LOS ANGELES — Retail buyers gave a thumbs-up to the affordable and accessible fashion presented at the recent Los Angeles contemporary fashion market.
“This is one of the best markets I’ve seen in years,” said Amy Anderson, owner of women’s contemporary apparel boutique Viva Diva in San Rafael, Calif., mirroring the sentiment of many buyers who visited the showrooms housed in the California Market Center, New Mart, Cooper Design Space and Lady Liberty Building, as well as trade shows including Designers & Agents, Coeur, Focus and Select. At the trade expo, held March 12 to 15, the buying contingent included representatives from the likes of Dillard’s, Kohl’s, Bon-Ton, Piperlime.com and Nastygal.com.
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The main reason for the positive attitude is that colors continued their reign over trends, a supremacy that won’t be abdicated soon. Shelda Hartwell-Hale, vice president at Directives West, Doneger Group’s west coast merchandising arm, predicted color would remain the driving force through spring 2013. “It gives us a different element to mix into our wardrobe,” she said. “We aren’t going to go away from it.”
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For retailers like Anderson, the colors are contributing to better business.
“We have seen a turnaround this year, especially in the spring,” she said. “People are dying for the colored jeans.…What we are noticing is rich, saturated, gem-tone skinny jeans.”
Teal, brown, green, mustard and burgundy dominated the palette. Prints, such those with Native American inspiration, pervaded the market as well. New York’s LRK combined teal and black in a $100 rayon-jersey turtleneck dress with a built-in lining of Spanx. Los Angeles-based Myne expanded its outerwear selection with an $82 cropped wool peacoat in red and teal. Artisan de Luxe, also from Los Angeles, embroidered Navajo-inspired patterns up the side and across the pockets of tan skinny jeans. Carolina K, which is based in Brooklyn, N.Y., and produces clothing in Peru and Mexico, added hand-embroidered flowers along the neckline of a $119 alpaca wool sweater.
“Color and coziness” described buyers’ fondness for sweaters that mixed vivid hues and ethnic patterns. France’s Paul & Joe Sister did well with a $135 waffle-knit shawl cardigan, whose cream base was accented by pockets covered with panels of tan corduroy and gray cable knit. Trovata’s new sweater line, Birds of Paradis by Trovata, caught people’s attention with striped lamb’s wool crewneck pullovers wholesaling for $80.
Price still is a concern for retailers, according to Andrea Lauer, Trovata’s general manager in Newport Beach, Calif. For instance, Birds of Paradis’ lamb’s wool sweaters outperformed items knit from merino wool, which costs 30 percent more. “People are still really price conscious, looking for that value to pass to their end customer,” she said.
“Sweaters, as long as they are under $100 [at wholesale], are usually fine,” added Bridgette Selby, sales representative for Hollywood, Fla.-based Anama, which featured fashion knits such as a $32 olive green hooded net-weave sweater with dolman sleeves.
Vicki Holland, owner of the women’s contemporary apparel boutique V Holland in Costa Mesa, Calif., said T-shirts retailing for $100 and sweatpants at $120 a pair were “a little bit out of control,” particularly with customers sensitive to price as gas costs rise. “When gas prices hit $4 in ’07 or ’08, that was the worst retail week I ever had. People were shocked that gas was $4. It definitely affects business,” she said. “I think if it hits $5, it is going to be the same as it was four years ago.”
A slew of new lines used the market as a base for launching their businesses on the West Coast. Jackie Brander, the former co-owner of specialty store Fred Segal Fun in Santa Monica, Calif., channeled her experience as a retailer to create a new brand called the Books, which is produced and distributed by Jaya Apparel Group in Vernon, Calif. As creative director, Brander is targeting women who grew up on fast fashion from H&M and Forever 21 but aspire to better quality.
Made in the U.S. and retailing for less than $100, the Books offers everything from stretch skinny jeans dyed mustard, purple, red and burgundy to black polyester chiffon blouses with high-low hems and paisley-print polyester sweatpants in its debut fall collection. In addition to targeting retailers such as Bloomingdale’s, Shopbop.com and National Jean Co., Brander plans to eventually return to retail with a freestanding store for the Books. “It’s hard to find the right look at a lower price point,” she said in explaining her motivation for launching the brand. “I want things that could go from sneakers to heels.”
Summer Rapp, a former designer for Volcom, Roxy and Quiksilver’s women’s line, broke out of the surfer girl mold with a contemporary line called Summer of Seventy Eight, also launching for fall. Wholesaling for between $38 and $360, key looks from the 22-piece lineup include a bomber jacket in silk eyelet with exposed zippers and leather pulls, a leather patchwork sweater softened with a wide neckline and overdyed skinny jeans streamlined with front welt pockets and zippered ankles. “So much of my personal aesthetic is androgynous, taking men’s-inspired pieces and turning it into women’s wear,” Rapp said. “It’s for that downtown girl who has a West Coast lifestyle.”
Novemb3r, a premium denim line from Italy that emphasizes artisan production, premiered at Designers & Agents with the hope of adding more women’s retailers, in addition to New York’s Atrium, for its second season in the U.S. Among the 80 pieces in its women’s collection, it displayed garment-dyed drop-crotch jeans that were cinched with rope belts and priced between $100 and $120 at wholesale.
“Women’s buyers are still very conservative and traditional,” said Orsola Bertini Curri, Novemb3r’s global sales manager. “The biggest challenge is, for sure, to make them understand the different look we want to spread all over.”