California Apparel News

Sourcing at Magic was on the forefront of change at the Las Vegas Convention Center Aug. 7–10, proving the future is now. “The future is shaping how our sourcing community does business, and with new advancements comes new challenges,” said Andreu David, vice president of Sourcing at Magic. “This season, we wanted to support and educate on new technologies.”

We have all experienced how algorithms have connected us to brands, people and issues through our online searches, but understanding how they can work to give us invaluable information in the fashion workplace is here.

Among the exhibitors showing how were:

Fashinza works with brands and retailers to analyze what’s selling in specific markets—what prints or colors are trending, what silhouettes are selling—all pertinent information to help during the design process to ensure greater sell-through. By partnering with factories and suppliers, it can also help with execution. Pawan Gupta, founder, created his one-stop intelligent manufacturing platform for fashion brands. “Travel is expensive so we do the legwork,” he said. “The concept of test and buy, all at lower MOQs, is our forte.”

Re(SOURCE) provides services for everything from fabrics and sampling to shipping and working seamlessly through garment production for its customers. The company specializes in working with emerging brands, offering full transparency to the client, while managing the process.

Coming from a sourcing family, the founders of Buyhive call themselves the “matchmakers” of the supply chain. Suppliers are carefully vetted to link with the growing pool of freelance designers, working as production coordinators for a one-time fee.

With streaming the newest form of selling product, companies have opened the door to direct-to-consumer selling. Blackmagicdesign has developed the hardware that allows designers and brands to record, edit and live stream for face-to-face selling.

In addition, fabrics with enhanced technologies are improving quality and performance with new innovations. At Eclat Textiles, fabrics are waterproofed for outdoorwear. Garrett Bennett, owner of Category Fore, was at the show because “with the Shanghai show shut down, this show has been a godsend,” he said. The GTC Gyeonggi Textile Center, the massive L.A. showroom of sustainable, recycled and organic fabrics, with over 40,000 collections, was also an exhibitor.