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NEW YORK — Retailers agree that when it comes to the highly competitive contemporary area, it’s all about survival of the fittest.
More lines are entering the market every day from new and established designers. Describing contemporary as the most exciting part of the apparel business, department and specialty stores are devoting substantial space to designers in the category: Barneys New York is expanding the Co-op division, Bergdorf Goodman’s 5F floor is heavily trafficked, Macy’s has developed a contemporary catalogue and Bloomingdale’s and Saks Fifth Avenue have called contemporary areas bright spots on their selling floors.
The contemporary market comprises about $16 billion of the $102 billion women’s apparel industry, said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at The NPD Group, a research company based in Port Washington, N.Y., who characterized contemporary as “one of the healthiest categories in women’s fashion.”
Nanette Lepore, Diane von Furstenberg, Marc by Marc Jacobs, Tracy Reese, Rebecca Taylor, Vince and Theory are among the strongest brands, retailers said. And several newer brands appear to have staying power, although many others will likely disappear.
“If you are a new brand entering this market, you need to be distinctively different from the rest,” said Colleen Sherin, fashion market director for Saks Fifth Avenue’s contemporary area. “You should also understand this business, understand who your customer is and know that she is always in the store, shopping every day in many cases.”
Although newness in the contemporary area is a must because consumers are constantly hunting for the next big designer, only a select number of brands will be as successful as Theory and Diane von Furstenberg, Sherin said.
“The brands that make it have a distinct look and stay true to their customer, all while staying on the trends of the season,” she said, citing Nanette Lepore as one of the best-selling contemporary brands at Saks. Although Lepore’s line has become more sophisticated during the past few seasons, “there is still enough shine and embellishment to keep her devoted customers happy,” Sherin added.
Stephanie Solomon, fashion director at Bloomingdale’s, said she is always pleased when new designers enter the contemporary area.
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“It’s really great to have new people,” she said. “What looks good at Saks may not be right for Bloomingdale’s, so really, we need a lot of brands.”
Once the contemporary customer finds a contemporary brand she likes, she will return to it, Solomon said, adding that before she decides to pick up a new line, she looks deeply into the infrastructure.
“Can they ship on time? Is the quality good? Is the price right?” Solomon said. “These are all very important questions that have to be asked. If all of these things are right, it gives the brand credibility.”
Solomon named brands like BCBG Max Azria, Theory, Diane von Furstenberg, Marc by Marc Jacobs, Rebecca Taylor, Vince and Nanette Lepore as strong sellers, but said she is always looking to give new designers the floor space they need to grow.
“We put these up-and-coming designers in a smaller area of the floor called Elements, which is where designers like Robert Rodriguez, Jill Stuart and Anna Sui are,” she explained. “When they grow big enough, they move into their own area of the store, which is what happened with Nanette Lepore.”
Solomon said it is important for Bloomingdale’s to bring in new brands regularly to keep the buzz going on the floor. There is one designer, in particular, who Solomon said she wants to carry but cannot because of his tight distribution.
“We don’t carry Phillip Lim, but I would absolutely love to,” she said. “He is such an amazing designer and I think he has the true talent and business sense to be a big brand in this market.”
Ann Watson, fashion director at Henri Bendel, agreed that Lim is “the biggest new success story in contemporary fashion.”
Lim not only designs beautiful, wearable clothes, she said, but he works with some of the best and most reliable factories in China, which guarantees on-time shipping and quality. Bendel’s does well with Lim’s collection at the store, Watson said, adding that bringing in new designers is what the store always has been about.
“Having new designers on the floor is the reason why customers walk into our doors,” Watson said. “So we are always on the hunt for new.”
Watson has confidence in many fresh collections such as Josh Goot and Staerk, both of which she checked out during fashion week here. She is impressed by the Nathan Jenden line and predicted his staying power because Jenden is also von Furstenberg’s seasoned collaborator. She conceded, however, that a select few of the newcomers will become big businesses.
“Only a handful will make it,” she said. “There are very few people who will become a Diane von Furstenberg or Catherine Malandrino. But for us, we will always make the room for those designers who target our girl.”
Susan Sokol, president of Vera Wang, which just launched Lavender Label, a contemporary sportswear line for spring retailing, believes that Lavender Label is on target with the contemporary customer.
“When we started the line with eveningwear a couple of years ago, we were sitting on the sixth floor at Bergdorf Goodman,” she explained. “Now that we’ve added separates, we moved to the fifth floor, and sales have been phenomenal since.”
Sokol said that while sales on the sixth floor were good, the fifth floor brought a whole new range of consumers to the Lavender Label.
“The reason why so many people are interested in contemporary is because it is very exciting to shop; moms, daughters, everyone wants to shop the floor,” Sokol said.
Rick Weinstein, director of sales and marketing at Searle, which has eight retail locations in Manhattan, said there are a lot of brands entering the contemporary area, and that the problem is that there is too much of the same merchandise.
“There are never enough brands,” he said. “There are too many brands that say the same thing, however. We believe that customers have an insatiable need for newness. As long as the brands do their job to reinvent themselves, or take their brand to the next logical step, the customer will accept it with open arms.”
Abbey Samet, contemporary market analyst at The Doneger Group, a buying office here, said there are many ways for new brands to survive.
“There are so many specialty stores out there with the space for these lines,” she said. “And if they do it right, they could really have a good business selling to them. It’s just so important for these brands to find a niche and do it well. There are so many brands that want to be everything to everyone, and that’s just not how to do it in contemporary.”
Samet said the reason people buy contemporary is because they can find unique items at more reasonable prices than high-priced designer merchandise. She added that designers in this area have the ability to produce domestically, since they aren’t demanding an enormous amount of product, which can be a benefit to the brands.
Stacey Pecor, owner of four Olive & Bette’s stores here, said she enjoys checking out new vendors, but is always wary about picking them up until she knows she can rely on them.
“You cannot ship product a week late in this market,” she said. “New product hits the floor every day and I see many customers shopping every day, so on-time delivery is a must.”
Pecor said running a store that carries contemporary clothing can be risky because she often has to take chances on new vendors. Splendid, which is just three years old, is her top-selling brand.
“When I look at my top 10 best-selling brands, I see Splendid is number one, Michael Stars, Velvet, James Perse — they are all up there,” she said. “But these aren’t brands that are very new for us, they are all very reliable and I love them, but I would love to see new brands in the top 10.”
Pecor said she was enthralled by the Tibi show during fashion week and is looking forward to picking up that line for fall, but again, Tibi isn’t such a new brand. Pecor did say she is happy with some of her newcomers, including Rachel Pally, and is excited to sell Vera dresses this spring.
“I know they can ship, since [contemporary dress designer] Beth Bowley is doing them and they have a great reputation,” she said. “I can see Vera doing very well.”