California Apparel News

Buyers from Nordstrom, Nasty Gal, Piperlime, Amazon.com, ShopBop, Elyse Walker, Madison, Ron Herman, Tilly’s, Revolve and American Rag turned out for the Fall 2014 Los Angeles Fashion Market. Once again, the market featured a staggered opening day, with the California Market Center and the Gerry Building opting to open on Sunday, March 16, and the Cooper Design Space and Lady Liberty opening on Monday, March 17. The New Mart officially opened on Monday, but several showrooms decided to open on Sunday to meet with buyers who preferred to shop on a weekend day.

The concurrent trade shows also followed a staggered schedule. Designers and Agents shifted its start date from Monday to Sunday this season while Select, at the CMC, opened on Sunday, and Coeur and Brand Assembly, at the Cooper, opened on Monday.

Exhibitors reported buyers were writing orders for everything from Immediate goods through Fall, and most said the mood among retailers was cautiously upbeat.

Mixed CMC market

Sales reps at the wide array of showrooms at the California Market Center always have different experiences when it comes to Los Angeles Fashion Market. Some do extremely well while others find traffic a tad slow. It was no different for market week this March.

Judy Kurgan, whose Judy Kurgan Showroom is on the CMC’s fifth floor, was upbeat about the four days of buyer visits. “It has been really good. Anyone who has been coming in has been writing orders,” she said.

Case in point were Mary Dawson and Carole Brookshire, sisters and co-owners of Revelation Tops, a specialty store in the heart of Montrose, Calif.

They sat on Kurgan’s over-stuffed beige couch and eyed the vast collection of labels that the showroom owner carries, which includes Beluva, Roja and Elana Kattan. “This is the perfect summer wrap to cover your arms,” she said as she whisked out a delicate lacy white wrap wholesaling for $34 under the Johny Fedora label.

Dawson snapped a photo on her iPhone and asked when it could be delivered. “I can get it to you by 4/30,” Kurgan said, noting that all her lines are made in the United States and available for fast delivery.

Dawson said she and her sister are more confident now that the economy is revving back up. Still, customers are price conscious, sticking to items that sell for under $100. “If they really like it, price doesn’t matter,” Brookshire said.

The store owners have been stocking their store with the newest trends but make sure they are not too crazy and appeal to the average woman.

Not far away, at the Chris Meyers Showroom, sales manager Aida De La Cruz said this market had been a bit slow. “But since we are a destination area, our customers find us, no matter what,” she said.

The showroom carries its own line, called XCVI, as well as Wearables and recently started carrying the Charlotte Tarantola label.

Most retailers were looking for Summer and Fall items. “Our Fall has been amazing because we have gotten a good reception to our new Fall products that have new colors,” she said.

XCVI has introduced more-traditional sweaters instead of the artsy sweaters it carried previously. The line also has a new casual pant made of Cupro fabric, the European equivalent of Tencel. “This pant you can dress up or dress down,” said De La Cruz, pointing to a coffee-brown slouchy pant. Sweaters and pants wholesale for $69 to $89.

At the 2,200-square-foot pop-up showroom for Cluny—located on the fifth floor near the large corporate showrooms of BCBG Max Azria, Sue Wong and Lilly Pulitzer—Nina Churchill, the New York label’s vice president, was a little disappointed in the market’s foot traffic. “There is so much emptiness in this building, and there is not much you can do about it,” she said. “This show has been a lot more work than we thought to bring in customers.”

Cluny was dismantling the showroom right after the market and rethinking where her next pop-up showroom would be for the next market. Cluny, which is trying to keep its retail prices under $300 for its contemporary line, is hoping to find more West Coast customers.

The contemporary line, owned by August Silk, has been undergoing a transformation since designer Cynthia Steffe left.

