California Apparel News

The sheer sprawl of Project can produce anxiety for retailers and brands exhibiting at the contemporary show, which ran at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center Aug. 22–24, but many businesspeople left Project reporting good business during a tough economic season.Cody De Backer is brand manager for men’s fashion lines Tovar and Copy at the 722 Figueroa Showroom in Los Angeles, and he estimated that his showroom’s business increased 20 percent compared with the August 2010 Project. But De Backer also noted that buyer traffic seemed lighter.“This is one of the first years that a lot of the riffraff wasn’t there,” he said. “People were there to do business. I didn’t hear, ’I’m starting a store’ or ’I’m doing a blog.’ Everyone was there to buy something,” he said. De Backer noted Project security seemed to observe a stricter protocol on who they would allow into the show. Project management declined to state how many buyers attended the show or how many vendors exhibited at the show. “Feedback we received from both buyers and brands was extremely positive. They were, overall, very pleased with the traffic,” according to a statement from a Project representative. De Backer also credited the show’s success to novelty. His showroom debuted Tovar and NVRBRKN. These lines made their Project debuts at the recent show.Tankfarm Clothing estimated its sales performance at Project increased 20 percent compared with its Project business in the same time in the past year. Tankfarm co-founder Mike Anderson credited the increase in Project sales to his label’s new collaborations, which debuted at the trade show. It debuted its first boardshort collaboration with venerable surfwear label Katin USA, as well as a T-shirt and helmet collaboration with motorcycle helmet maker Bell. He said a majority of buyers, an estimated 60 percent, placed orders for at-once merchandise. The rest placed orders for Holiday and Spring from the Los Alamitos, Calif.–based men’s tops line.While new lines were embraced, retailers did not notice many new looks or trends at Project. “I did not see anything new and exciting,” said Lisa Kline, a leading Los Angeles–based boutique retailer who will debut a new online retail concept called Vaniti on Black Friday, typically the start of the Holiday shopping season. “There was a lot of cool stuff, but nothing stuck out as far as a specific trend.”Jeans with jewel tone colors were popular at Project. Kline placed orders for new denim line Private Stock at Project. “There’s a lot of denim out there,” she said. “I’m only buying straight[-leg jeans]. No boot, no baggy. Boot legs will be out for a while.”Kline shopped Project specifically for Vaniti, which will offer fashions for men, women and children, as well as accessories and some homewares. Retailer Fred Levine increased his buying budget at Project because his M.Fredric chain of contemporary stores will debut a new location at The Patios at Westfield Valencia Town Center in Valencia, Calif., in October. It will be M.Fredric’s sixth location.Levine said he saw a lot of colored denim and coated denim at Project as well as a lot of striped and checked patterns.But a shaky economy has made business tough for many retailers, said Diane Merrick, who has been running fashion boutiques in Los Angeles for more than 40 years. “As far as business goes, it is stagnant,” she said. “It is not up. It is not down. Everybody is cautious. My budget for spending has been cut back. I’m being very cautious.” Merrick runs her self-named boutique Diane Merrick in Los Angeles.Perhaps Project’s sprawl meant there was something for every business. Los Angeles designer Donna Mizani made her Project debut for her self-named Donna Mizani contemporary line. She said she thought her emerging label would get lost in the show’s massive shuffle. “We opened a lot of new accounts,” she said. “There was a lot of opportunity for me.”