California Apparel News

A competitive lingerie market has prompted Los Angeles–based lingerie and loungewear designers to expand into the category of ready-to-wear to get a bigger slice of the retail pie.

The trend of layering lingerie camisoles under everyday clothing has provided a launching pad for lingerie companies such as Woo, Wendy Glez and Jonquil by Diane Samandi to grow their companies and brand names beyond the innerwear niche.

Woo

Under all the layers of Staci Woo’s diversified company is a French-lace camisole and underwear set. Lingerie and loungewear have been the inspiration and building blocks for Woo’s expanding company, which includes casual ready-to-wear clothing, maternity clothes, children’s clothes, diaper bags and flip-flops.

Woo started her company five years ago with handbags made from recycled vintage fabric. She launched her lingerie line shortly after with the vision of a basics business that would provide the “perfect” everyday camisoles and panties season after season. Her lingerie line shines with the help of crisp vintage-inspired prints and ready-to-wear tops that catch buyers’ attention. And once the buyers’ attention is snagged, they begin to take a fresh look at Woo’s basics, as well.

“If we look at our numbers, we do really well with our five main pieces that carry the rest of the line,” Woo said. “If we didn’t have those prints and those dressier pieces or fleece pieces, stores wouldn’t be interested in just buying our basics. They want the whole package.”

Woo plays the trend of lingerie and loungewear crossing over into ready-to-wear in her favor. While some of Woo’s clothes can be clearly interpreted as ready-to-wear, many of the camisoles and sweat pants are deliberately ambiguous.

Independent sales representative Lolita Takaii, who has sold the New York–based lingerie and ready-to-wear line Only Hearts for 15 years, agrees that lingerie that can be styled as ready-to-wear maximizes sales opportunities.

“When I pick up lingerie [lines to represent] I don’t want something that’s lingerie lingerie,” said Takaii, who sells to both lingerie stores and specialty boutiques.

“That puts me in a box.”

The strategy of adding more categories, such as flip-flops and diaper bags, may be counterintuitive to what some business advisors suggest for a young company, Woo acknowledged. “[Business advisors] would probably say, ’Stick to one thing and just do the best you can,’” she said. “But I do feel like those categories help brand our company.”

Woo hopes the addition of maternity and children’s clothing will not only enhance the brand but also its profit margins. The children’s clothing, born from excess fabric, and the maternity clothes— which are tweaked ready-to-wear styles—helped Woo meet minimum quantities for fabric and production.

“Our goal is to get our manufacturing production up and running and bigger,” Woo said. “That’s the struggle a company of our size has, to get the attention of contractors, of fabric vendors as a bigger player.”

Diane Samandi

For 27 years, Diane Samandi’s lingerie line, Jonquil by Diane Samandi, has enjoyed success in the niche of decadent sleepwear and bridal lingerie. The idea to branch off into the category of ready-to-wear fell into Samandi’s lap with the rising popularity of lacy camisoles being worn with jeans and blazers.

“It just sort of happened that we were starting to sell to outerwear stores,” said Samandi, who shows her lingerie line at the Lingerie Americas trade show.

Samandi took the idea and ran with it, adding more lace-trimmed silk charmeuse camisole tops and lace and velvet shrugs that resembled old-fashioned bed coats. The new items, designed as ready-towear, were sold under the Jonquil by Diane Samandi label for nearly two years.

For Fall 2006, Samandi distinguishes the ready-to-wear line with a new name, Diane Samandi, and is working toward building a full collection.

“We’re really trying to transition away from people saying, ’Are you lingerie or are you outerwear?’ We really want them to know its outerwear now,” said Samandi, who has always wanted to design ready-to-wear.

Samandi describes her Jonquil lingerie line of fine lace–accented nightgowns and robes as “precious” and “heirloom” treasures that are passed down from mothers to daughters. By nature, the pool of stores she can sell to is limited; Jonquil is sold at stores such as Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue.

The addition of a ready-to-wear line opened up a new market for Samandi to expand her company. Some of the stores that bought the ready-to-wear line did not know of her Jonquil label.

Samandi evolved the scope of looks on the ready-to-wear line with China silk fabrications, lightweight cotton, linen and silk velvet. A kimono-sleeve top with cut-velvet sleeves, dresses with silk crepe overlay and loose skirts carry Samandi’s romantic touch but wouldn’t be mistaken for lingerie.

“We want to be known for a collection and what we’re trying to build now is a collection,” Samandi said.

Wendy Glez

Designer Wendy Gonzalez’ line is known for feminine lingerie and loungewear with high design quality and attention to detail.

Gonzalez has always incorporated Modal/spandex dresses and cotton blouses with ready-to-wear design quality within her collection of such tried-and-true favorites as camisoles, lounge pants and panties.

But in the past year, Gonzalez has been pushing the ready-to-wear look even further by including a new delivery group that literally spells out the look. The group’s name, Precirc;ta- Porter, translates into “ready-to-wear” in French, and Gonzalez skips the lacy frills that trim her lingerie. Co-designer Alexana Lambros said that Precirc;t-a-Porter includes pieces that “we would want” in classic black, including a “really cute dress” with a multitude of styling possibilities.

For boutiques that do not sell lingerie, Precirc;t-a-Porter’s comfortable ready-to-wear items are an introduction to the Wendy Glez casually modern style.

Lambros said the new group is an opportunity to help publicize the company.

“We can do some great product placement, but it’s underneath most of the time,” said Lambros, who added that not all clients wear the loungewear outside the house.

Gonzalez previously tested a ready-towear line called Coco in Spring 2004, which included tailored separates such as coats, trousers and blouses. Gonzalez put the line on hold after one season to focus on Wendy Glez but is planning to re-launch Coco later in the year. She said the new tailored collection will have a modern and “highly constructive” look with the Wendy Glez style.

“We’ll still have that feminine breeze in the line,” Gonzalez said. It will be very fanciful prints.”

The ready-to-wear collection will “most likely” be merchandized with the Wendy Glez lingerie line acting as underpinnings.

“Wendy Glez doesn’t do just one type of thing,” Gonzalez said of her evolving company. “It’s a lifestyle that we are trying to portray.”