In the Area 4 section of the CMC, The Los Angeles Men’s Market exhibited streetwear and fashion brands such as Obey, 10 Deep, Kill City, Odd Future, Alife and BillionaireBoys Club’s Ice Cream label. American Rag, Nordstrom, Revolve Clothing shopped the event, which focuses on Holiday and Summer fashions and is produced during March and October LA Fashion Markets, said Kellen Roland, the co-organizer of the show and president of The NTWRK Agency showroom.

“We had more buyers in both days than the October debut,” Rolland said of the recent Men’s Market. “We’re one step closer to make it a stop on every buyer’s calendar.”

Mixed schedule at The New Mart

Most showrooms at The New Mart opened on Monday, March 17, but about 15 were open on Sunday, and buyers who turned out to shop market found a list of open showroom in The New Mart’s lobby.

“We were open on Sunday, and maybe 15 to 20 accounts came in,” said Melissa Frank, vice president of sales WBC Showroom. But Frank said most of the Sunday shoppers were from out of town and Monday was really the busiest day in the showroom.

WBC carries several Los Angeles collections, including jeans line Level 99, printed T-shirt line Rosebud,and Karen Kane’s two contemporary collections, Fifteen Twenty and Red Twenty Three. The showroom also carries New York–based Allison Collection and Yerse, a contemporary line from Barcelona that launched in the U.S. this year, and Coordinates jewelry, engraved with geographic coordinates. Retailers can pick key cities or neighborhoods or let their customers order custom coordinates.

Retailers are looking for novelty items, Frank said. For Level 99, that means new Fall items such as a drapey trouser style in a fabric with a suede-like hand and the line’s Forever Black jean, made from a Modal/poly/spandex fabric that won’t fade. For denim, Level 99 was showing washed-out grays, whiskered styles and sun washes.

“Level 99 has such good sell-through rates, and it’s easy to sell, priced competitively and fits great,” Frank said.

At the Stacy Rhodes Showroom, buyers were also looking for new items and collections.

“They are still careful, but they’re open to look at new stuff,” said showroom owner Stacy Rhodes.

Market brought retailers in from across the country and around the world, Rhodes said.

“East Coast, Arizona, Chicago, Germany—we’ve seen it all,” she said.

Rhodes was showing the Los Angeles–based line Single, which has a new upscale loungewear look with lots of jersey pieces mixed with original prints and details such as laser cut-outs and trimmed with vegan leather. Other lines in the showroom include Los Angeles–based Talia Hancock, which has expanded beyond its luxe basics to a full collection; Bali-made Milk the Goat, which Rhodes described as “very Coachella”; and Los Angeles–based “lounge boho” line Tricia Fix.

The Darlene Valle Showroom also has several new lines, including Mor & Dotter, a contemporary collection designed by Hanna Cousins, daughter of knitwear designer Suss Cousins. Another new collection at the showroom was yoga and active-lifestyle line Nesh. The showroom also carries White & Warren and Ecru.

“We were super-busy yesterday and today,” said Danielle Hansen, West Coast Sales rep, on the second day of the show.

New collections at Lit Studio included New York–based denim line Cult of Individuality, which included novelty styles and washes such as a waxed jean that had the look of vintage leather and a soft hand and a reversible style with a solid side and a print side. Another new collection is Nat & J. “The idea is it’s a basic tee with a little flair,” said showroom owner Sheila Smith Oliver. The line features cotton/linen and jersey pieces embellished with embroidered lace as well as and sequins and mesh. Lit Studio also carries a new beachwear line by swim label Mila. The cute, easy pieces are wholesale priced from $9 up to the $40s for an embroidered crocheted maxi dress, and the collection easily crosses over from swim stores to contemporary boutiques, Oliver said. “You don’t have to be at the beach.”

Oliver said she picked up new accounts at Market, including several out-of-state retail stores.

When she learned some showrooms in the building would be open on Sunday, she decided to open as well. Although she said she prefers a weekday Market schedule, she did land some orders on Sunday, including one from a new account from Nebraska and another from a Japanese department store.

