California Apparel News

SAN FRANCISCO—When it comes to discovering good patternmakers, sample makers and sewing contractors, up-and-coming fashion designers in San Francisco go to extreme measures to root them out.

Some wait for a tried-and-true designer to go out of business and snap up their resources. Some place ads in local foreign-language newspapers, hoping a good Chinese or Vietnamese seamstress can be found. Others peruse craigslist, an online forum of classified ads. If those methods don’t work, they go to Los Angeles, where contractors are more available.

“Finding good people has become a huge issue for us,” said Briana Swords, senior designer for the San Francisco womenswear line HisByHer. Swords and fellow designer Laura Sato launched their search for contractors in a manner one would liken to looking for a needle in a haystack. They went to the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, which has the names of all the state’s registered contractors, and acquired the list. Then they went and visited nearly 100 of those small companies. “We have a contractor now, but we have had to push them for quality,” Swords said.

Part of the problem is that at the end of March, San Francisco Fashion Industries (SFFI) closed down after more than 80 years in business. The nonprofit association at one time had been the garment industry’s nexus for apparel manufacturers and designers to fabric and trim suppliers, sample makers, patternmakers, contractors and student interns. There was a job bank for out-of-work seamstresses and tailors. It provided group health plans, group workers’ compensation coverage, educational seminars, networking opportunities and legislative advocacy for the industry.

But when membership dwindled and funds became scarce, Randy Harris, the association’s executive director, decided to shutter operations. The closure has left a huge void for an apparel industry struggling to survive in Northern California.

“I feel terrible they are not around,” said couture designer Lily Samii, who has a successful business creating couture gowns for opening-night galas from her showroom overlooking Union Square in the heart of San Francisco. She was an SFFI member. “Many of my people on my production side I got through them. They were working closely with me. It was truly wonderful. But now the only way I can find people is through the schools.”

But recent graduates don’t always have the expertise that Samii needs. So she has been advertising in local foreign-language newspapers to keep her staff of 23 people. Samii recently lost a production manager, who moved to Los Angeles to work for designer Monique Lhuillier, renowned for her evening gowns and wedding dresses.

If long-time designers such as Samii are having a tough time finding contractors, imagine what it is like for new designers struggling to get off the ground. Sisters Sheena and Pamela Borja, who recently launched the petite line Tamiece, had used SFFI to find resources.

When the association closed, the sisters resorted to using craigslist or word-of-mouth to find contractors. “SFFI helped designers a lot because they had a directory of local contractors,” said Sheena, whose company operates out of her parents’ home in Daly City, Calif., a San Francisco suburb. “After they shut down, we started doing a lot of our own research and interviewing people to find the perfect sample maker, patternmaker and contractor.”

SFFI’s demise is indicative of the health of San Francisco’s apparel industry. Although a handful of big apparel companies dominate the city, such as Gap Inc., Levi Strauss & Co. and Byer California, most of their apparel production has moved offshore to countries such as China, India, Taiwan, Vietnam and Bangladesh. In 2004, according to state employment figures, there were 171 apparel manufacturers in San Francisco County employing 4,663 people, while 109 cut-andsew operations had 2,136 workers. That is down drastically from 2000, when there were 267 apparel manufacturers employing 8,657 people and 156 cut-andsew operations with 4,149 people. (The state has not updated its San Francisco apparel industry figures since 2004.) Designer Roger Alan, who has been active in the San Francisco apparel industry since the late 1980s and now designs the menswear line Hieros, said he had noticed a drastic change in the Bay Area garment world. “I have seen it entirely disintegrate,” he said. “It is all these wannabe designers and three and four mega-companies that have no presence in town any more.”

But those wannabe designers are the ones keeping the apparel industry alive.

Cari Borja has been sewing her own fanciful creations at her home in Oakland, Calif., for the past few years. But now she is branching out, looking for a contractor to sew her collection, which is filled with layers of ruffles. It garnered rave reviews at San Francisco Fashion Week in August.

“My fall project is to locate contractors,” said Cari Borja, who noted she is hiring someone who used to work with Esprit in San Francisco to help her find some good resources. She has become friends with fellow couture designers Colleen Quen and Erin Mahoney, who share information and resources. Quen’s advice was this: When someone goes out of business, grab their tailor.

Finding contractors is just one of the many challenges San Francisco designers face without having a central organization that can serve as a clearinghouse for industry information.

Los Angeles-based Fashion Business Inc. recently partnered with San Francisco-based business center, the Renaissance Center, to provide some of its industry-specific seminars and workshops, but the San Francisco chapter does not yet have the reach of its Los Angeles resources center.

Many San Francisco designers work together to find answers to industry questions— or brave it alone.

“Here in San Francisco we have fewer resources to rely on,” said Priya Saraswati, co-creator of women’s careerwear line Saffron Rare Threads.

In April, Saraswati and co-designer Yugali Priti opened a boutique and showroom, also called Saffron Rare Threads, in San Francisco’s Mission District.

The fact that San Francisco’s designers are having to struggle to find industry resources is sad news for Marguerite Rubel, SFFI’s longest living member. She joined the nonprofit association in 1948. The 81-year-old apparel manufacturer is still making baseball jackets imprinted with the world map or the words “Peace, Love, Freedom” in several different languages.

“I give newcomers all the advice I can,” Rubel noted from her business at Pier 27 at the Embarcadero. “But I just feel sorry for these new people who want to go into this business because they don’t have anywhere to go for someone to answer all their questions. They think it’s easy to be in business.”