Happy Birthday, Kingpins
The invite-only biannual textile and sourcing show Kingpins is finding a happy home in Los Angeles. Created by New York–based garment and fabric agent Olah Inc., Kingpins enjoyed its one-year anniversary in Los Angeles Oct. 17–18. “It was our best L.A. show yet,” said Andrew Olah, Olah’s co-founder. Kingpins, which has been showing in New York for three years, is held biannually in California in March and October.
The show—which packed the Marvimon House in Los Angeles’ Chinatown neighborhood with 13 vendors of denim, garments, trim, hardware, and representatives from specialty cotton and chemical companies—welcomed more than 50 designers and brand reps. According to Paul Cavazos, Olah’s director of marketing and research and development, denim maven Adriano Goldschmied of Goldsign and Citizens of Humanity, Paige Premium Denim, Lucky Brand Jeans, J Brand, Juicy Couture, Guess? Inc. and Chip & Pepper shopped Kingpins for the latest in denim trends and garment production.
Gap, Inc., BCBG, Kill City, Swell and Quiksilver also perused the casually assembled booths and chatted up representatives from Dow Fiber Solutions’ stretch fiber, XLA; Japanese denim mill Kurabo Industries; Supima cotton; and DyStar, a leader in eco-friendly dye and chemical technology for denim and garment washing. Other vendors offered services ranging from product and textile development to full-package manufacturing. A2, a Portuguese manufacturer of sportswear whose clients include Marc by Marc Jacobs, showed high-end organic and conventional cotton knits and wovens. Atlantic Denim, a mill in Morocco, came to Kingpins for the first time and showed duty-free denim available for the first time in the United States.
Olah, who launched the tiny, uuml;ber-exclusive show as a foil for the traditional textile and sourcing shows, said Kingpins was bustling despite a downturn in the denim market. “Everyone’s business is off. I don’t know if there’s a bubble, but no business is a vector; nothing can sustain a permanent upward trajectory. There is consolidation, and this is fashion,” he said. But, he added, denim consumption is very consistent, despite fashion’s notorious shifting trends. Kingpins—which targets premium-denim, contemporary and designer brands—is reaching for the tastemakers who innovate and move the trends forward.
“Consumers already have one of everything,” he said. At Kingpins, designers can find resources to help them realize the next big thing.
XLA, a two-way stretch fiber recently introduced in denim, launched a collection of corduroy fabrics in collaboration with Kurabo and Pima cotton. The result is a buttery-soft corduroy in a variety of weights with excellent drape. “Everyone loves it. It feels so different from traditional corduroy,” Olah said.
According to Holiday Watson, XLA’s global communications manager, the combination of XLA and Pima pushes the fabric’s price 25 percent to 30 percent above other corduroy fabrications. “But there is added value in the product. There is almost no comparison between the two,” she said.
For Spring, bleached-out, fullleg jeans are trending well in 10- to 11-ounce denim, Cavazos said. Designers are strongly supporting dark, clean denim in trouser cuts for women. “It is a little dressier and gives us a break from the skinny,” he said. At the Kurabo booth, designers were opting for heavier, 13- to 14-ounce denim in deep, saturated blue for men. For women, designers responded well to 11-ounce stretch denim with tight construction and darker washes.
Azdrubal Azevedo, owner of A2, the high-end Portuguese factory, said he was pleased with Kingpins. “It is very much what we expected: more customers, more interested people. It was better than last season and very worthwhile,” he said, estimating that 20 percent of his appointments were with new clients. A2’s knits, particularly organic blends, sparked interest with California designers. One dark spot on the otherwise-shiny Kingpins was the effect of the weak American dollar, Azevedo said. “It raises the cost of [American] designers doing business with me and puts me out of some of their reach,” he said.
Christina Brocato, director of product development at Paige Premium Denim, has shopped Kingpins since its first California edition in October 2006. “I like the vibe and the assortment of people they put together. They’re known for the quality of the mills they work with globally,” she said, noting that gives her confidence when she shops the show. “You can do anything here, from design and development to sourcing and full-package buys,” she said. A standout for Brocato this season was DyStar, the Reidsville, N.C.–
based dye and chemical company that used Kingpins as a platform to showcase its eco-friendly innovations in denim washing. “It is so great to learn new ways to do business that are easier on the environment,” she said.
For more information about Kingpins, visit www.olah.com.
