COOPER DESIGN SPACE
Profile: Brand Assembly
Cooper Design Space
11th floor
(212) 995-7686
In less than two years, Brand Assembly has grown from a showroom in the Cooper Design Space to a trade show featuring 60 upscale contemporary brands held on the building’s 11th floor.
“It grew from 5 brands to 12 brands to 18 brands,” said show co-founder Hillary France, who said the current lineup includes 60 brands.
The show takes up about 6,400 square feet in the Cooper building’s light-filled penthouse. Rather than fixed booth walls, Brand Assembly has a more open format, with clothing hung on rolling racks and a floor layout that encourages browsing.
“Buyers love the layout,” France said. “Our aesthetic is to have that open, airy shoppable experience where all the brands are on the same playing field.”
The show features a mix of apparel and accessories, including individual brands and multi-line showrooms.
“It’s definitely a curated show,” France said. “We want to come from an angle of the contemporary space. [We] have very well known brands and high-volume brands like Tibi and Sachin + Babi, along with some new and emerging designers. The showrooms we have—like The Out Crowd—have a lot of new upcoming brands.”
Faith Connexion is making its trade show debut in Los Angeles at the show, France said. And London-based Related apparel, Versus by Versace, Laveer and Nonoo will also be among the exhibitors at the show.
“We also are playing with some outside-the-box vendors, as well. We have a fragrance company, Leilani Bishop Fragrances, as well as a fashion bike company [Martone Cycling Co.].”
The show officially launched under the Brand Assembly name in May and hosted its first show under the Brand Assembly name in June at LA Market. In addition to the trade show, Brand Assembly offers back-end infrastructure for designers through the company’s New York office.
“That entails all the logistics and operations, all the merchandising and production planning,” said France, a former sales rep for brands such as Diane Von Furstenberg, Rachel Zoe and Kimberly Ovitz.
The company has already signed its first client. Edition01, the product development and design collaboration platform, is launching private label and collaborations at Brand Assembly, France said.
France’s partners in Brand Assembly’s two businesses are Alex Repola and Full Picture Public Relations.
In March, Brand Assembly took a few key brands to show in Paris under the name “An Ensemble,” but plans for a second Paris show were put on hiatus.
“For this season, we had taken a hiatus from Paris to focus on making Los Angeles a killer experience for the brand and then focusing on the other half of our business, which was the back-end and infrastructure,” France said, adding that she and her partners are also looking into launching in New York.
“There are a lot of brands that are looking to show major departments stores before Coterie,” she said. “[We’re looking into the potential] to provide a space to capture that extra business. And then reinstating our Paris show is definitely in the pipeline.”
During the Oct.14–16 run at Los Angeles Fashion Market, the show is sharing the 11th-floor space with Coeur, the upscale accessories show organized by EM Productions. Brand Assembly is occupying the left half of the room and has a separate registration desk.
Brand Assembly features a lounge area sponsored by Joor and offers juices provided by Pressed Juicery, located on the ground level of the Cooper building.
For more information, call (212) 995-7686.
