California Apparel News

Heart & Soul, a juniors-related separates resource known for its high-spirited heart-and-star-shaped logo, is on track to hit $40 million in revenues this year, thanks in part to quick-turn production and speedy refills, according to company President Jody Sundberg.

Sundberg, an apparel sales veteran in the juniors market, attributes part of the 8-year-old company’s sudden growth to the reinvention of the miniskirt. The Commerce, Calif.–based maker of juniors sportswear separates and dresses ships 40,000 to 45,000 miniskirts each month.

This month, a pink-and-cream striped sweater from Heart & Soul appears on the cover of Girls’ Life magazine.

“Last year, it was the circle skirt; this year, it’s the miniskirt,” Sundberg said. “Right now, we’re in an embellishment cycle, and innovative fabric and details are what’s driving the trends.”

Sundberg said the company, which employs 75 apparel workers, has plenty of room to grow. She estimated that she will increase the company’s volume by 40 percent this year—and most of that will be in juniors sportswear-related separates.

Heart & Soul is getting teens’ attention with feminine, flirty skirts, sweaters and knit tops that wholesale from $8 to $15. Each group within the collection is merchandised in brilliant color schemes and lightweight fabrics.

Buyers from the J.C. Penney Co. Inc., Federated Department Stores Inc., Dillard’s Inc., The May Department Stores Co., Windsor and Charlotte Russe applaud the brand for quickly translating trends for juniors customers.

Sundberg, who built her brand’s squeaky-clean reputation by working closely with retailers on merchandising plans, said a consolidated retail market has posed challenges for her company.

“The department store consolidation cut back the number of department store buyers in the market, which means fewer orders,” Sundberg explained. “Being a small company is challenging at retail because there’s not enough floor space for everyone.”

Heart & Soul has survived in the juniors market by producing both domestically and overseas. A combination of overseas production and domestic quick-turn production have balanced out the company’s production costs, Sundberg said.

To keep overhead low, Heart & Soul produces certain styles locally on a cut-to-order basis. Afterward, the company sends duplicate specs to Asia, where 40 percent of the line, mostly knit tops and sweaters, is produced with longer lead times. Alternating between domestic and offshore production helps Heart & Soul keep higher margins. It also allows the company to produce refills at a lower cost per garment. “We realize it’s a constant juggling act, but with the high costs of local production, few manufacturers can afford to produce domestically,” Sundberg said.

Sundberg also advocates for lean manufacturing. She plans her fabric purchases so there is very little fabric left over at the end of each season. Over the years, she has also reduced the inventory left over after each season––that way the company can avoid taking a financial loss on the goods by liquidating the overstock.

She said she learned about production mostly through trial and error, but she credits her business partners with teaching her about some of the finer points of production management.

“We provide fashion product with quick turn to feed our junior customer something new because our customer is always looking for new items to update her existing wardrobe,” Sundberg said.

Moving on up

For Sundberg, becoming the president and co-investor of Heart & Soul was purely happenstance. Or so she says.

The Colorado native got her start in the apparel industry more than two decades ago when she answered a classified ad for an administrative assistant position.

“I never knew this side of the apparel business existed; I was always a fashion consumer who didn’t know the process of making an apparel line,” she said.

Her upbeat attitude and quick wit landed her sales manager positions at juniors manufacturers Labelle and Rampage. In 1986, Sundberg got a job at Los Angeles juniors career apparel maker Labelle as an assistant to the sales manager. There, she honed her sales technique. She also attended vendor open-tobuy presentations and quickly established a rapport with retailers, including Kathy Bronstein of The Wet Seal Inc., who gave the young fledgling a shot at merchandising the line for the teen retailer.

“When Labelle made gabardine-related separates, Jody came up with a plethora of ways to mix and match related separates, which was a large portion of the retailer’s business,” Bronstein explained. “Jody was the queen of showing all the different ways of maximizing that business.”

But Sundberg’s sales pitch and merchandising talent also struck a chord with department stores, including those of Federated, the Dayton Hudson Corp., May and Marshall Field’s. Sundberg attributed Labelle’s early success in the late ’80s to major department stores that were in the market for fresh-looking career apparel for juniors customers.

In the early ’90s, she worked in the New York office of Los Angeles–based juniors fashion company Rampage, where she fine-tuned her account management skills and merchandising sensibilities in juniors-related separates.

“She’s a great businessperson and an awesome woman,” said Rampage founder Larry Hansel, who hired Sundberg to manage national sales for his juniors sportswear division. “She is one of those people with the rare talent of being able to sell the product and has a vision of what it should be.”

After a brief return to Labelle, Sundberg prepared to launch her own juniors separates line. In 1996, she joined forces with longtime business acquaintances Kevin Talbot and Lars Viklund, owners of juniors apparel label Big Flirt, who helped get Heart & Soul off the ground.

“Teen apparel moved away from career separates, and the juniors customer put more emphasis on her look by creating her own style,” Sundberg said. “Creating a line on my own was a big challenge. When I became my own boss, it completely changed my perspective.”

Being the boss of her own company has not slowed her down one bit. In addition to merchandising Heart & Soul’s 60-piece collection with Design Director Sabrica Pattyson, Sundberg oversees fabric purchases and production.

For Summer/Fall 2004, the line features cap-sleeve knit tops with keyhole details, lace-up corsets in stretch twill with grosgrain detail, poplin pleated dropped-waist miniskirts with plaid prints and georgette skirts with ruffles.

Sundberg continues to manage her own retail accounts.

“I feel like I should continue to be hands-on on a retail level to have a true pulse on business,” she said. “The main thing I’ve learned how to do is grow my business in stages based on what the numbers would allow.”

And, those numbers are growing along with the business.

Next month, Heart & Soul and Big Flirt are relocating from their 48,000-square-foot digs to a new 100,000-square-foot facility in Gardena, Calif. The new headquarters boasts administrative offices, a design room, a marketing department, and sales and production facilities. Both companies are also moving into a larger showroom in New York.