California Apparel News

ENK Vegas offered up a one-stop selection of 137 men’s and women’s contemporary brands that encompassed sophisticated collections, upscale T-shirts, fashion denim and younger contemporary brands during the Aug. 31–Sept. 2 run of the trade shows held at The Wynn hotel.

Exhibitors include brands such as Theory, J. Lindeberg, Laundry by Shelli Segal, C&C California, LnA, Post’age Denim, Agave, Rich & Skinny Jeans, Single, Dear Creatures and BB Dakota.

This was the third installation of ENK Las Vegas, which is produced by ENK International, whose stable of trade shows includes Fashion Coterie, Brighte Companies and Intermezzo Collections.

Los Angeles–based Three Dots, a first-time exhibitor, showed in Las Vegas to reach out to boutiques in new territories and succeeded in opening a dozen new accounts. Sarah Angell, executive vice president of Three Dots, credits a successful show to the fashion-forward design of the line by Pegah Anvarian, who “interprets [designer market trends] into knitwear and contemporary wearable pieces.”

Angell continued, “There were a lot of people who were excited about seeing the evolution of the brand.” Best-sellers included a meacute;lange jersey group and a “structured knit” group that employed shoulder pads and tailored lines into knits.

Christine Cucinotta, sales rep for J Brand jeans and Riller & Fount, said her “expectations were met” for the trade show and she opened several new doors. Buyers were scooping up Immediates on J Brand’s directional fashion offerings, such as denim leggings, tie-dye jeans, cut-off shorts and shredded jeans.

“Our leggings are a massive success right now,” Cucinotta said. The leggings wholesale around $63. Cucinotta said she saw buyers from coast to coast, such as Hilary Rush in Los Angeles, JMR Chalk Garden in Salt Lake City and all the way to E Street Denim in Chicago. “It’s definitely widened up. It’s not just a West Coast show,” Cucinotta said.

Darren Gold, co-owner of Los Angeles–based men’s boutique Alpha, said he was pleased with the new resources he found at ENK Vegas, the Project Global Trade Show and Capsule.

“With a lot of the lines that I ordered for spring I’m bringing in as Immediates because I’m so excited about them,” he said, adding, “The offerings [at the shows] are more exciting. The designers and manufacturers are forced to really think about what they’re doing—offering must-buys and value—a lot of things were weeded out. Everyone’s lines are focused and well-done and edited. Everything feels more sellable. Everyone has thought about price point.”

At ENK, Eight Sixty was busy with Holiday/Transition orders on sequin jackets that wholesale for $98 and its best-selling “2fer” dresses that combine a micro-Modal jersey tank top with a puffy-cotton poplin, sequin brocade or metallic-brocade skirt. The 2fer dresses wholesale for $36 to $45 on average.

“That was our first dress, and we’ve taken it forward in a bunch of different ways,” said Kristen Archdeacon, West Coast sales rep.

The Los Angeles–based parent company of Eight Sixty, J.T. Design Studio Inc., previously produced juniors line Shameless and has been transitioning Eight Sixty into the contemporary market during the past two years. Eight Sixty met with buyers from Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s, Ron Herman, Revolve Clothing, Aritzia in Canada and Metropark stores.—Rhea Cortado