TRADE SHOWS
Expanded Offerings at Designers and Agents
Buyers crowded the aisles at the Oct. 12–14 run of Designers and Agents at The New Mart, which saw an expanded mix of returning and new exhibitors.
A knot of buyers crowded around the booth for Alkemie, a Los Angeles–based accessories collection that has shown at D&A for about six years.
Husband-and-wife team Ashley Lowengrub and Dara Gerson were showing their handmade collection of jewelry made from reclaimed metals, including sterling silver and a mix of copper, sterling silver and zinc—an alloy the two describe as “like reclaimed bronze.” The company salvages metals from old flatware and electrical wire.
“No fresh mining,” Lowengrub said.
The line also included leather sourced as a by-product from the meat industry. Everything is made in Los Angeles.
Nuthatch is a Rockland, Maine–based line that specializes in apparel made from natural-fiber fabrics, such as linen, cotton and silk, which are sourced from Italy. The 3-year-old company designs clothing with “classic lines” and a “refined fit,” and everything is made in Maine, said Beth Bowley, a partner in the collection.
Nuthatch has been showing at D&A in Los Angeles for two years. (The company also shows at D&A in New York.)
“It was really good yesterday,” Bowley said on the second day of the show.
Bowley was one of several exhibitors who said the unseasonably hot weather has had an impact on retailers’ business.
“We definitely had a lot of accounts say they had to be careful because it’s been so hot,” she said.
It was also crowded at the Minnie Rose booth. Mags Dombrowski, sales executive for the New York–based company, said the company’s booth is typically crowded at D&A, “since we’re not local.”
Dombrowski said the show was good, with many retailers asking for Immediate deliveries.
“Even though it’s 100 degrees, people still love cashmere,” she said.
This season, D&A expanded to a second room, where Cathy Christiansen, owner of The House Showroom in Los Angeles, was showing four collections: Casmari, a high-end knits collection made in Southern California; Mona Thalheimer, a Los Angeles–based line of high-end blouses; and Christiansen’s two collections, Christiansen Leather apparel and handbags and Christiansen and Girard, a collection of garment-dyed silks.
“We’re a higher price point than most of the lines in D&A,” Christiansen said. “We saw some stores that carry our price point.”
For example, a hand-dyed sweater coat by Casmari is wholesale priced at $560. And Mona Thalheimer shirts are wholesale priced between $125 and $230.
“The fit is perfection,” Christiansen said about the shirts, which she said were well received in New York.
“Our world is looking for some kind of economic change,” Christiansen said. “Everybody is more careful. They buy the lines that perform for them and they do well with. People have to be wowed by something. They have to have a reason to buy.”