Ethan Eller, manager for The New Mart, said the building is always open and some showrooms have been making Sunday appointments even since the Market dates shifted to weekdays-only in 2008. When Designers and Agents announced plans to test a Sunday opening for this market, Eller advised the tenants, and about 20 decided to open a day early. About 140 buyers turned out to shop the building on Sunday, he said.

“Our future, for now, will be to continue to advertise Monday-through-Thursday dates and we will have a few tenants who will open on Sunday, but it will be up to them to get the buyers notified.”

Cooper Design Space: Good retailers for last Fall market

For Colin Bachner of New York–based label Quinn, Fall markets are great because his company focuses on cashmere and outerwear. Mother Nature also was helping the Quinn label when it exhibited at the Cooper’s Aaron Matthew showroom. Cool weather still holds much of the country in its grip.

“Because of the weather, people have held off on Spring for as long as possible,” Bachner said. “People have wanted to see Fall, and we can’t complain.”

For Brian Heslop, West Coast sales manager for the Cooper’s The Foundation showroom, his buyers were showing a little Fall fatigue. The LA Fashion Market was the third Fall market his showroom had worked. The others were Agenda in Long Beach, Calif., which ran Jan. 7–8, and Liberty Fashion and Lifestyle Fairs, which ran Feb. 17–19. His salespeople showed Fall looks to many of their accounts, and he wanted something new to show them. He thought a show in late April would help because his showroom starts receiving its Holiday samples at the end of April.

Still, he reported meeting with high-profile retailers such as Tilly’s, Revolve Clothing and Kitson, as well as American Rag during the show. The traffic was a big difference between the recent March market compared with the same market the previous year. The Foundation is one of the co-producers of the Los Angeles Men’s Market, which took place in the Area 4 section of the California Market Center. He said the Men’s Market helped drive traffic to his Cooper showroom, which saw an increase over last March, when many retailers assumed only women’s lines were showing.

Lien Vets of the Noella Showroom said traffic on Monday was busy, but Tuesday was slow. She reported seeing prominent retailers such as Ron Herman during the show, but she agreed with Heslop that there was some Fall fatigue. However, she planned to squeeze out the season’s last bit of business. “There are West Coast accounts that still need to buy for Fall,” she said.

Consistent at the Gerry Building

Consistent was the word most often used by showroom owners at the Gerry Building to describe the recent run of Los Angeles Fashion Market.

Showrooms carrying European lines were the busiest because their ordering deadlines were looming while non-European lines had more flexible deadlines.

Chris Baumgartner, whose Istina store in Seattle has been around for 24 years, was shopping European lines such as Mado et les Autres at the Arlene Henry Showroom on the ninth floor.

“I am looking for something that has a bit of an edge to it but is not too crazy,” she said, noting that most of her customers are professional women over the age of 40 with careers as architects, graphic designers and artists who will spend more than most. She keeps her retail prices to under $300. “They are people who are not interested in a blazer and a pencil skirt.”

Buyers were also roaming the Karen Kearns Sales showroom for her European lines, which include Olsen Europe and Raffinallia. “It hasn’t been super busy, but we have had good, strong stores come in that made us feel good about the market,” said Kathie Muni, the sister of showroom owner Karen Kearns. They had stores from California as well as out of state, such as Pepi Sports in Vail, Colo., dropping by.

Carol Herzog, who shares a showroom with Steve Levinson, felt that traffic was off a bit for the week but said it was consistent.

Designers and Agents shifts to Sunday opening

This season, Designers and Agents adjusted its three-day schedule to start on Sunday, March 16, in response to retailers’ requests to add weekend days to the contemporary and designer trade show.

Organizers have not decided if they will continue the Sunday opening day but said they were pleased with the attempt this season.

“We did it because it made sense,” said Ed Mandelbaum, who-co-founded the show 10 years ago with Barbara Kramer. “We had great retailers here on Sunday. The trade-off was giving up a slow last day.”

Several exhibitors were working with retailers on Sunday although many said most of their business fell on Monday and Tuesday.

