California Apparel News

Leah Garvin calls herself a fashion anthropologist, but these days she is sounding more like a fashion entrepreneur.

After years of working in marketing, sales, video journalism and sustainable projects, Garvin is starting a new endeavor she hopes brings more apparel manufacturing jobs to Los Angeles.

In mid-June, the 26-year-old native of Colorado will formally launch FactoryLA, a for-profit fashion incubator that will try to help emerging contemporary brands expand while making their clothes in Los Angeles factories where legally documented workers earn a fair wage.

“We will be a full-service agency, from concept to customer,” said Garvin, who has a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Boston University and studied apparel manufacturing at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in Los Angeles.

The plan is for Garvin, and a host of consultants, to rendezvous with a budding brand, whip up a team of experts and devise a game plan for success. Experts can help with costing strategies, production plans, marketing campaigns, public relations, branding and sales tips. Need a pattern maker? FactoryLA can help find one. Looking for some advice on how to pitch a retailer? The incubator can help.

From her recently rented 4,000-square-foot space inside a 100-year-old brick building at 840 S. Los Angeles St., Garvin will be setting up a showroom for her “Made in LA” clients. There will also be a round table for meetings to assess what the emerging designer needs and then strategize on what the next moves will be.

Currently, the incubator is funded by an undisclosed private investor, but the idea is to make money by charging clients a project-management fee on top of the fees paid to consultants.

One of those consultants is Rocio Evenett, whose Unlimited Design Services in Vernon, Calif., manufactures clothes as well as offers a wide range of services, including patternmaking. “In many ways, we operate like factories overseas. We put services under one roof,” said Evenett, who has 2,500 square feet of space in a building shared with denim manufacturerArk Apparel. Soon, Unlimited Design Services and Ark Apparel, founded by Noah Landis, will be partnering and will move to a 10,000-square-foot space in their shared building on Pacific Boulevard.

Minimum-order requirements at Unlimited Design Services are low—48 units. “There are not many companies willing to work with small companies and start-ups,” Evenett said. “We can help anyone that has an idea. We can take them from idea to finished product.”