Showroom owners hope new management at the CMC and Gerry Building will change things for the better.

“Hopefully, they can fix things up instead of coming in and turning us over to the next buyer in a couple of years,” Goshen said.