“Today was great,” said Kim White, a Los Angeles–based designer of an eponymous collection of belts, handbags and small leather goods, on the final day of the show. “Every designer has their own days that are busy. It was slow in the morning, and then after noon it was crazy. It was like two people at a time.”

White said retailers were especially interested in her clutches, wallets and anything metallic.

“The belts business is still good, but I’m surprised how many clutches were selling,” she said.

It was quiet at the J.P. & Mattie booth on Sunday, but, still, designer Mattie Ilel saw several of her key retailers, including catalog company Arhaus, which is carrying J.P. & Mattie’s totes made by members of the Hill Tribes in Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia. The one-of-a-kind bags are made with hand-woven fabrics from ceremonial garments.

“It’s [a skill that is] going away. That’s why it’s so precious,” Ilel said.

Retailers were also shopping the Will Leather Goods booth on Sunday, although representatives of the Eugene, Ore.–based company said they saw the highest traffic on Monday.

It helped that the company had several new items, said sales rep Paul Puccio. New this season is a buttery-soft deerskin handbag collection the company is calling “Fawn.” The company’s large totes with antique Indian silk quilts have been causing a “feeding frenzy” for the last year, Puccio added.

Alexander Inn, managing director of Thailand-based Angelys Balek, said most of his appointments were booked for Monday and Tuesday. By the end of the show, Inn said, he was pleased with the turnout overall but wished he had one more weekday to work with retailers.

The Angelys Balek Fall collection is inspired by architecture and nature and features designer Angelys Balek’s hand-drawn prints. The company, which has its U.S. offices in New York, is planning to start producing domestically for its U.S. accounts.

Monday was also a busy day for Los Angeles–based Tysa Wright, who has been showing her Tysa collection at Designers and Agents for nearly 10 years. Wright also shows at D&A shows in New York and Paris. The designer said she was seeing “tons of new stores” and getting orders—and reorders—for her “best-selling jumpsuit.”

Mandelbaum said he and Kramer will look at actual attendance numbers before deciding how to schedule the next show in June.

Coeur: Preserving exclusivity

It was the seventh show for Coeur, the accessories, gift and lifestyle show that ran March 17–19 on the 11th floor of the Cooper Design Space. Henri Myers, the event’s co-founder and creative director, said he intends to preserve an exclusive ambiance to his show.

There were about 60 booths representing 100 brands at Coeur, which was even with the March 2013 show. About 20 percent of the vendors were new, he said. Retailers such as Nordstrom, Nasty Gal, Piperlime and Amazon.com reportedly shopped the show.

Misa Hamamoto, the owner and designer of Los Angeles–based and manufactured Misa Jewelry, was enthusiastic about the turnout. “It was a steady flow of traffic,” she said. “Quality buyers came through.”

Los Angeles–based accessories, belts and jewelry designer Moss Mills made his Coeur debut for his self-named Moss Mills label at the recent run of the show. “It wasn’t as busy as I expected,” he said. He still reported liking the show’s loft-like ambiance and the show’s staff.

Paulina Berczynski, owner/designer of San Francisco–based accessories and fashion label FluffyCo., also made her debut at Coeur. “I made some good contacts,” she said. “But it was pretty slow.”

Berczynski said she landed orders at the show but not enough to warrant a return on her investment. She said she had expected to land at least $12,000 in orders but made less than half of that sum.

This was the first time at the show for Nicole Rimedio, who was showing her Santa Cruz, Calif.–based jewelry line, Variance Objects.

In fact, this was the first trade show for the line. Rimedio had been hosting trunk shows and visiting retailers independently since launching the line last May. One of her retailers, Vanessa Ambrose, owner of Cameron Marks in Santa Cruz, suggested Rimedio show at Coeur.

We got new accounts and a lot of interest from very nice people and some great feedback. It was great exposure on a lot of different levels.

