California Apparel News

Copyright and trademark issues, increasingly stringent safety regulations, and how to make your business more e-commerce friendly were some of the topics tackled in a recent seminar organized by the California Fashion Association.

Part warnings and part advice, the seminar was held on Oct. 11 during the Los Angeles International Textile Show at the California Market Center.

Industry leader and CFA President Ilse Metchek led the panel on hot-button issues affecting the textile and apparel industry.

“Many businesses don’t know what they don’t know,” Metchek said.

Among the topics:

bull; Rick Horowitch, a panelist and vice president of Bureau Veritas, a consumer products health and safety service provider, said supply-chain transparency is the No. 1 issue for the textile and apparel industry.

“Do you know who you are doing business with?Do you know where your product is coming from?” he asked, stressing the importance of business owners knowing the answers to both questions.

bull; Lynne Sperling of Sperling & Hileman Group LLC said in order to survive, businesses must address two things: social marketing and creating a good business plan.

“Just selling stuff is a dead business,” she said. “Social marketing works.” Sears sold out of apparel for the first time in the company’s history with the launch of the new Kardashian Kollection, sold exclusively at Sears, which was helped by Kim Kardashian’s tweets on Twitter, according to Sperling.

bull; David Perry, chief executive officer of The DSP Group—an organization that specializes in design, sourcing and product management—echoed the importance of having a solid business plan and an original brand story, as well as creating a planned budget and performing thorough trademark research before embarking on starting a business.

“You must have a brand story, and it must be relevant,” Perry said.

bull; In the world of safety issues, Metchek declared Proposition 65 a “disaster” for California textile and apparel businesses, partly because there are no major testing labs on the West Coast. The law requires companies to issue warning labels on any product that contains one or more chemicals known to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity, regardless of the amount. With at least 860 different items considered hazardous, it makes testing a near-impossible challenge, according to Horowitch.

“One of the issues with Proposition 65 is that no one can test for 800 and something substances,” Horowitch said.

bull; Senate Bill 3728 is another controversial issue. Some of the details of the act, which was designed to protect copyrighted designs and prevent “knocking off” fashion designers, would include having judges (rather than designers) serve as arbitrators of fashion in order to decide what constitutes stealing, Metchek said.

Panelist Douglas Lipstone, an attorney focused on trademark and copyright, said the issue of design piracy could “throw the entire industry on its ear” and that “your most valuable asset is your intellectual property.”

bull; International trademark issues were another concern, according to Metchek. French winemaker Castel recently had its trademark “frozen” in China because the phonetic Chinese translation of the name was already trademarked in China, she said. Apparel companies selling products in China should hire a lawyer in China to protect themselves against this issue, she recommended.

bull; The new Senate Bill 657, which protects against human trafficking and will be enacted in January 2012, is important and something businesses need to be aware of, Metchek said. “Whether you import or not, everyone you utilize, from your zipper maker to your contractor, has to sign a form stating that they don’t engage in human trafficking,” Metchek said. Companies are also required to put a statement about complying with the law on their websites.

bull; There is still a shortage of cutters and sewers in Los Angeles due to an estimated 6,000 workers who were let go over the past two years because of their illegal work status, Metchek said. The industry would benefit from an industrial training facility in Los Angeles and a temporary work-permit arrangement similar to what fruit laborers in Central California have, she said.

Amidst the many challenges mentioned, there were many positive notes. Despite declines in employment at apparel manufacturing and textile mills in Los Angeles County over the past 10 years, according to Metchek, there is growth among independent contractors in manufacturing. Los Angeles is still the largest apparel employer in the United States, with 120,822 people employed in Los Angeles, compared with 73,822 in New York City. Orange County, Calif., has also significantly increased its share of the apparel market in recent years.—Deidre Crawford