“Stores won’t buy basics except from brands,” said Jay Gorman, national sales manager for Chazzz, a denim manufacturer here that also holds the license to make Nicole Miller jeans.
“You have to have a unique line of novelty items that encompasses more than denim bottoms,” he added. “There has to be additional elements of dressing. Retailers want to sit down and write a package in one showroom.”
Timing also helps the smaller vendors, he said, because they can generally turn a trend faster than the big names.
“All the companies are looking for trends, and there are no trends coming from all the basics that are out there,” said Gorman.
“When we do fashion, we create our own niche,” said David White, president of Z. Cavaricci, a Los Angeles denim and junior firm. “Right now, the biggest threats to the denim business are the off-pricers and the promotions. But we’ve been able to hold prices through proper sourcing.”
However, White said he’s concerned that stores will delay placing fall orders until they get farther into the year.
“If you break fall, people are going to sit on it a long time, because people don’t book that until March.”
As a result, he said he’d hold off showing most of the line until after WWD/MAGIC.
“Based on the economy, I don’t know if stores will come to market week in New York and to Las Vegas,” he said. “But it is a great chance to meet people and see the management.”
“Novelty jeans are what seem to be selling now,” said Billy Curtis, president of the denim manufacturer Billy Blues in Los Angeles. “Stores have pushed back spring tests and are sticking with the looks that are already in the stores and selling well, like an eight-ounce ringspun loose-leg jean.
“We’re also doing a lot of chain belts, novelty trims and contour waists. Anything with hardware sells.
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“The customer will pay more for a better garment, as opposed to a five-pocket jean. If they see something cute, and it fits cute, they’ll pay for it. And with all these stores going out of business, I think people want a label. They want something they can identify with.”
Curtis said domestic manufacturing, which allows him to jump on trends, also gives him an advantage.
“We do mostly four-week turns,” he said.
But it’s still important to make sure that there’s a core business to back up the fashion looks, said Gorman of Chazzz.
“There are a lot of things you have to do differently,” said Gorman. “You have to be a private label maker and have a core of private label to build from. That’s why private label is the survival route.”