The collection of “rough fine jewelry” is made with precious metals and rough-cut gems hand-cut by Rimedio. She describes the line as both looking both ancient and modern. Many of the pieces feature interchangeable parts to go from day to night. For example, earrings have interchangeable tops and bottoms and rings are stackable.

Busy at the Lady Liberty

Showroom owners and reps at the Lady Liberty Building reported seeing all the key retailers.

“I’ve seen everybody—Amazon, Revolve, Nasty Gal, Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Intermix,” said Kristen Aguilera, owner of One Showroom, which represents Blank NYC, Katherine Feiner, L’Adision, Rad x Refined, LA Fine, Bellen Brand, Joy Bryant's Basic Terrain and Vala, the contemporary collection Aguilera recently launched with Natalie Golonka.

“The buyers love coming to LA,” Aguilera said. “They come to review the line, and I get orders because this is their deadline. This is where I make most of my revenue.”

The showroom also shares space with The Majestic and the Kris Mesner Showroom.

On the third day of the show, buyers from Nordstrom and Mark Goldstein, owner of Madison, dropped by the showroom. Goldstein reviewing the Chip Foster line with designer Chip Foster. The collection is launching at Barneys New York and Stacey Todd. The women’s and men’s line has a California-meets-Canada feel, which is fitting for Canadian-born, Malibu, Calif.–based Foster. A shark-tooth motif appears on the buttons, and the collection includes selvedge denim and plaid flannels.

Kris Mesner, owner of the eponymous showroom, was also enthusiastic about Market.

“Market was really good. Today was the busiest day,” she said on Wednesday.

Mesner specializes in lingerie, sleepwear and loungewear lines, including Stella McCartney, Eberjay, Miel, Marigot and Maison de Soie, a new silk sleepwear line with “feel-good fabrics” and based in Newport Beach, Calif.

“People are writing orders,” Mesner said. “The season is almost booked for Stella [McCartney].”

Brand Assembly: Still new

It was the fourth run for the Brand Assembly show, which ran March 17–19 on the 11th floor of the Cooper Design Space. Hillary France, co-founder and chief executive officer of the contemporary show, said Brand Assembly still feels new to her.

“We’re still learning,” she said. “We feel that everyone is happy.” At Brand Assembly, 43 exhibitors ran booths displaying 65 brands.

New York–headquartered showroom International Playground made its debut at Brand Assembly. Alex Lauritzen, the sales manager, said that he met with retailers such as ShopBop, Elyse Walker and Nordstrom. “There’s a good quality of buyers at the show,” he said. “It exceeded our expectations.”

Mila Hermanovski also showed her self-named advanced contemporary label, Mila Hermanovski, at the show. “Monday was great for us,” she said about the first day of the show. But traffic dipped the other days. She also noted that Brand Assembly was a good opportunity for networking. She met with prospects for manufacturing and salespeople who could represent her line. Her line sold at wholesale price points of $65 to $270.

Mixed traffic, international vendors at Select

Select, the contemporary show at the CMC’s Fashion Theater, ran March 16–18, and the show had a decidedly more international look, with several overseas vendors taking a bow there.

Shibori-Ya Kahei of Japan, Elliot Label of Australia and More Lillim Than Eve of the UK exhibited at their first Select shows. Hari Greenough, the More Lillim Than Eve designer, said that its exhibiting at Select was not just a means to build an American market but also a way to stand out and get noticed for a new brand that started business last September. “A lot of people go to Paris and London,” he said of the sprawling European fashion markets. “We would have been lost there.”

Gillian Julius, whose Los Angeles–based, self-named Gillian Julius accessories label consistently shows at Select, said that her business at the show was even with the March 2013 Select.

“Sunday there was a lot of traffic; we had decent orders from new and repeat customers,” she said, adding that 75 percent of her business was new and 25 percent was from repeat customers. Traffic dipped Monday, but it rallied on March 18, the last day of the show.

There were 36 vendors exhibiting 43 brands at the show, which was about even with the March 2013 Select, said Joanne Lee, senior vice president of the CMC.