Waterwear 2012: Into the Bleu
Bleu Rod Beattie may be a brand-new swim brand, but the collection bows in Miami with plenty of swim success behind it.
Designer Rod Beattie is sitting in his new light-filled studio reviewing his new Bleu Rod Beattie collection and fielding questions from a reporter. His eyes keep sliding across the room, where a final fitting is taking place. He stops the interview to discuss the placement of the gold hardware on a black bikini and asks the fit model whether the seam on a bandeau top is rolling. No? Good. He returns to the interview.
Bleu Rod Beattie officially debuts at the Miami SwimShow, but several key retailers—including Everything But Water, Macy’s and Swim’n Sport—received an early delivery at the end of June—in time for the crucial Fourth of July holiday weekend.
“If you are not in the stores during that peak selling period, you will miss a key selling opportunity,” Beattie said. “It was important for our first shipment to be in the stores before the Fourth of July weekend to catch and build on the momentum of that holiday sales weekend. The retail sales of that weekend give us a great buzz and excitement to build on heading into the Miami market.”
The designer is keenly aware of what retailers—and his customers—want, thanks to a long career at some of the swim business’s best-known brands—La Blanca and Anne Cole.
Last year, he joined New York–based swim maker A. H. Schreiber Co., which Adolph Schreiber and his four brothers started in 1923, making lingerie. In the 1960s, the company switched to swimwear, and today the third generation of Schreibers runs the company. A. H. Schreiber’s brands include Beach Girl Native, Ocean Front Properties, Delta Burke, Longitude and Robbie Len. The company also holds the swimwear license for Badgely Mischka.
Bleu Rod Beattie will fill a void in A.H. Schreiber’s lineup, said Avram Schreiber, the company’s principal, who oversees the Bleu Rod Beattie business.
“It’s a designer contemporary collection, which we really did not have. For us, it fits perfectly into that white space,” he said. “Over the last number of years, I’ve tried to round out the company in the various swimwear categories where we don’t play.”
For Beattie, this is the chance to blend his experience—and Schreiber’s—and build a brand from concept to collection.
“I’ve been given this amazing opportunity,” he said.
At first, Beattie worked out of his home in Pasadena, Calif., starting the new collection, assembling a team and finding a location for A.H. Schreiber’s West Coast design studio. In January, Beattie and his team of about 10—which includes an associate designer, divisional planner/office manager, several patternmakers, cutters and sewers—moved into a 4,000-square-foot studio space in South Pasadena, a 10-minute drive from Beattie’s home. The studio is divided into two spaces. There’s a bright and sunny design and fitting room, where Beattie works next to a wall of windows overlooking the quiet and leafy suburban neighborhood. The patternmakers, cutters and sewers work in a separate space a few steps down the hall.
In this convenient and idyllic location, Beattie has been overseeing the birth of Bleu, from design to final production. The designer acknowledges the challenges of launching the new line, including learning A.H. Schreiber’s processes and working with a new team, new fabric suppliers and new production facilities.
A.H. Schreiber manufactures all its suits in Asia and maintains its distribution center on the West Coast in San Bernardino, Calif.
When Bleu’s first samples came back from China and they weren’t quite right, Beattie’s patternmakers ripped them apart to see how they’d been constructed.
“They counted the threads per inch,” Beattie said, laughing at the memory, but he added, “If we allow them to do things that we don’t like, it’s going to suffer in the end.”
For some of the more-complicated production, Beattie’s team videotaped the sewers at the South Pasadena facility and sent the video overseas to show the workers in Asia how to re-create certain effects.
“There were certain sewing techniques they were not understanding,” the designer said. “We pay a lot of attention to detail. Ultimately, we want to make a great swimsuit.”
That detail shows in the collection, which features original prints and hardware. The hardware was developed in Los Angeles and manufactured overseas. Beattie worked with a vertical textile mill in Asia to create his prints, which include sophisticated regatta stripes and chevrons, oversized florals, and cheery polka dots. There’s also a lingerie-inspired group that features laser-cut lace-like details.
In addition to prints, there are plenty of color-blocked styles in saturated brights.
“On the whole, the buyers are responding to color,” Beattie said.
The fabrics are made with 22 percent spandex. For Summer, Beattie plans to add Xtra Life Lycra, Invista’s stretch fiber developed to provide the added stretch and recovery needed to help swimwear hold its shape. Xtra Life Lycra helps swimwear withstand the deteriorative effects of chlorine and other pool chemicals.
The clean and modern collection bears Beattie’s signature aesthetic—as well as his commitment to fit.
“In swimwear, it’s all about fit,” he said. “If it doesn’t fit, it’s not going to sell. Fit has always been part of my success.”
The designer pledged that women who buy his suits will find the fit consistent from suit to suit and season to season.
And Beattie has a well-developed image of his target customer: “She’s a contemporary woman who has a fashion sense—but she wants fashion that’s well-priced. She wants fashion, but she doesn’t want a $400 suit.”
And he’s confident he knows what his customers want: “We’re not T&A; we’re not string bikinis and thongs. We are a great-quality suit. We offer fashion and consistent fit, higher Lycra content, and we’re not skimping on the hardware. That’s how you build a business.”
And Beattie should know—he’s been part of the industry for more than 20 years. The designer got his start in swimwear in 1988, when he joined the La Blanca division of Apparel Ventures. After six years, he left to design for Anne Cole, then a division of Warnaco. He returned to Apparel Ventures in 1999 as the head of the La Blanca brand, which was renamed La Blanca by Rod Beattie.
Shortly after Apparel Ventures was acquired by Cypress, Calif.–based Manhattan Beachwear Inc. last year, Beattie left to join A.H. Schreiber.
Avram Schreiber and Beattie had met years before when A.H. Schreiber held the license for La Blanca girls’ swimwear.
“I knew he was a great talent, and his reputation preceded him in the marketplace,” Schreiber said, adding that when he heard Apparel Ventures might be up for sale, he called the designer to see if there was an opportunity to work together to fill the “white space” in A. H. Schreiber’s lineup.
“He was gracious enough to allow me into his home, and we had a great discussion. I thought he could fit the bill,” Schreiber said. “On my way out of the house, he said, ’What’s your sign?’ I said, ’Taurus.’ He said, ’All the people I’ve worked with that I’ve loved was a Taurus. I’ll get back to you.’ And the rest is history. We’ve already made the first early Cruise line, and we got rave reviews.”
Bleu’s full Cruise collection bows at the SwimShow in Miami. The collection has its own booth at the show, but Beattie is opting for a quiet launch for the line rather than the splashy debut of a runway show or big party.
“The buzz for us will be that we already have some retail sell-through and lots of market appointments,” he said.
Beattie plans to build a following for the collection through retail support, an online presence, and social networking on Facebook and Twitter.
The designer has another brand-building project in the works. He was contacted by a talent agent from ABA, an agency with offices in Beverly Hills, New York and Nashville. The agency has a reality-show division, and the agent is currently pitching a series to showcase the Bleu Rod Beattie collection.
Tentatively titled “Suiting Up With America’s No. 1 Swimwear Designer,” the show will feature Beattie and his team working on upcoming seasons, focusing on the design process and the challenges of building a swim brand and producing a collection. And, of course, there will be plenty of swim fashion.
