L.A. Contract Group Opens Shop in S.F.
The Evans Group, the Los Angeles–based contracting shop that provides everything from samples and patterns to full-production services for contemporary and young designer labels, is expanding north.
On Sept. 12, the contractor opened a satellite office in The Mills Building on Montgomery Street in San Francisco, where services will include fittings and sample sewing. For now, production sewing will continue to be done in Los Angeles, according to Jennifer Evans, the founder of the company.
Evans said her plan is to run the San Francisco office out of the Montgomery Street building for about six months to build a clientele. Then she plans to expand the San Francisco office to become a vertically integrated shop with services similar to the Los Angeles facility.
The Evans Group, founded in 2004, employs nearly 30 people, including samplemakers, sewers, patternmakers, cutters and a production manager. From its 3,000-square-foot facility in downtown Los Angeles, the company produces apparel for designers and labels including Jeremy Scott, Grey Ant, Society for Rational Dress and “Project Runway” winner Jeffrey Sebelia’s Cosa Nostra label, as well as newer labels such as Aristocracy and Nicky Hilton’s new collection, Nicholai.
“We don’t want to compete with the volume people,” Evans said. “We want to spend [our] energy on perfecting what we have here and then duplicating it in other cities. Plus, I’m interested in tapping into these little design communities.”
The opening of the San Francisco shop was Evans’ plan since she founded the company.
“When I started the business, I wanted to open up there,” said Evans, who worked for San Francisco–based designer Marta Kappl. The Evans Group still handles production for Kappl’s label, Marta Kappl Couture.
“She pointed out how much San Francisco needed things for small designers,” said Evans.
The Evans Group currently has about four customers based in San Francisco.
The company’s new San Francisco shop currently has a full-time patternmaker and a full-time samplemaker.
The shop’s current location, in San Francisco’s financial district, is a temporary one. Evans said she is looking for a larger, permanent space on Sixth Street in San Francisco’s Mission District, where a new organization is hoping to create a fashion district.
“We have collaborated with the Mayor’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development and the San Francisco Innovative Design Council to assist with the expansion,” said Evans.
The San Francisco Innovative Design Council was founded in March and currently has 20 members, according to Yetunde Schuhmann, the group’s president. The organization was founded to be both a business incubator and a trade group for local designers and is spearheading the effort to establish a fashion district in the Mission District.
Earlier this year, Schuhmann met with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom to discuss building a district of showrooms, ateliers and manufacturing shops on Sixth Street over the next five years.
The area is a city enterprise zone, which provides tax benefits and other incentives for business in the area. The Evans Group’s Los Angeles facility is located in a similar zone.
Once the new location is found, Evans plans to add additional employees, including several trained tailors from Senegal, who are part of a guest-worker program formed by The Evans Group in partnership with African nonprofit group the International Union of Concerned Senegalese and Fashion Business Inc., which will provide business and English-language training for the workers once they arrive.
“We look forward to placing ourselves in the new development area and serving as a cornerstone of the growing fashion community in San Francisco,” said Evans. “We also look forward to continuing to provide a convenient, one-stop shop that promotes high-end design, creates jobs, and has a positive local and global impact.”
The Evans Group’s San Francisco office is located at 220 Montgomery St., suite 1105, in San Francisco. For more information, call (213) 626-4377 or visit www.evansgroupla.com. —Alison A. Nieder
