California Apparel News

New York was hopping as retailers, editors and manufacturers traversed the city for the latest Spring offerings at Fashion Coterie, Designers & Agents, The Train and Platform 2. This season, the trade shows offered plenty of newness.

With new shows, new venues and new fashions to track, retailers had the largest selection ever from which to choose their Spring merchandise. The shows were held Sept. 15–21 following New York Fashion Week. All in all, there were seven days to scour the city for the latest trends.

Fashion Coterie was held at two separate venues this season. Because of the unavailability of two of the Show Piers on Manhattan’s west side, Elyse Kroll, executive director of ENK, organizers of Fashion Coterie, moved half of the show to the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. The lineup there included Fashion Coterie exhibitors, Sole Commerce and Fresh, the show’s new division for up-and-coming designers. The remainder of Coterie was re-organized among Pier 92 and Pier 94, which contained denim, contemporary lines, accessories, tees, a designer Mezzanine area and Clear, a new area for high-end designer accessories and shoes. In addition, this season Coterie played host to Thailand featuring a colorful group of designers titled the Bangkok Fashion Road show.

“It’s a nice array of different products,” Christine Simek, owner of the Circle 5 Showroom in Los Angeles, said of the restructuring of the piers. “They did a good job of mixing it up.” In general, Simek said, she noticed more selection. “There’s still a lot of denim lines, but I think because of that whole ’let’s get dressed up again [movement],’ a lot of collections and dress lines are coming back. Dresses are back big time.”

Indeed, the dress and unique prints are two of the biggest trends for Spring. According to designer Joy Han of Los Angeles– based Voom, her line, composed largely of dresses, was doing well with both re-orders and generating new buyers due to her unique prints and colors. “They’re looking for something special, something that they’ve never seen before. It has to be something unique—fun, funky.”

For Joe Pham, designer of Jak & Rae and its new younger sister line, Emphasis, color is key for Spring. “Color, color, color. We don’t want to be safe anymore. We want to have fun,” he said. For the Emphasis line, Pham freshened up the collection by mixing neutrals with bright colors in sherbet-like shades. Pham also cited a “carrot” silhouette—with big, oversize proportions on top mixed with skinny pants—as key for Spring. Also important were clam diggers, walking shorts, capri pants and layered looks, especially with jumpers. Because of its more-moderate price points, Emphasis was booking well across the board including boutiques such as Lisa Kline in Los Angeles and Atrium in New York.

D&A—expanding and improving

At D&A, expansion also was the order of the day. Exhibitor numbers were up from 194 last year to 215 this September—a 10 percent increase. According to co-founder Ed Mandelbaum, “D&A is not about getting so big; it’s just about continually getting better.”

Attendance was also up, with traffic reaching 2,540, up from 2,139 last year. The tightly edited show uses its Los Angeles show as the model for size. “New York probably has about another 25 percent of growth to bring us up to the same size as L.A.,” Mandelbaum said. As part of the expansion plan, this season Mandelbaum and business partner Barbara Kramer added London to the schedule.

In addition, a temporary “Brooklyn” room—filled with art, clothing and accessories— was added to provide a platform for up-and-coming designers from the Manhattan borough.

In order to keep the show fresh and the merchandise relevant, Mandelbaum and Kramer treat D&A like a clothing store, tightly editing it each season. “We are really judged by our products here, and the most important thing to us is to make sure we have great products,” explained Mandelbaum.

According to Kramer, a top trend for the season is femininity. Dresses are strong as are layering pieces, wovens such as shirtings, and soft transparent fabrics. Kramer said she also noticed ethnic inspiration returning as a flavor or an accent and details such as buttons, lace, macrameacute; and subtle tonal embroidery. For denim, she saw less “brands” and more of a sportswear approach with pieces such as jumpsuits, vests and skirts.

Playful accessories with a colorful, quirky vintage look were also strong, according to Kramer. In addition, she said there was an increase of organic clothing labels applying to the show such as ZenBunni’s T-shirt collection from Topanga, Calif. “We had more applications from organic companies than we accepted because we’re a juried show,” Kramer said, “but there was a lot more interest in people taking a conscious direction.”

Hillary Rush, owner of Los Angeles– based Hillary Rush boutique, began her Spring shopping at D&A. She felt key trends for Spring would include a continuation of black and white, baby-doll shapes, tunics, and short Twiggy styles. She also noticed a continuation of lace, Victorian styles, a revival of retro shades of pink and the trapeze/A-line dress. “Dresses are my No. 1 category, and it’s the easiest sale. It’s the one thing you always just want to put on,” she said.

The Train and Platform 2

Also in expansion mode, Feacute;deacute;ration FranCcedil;aise du Precirc;t agrave; Porter Feacute;minin (FFPAPF), organizers of The Train and Precirc;t agrave; Porter Paris, offered a second show for international bridge and contemporary collections called Platform 2. The new show, held at the Roseland Ballroom on the Upper West Side, drew 1,080 visitors to view more than 60 collections, which included Jordi Labana from Spain, Jim Barnier Footwear from Los Angeles and Dutch Delight handbags from the Netherlands.

The Train, in its fifth season, saw a 4 percent increase in visitors, which totaled nearly 3,250. It showcased 115 international women’s ready-to-wear and accessory lines from 25 countries. The event, held at the Terminal Stores in the Chelsea district, seemed to have come into its own this season.

“With more exhibitors and more buyers this season than ever before, The Train is no longer the new kid on the block,” Herve Huchet, FFPAPF fashion director, said in a prepared statement. “Each season, we also see more and more international buyers, and many exhibitors report being very pleased about this trend.” Exhibitors such as EKJO’s sales rep, Fadila Benhalef, also reported strong retailer attendance, including California buyers looking for designer pieces that could be mixed with other brands.

Hazel Brown’s Ali Blankley agreed that The Train was a success. “They do a very good job of screening everything, so it has a nice vibe,” she said. “It’s well done. It’s a relaxed atmosphere, but yet it’s quite professional.” Stores attending the show included Neiman Marcus, Bleu in Los Angeles, Selfridges in London and Galeries Lafayette in Paris.

In search of avant-garde fashions, Cheryl Chirchirillo and daughter Gina of the Valentina boutique in Wisconsin found three key trends for the season: soft and fluid, vintage-inspired and structured feminine lady-like styles.

According to Loris Diran, designer of his eponymous couture line, buyers were reacting to easy silhouettes with a California sensibility, such as Los Angeles–based The Maitlands. Overall, he noticed a strong West Coast influence at the show—handmade construction, natural and eco-friendly fibers, easy silhouettes, an-arts-and-crafts feel, and a touch of demi-couture detail. “There’s a very strong sense of that in the atmosphere in all of the lines,” Diran said. “There seems to be that whole easiness and airiness that is so prevalent in the West Coast life style.”