California Apparel News

Model/actress/celebrity Anna Nicole Smith brought some star power to the “Spring 2005 Million-Dollar Item Seminar,” presented by the Barbara Fields Buying Office on Oct. 11 at the California Market Center.

Smith posed for pictures for a crowd of about 350 retailers, who came from major stores such as Plano, Texas–based JCPenney and from specialty shops such as Beach Bums of Anaheim, Calif.

Smith was on hand to promote her new juniors line, manufactured by Twin Concepts LLC of Los Angeles. The collection debuted in August at MAGIC International in Las Vegas, and Fields has endorsed the line’s rhinestone-embellished jeans.

Pieces from Smith’s line were among the looks that Fields predicted would have the potential to turn months of so-so sales into seasons of high revenue.

Fields and her assistants showed more than 21 items, including:

bull; Pucker smocksbull; T-shirts and jeans with butterfly trims or heavy embroidery similar to that found on shirts by Los Angeles–based designer Joystickbull; Floral-print chiffon skirts with uneven hemsbull; Short tennis and terry-cloth tube dresses bull; Cropped pants bull; Cardigan sweaters with rhinestone trim bull; Crinkled lace camisoles bull; “2fer shirts” (shirts that feature camisoles attached beneath T-shirts) bull; Vintage belts bull; Shrunken denim blazers bull; Broomstick skirts bull; Pants with rhinestone embellishments

Retailers such as Debbie Green, senior buyer of Toronto-based chain Blue Notes, praised the seminar’s forecast. “It has confirmed what we thought was going to be important this year,” she said.

The Canadian retailer said she will buy cardigans and shrugs in depth this year because of Fields’ recommendations.

Fields, who shapes her forecasts by studying what is being sold in leading stores in London and Paris, said Los Angeles has become more important during the past few years. She noted that some of her recent “million-dollar” items, such as the pucker top and the camisole, first became popular in Los Angeles. —Andrew Asch