Cited: Fashion News

The year of 2009 saw many changes in the retail industry that include pop-up shops; retail bankruptcies slow retail sales and mini mall openings and renovations. Always the commercial lender CIT group that declared bankruptcy was California-based Gottschalks, Active Ride and Anchor Blue Retail Group, Seattle-based Eddie Bauer Holdings, and Orlando, Florida based Everything But Water and mall owner General Growth Properties.

Apparel companies formed new partnerships, and trade shows entered new territories or shuffled formats to reel in more buyers. And it seemed like everybody looked to social networking to help connect with customers.

Despite no central anchor event, the city’s fashion week grew in 2009, with the debut of several new fashion events, including Downtown L.A. Fashion Week, L.A. Fashion Weekend, City of L.A. Fashion Week, Rock Fashion Week and Fashion on Broadway, as well as returning event BOXeight Fashion Week. Throughout it all, retail sales slowly climbed out of the red, buyers returned to market and the dark mood that marked the beginning of 2009 began to lift.

A look at 2009 in review:

JANUARY

The International Council of Shopping Centers declared holiday 2008 the weakest holiday season since 1970.

Los Angeles retailer Tracey Ross closed her pioneering boutique after 19 years in business. She had started out on Robertson Boulevard and then, after six years, opened shop in tony Sunset Plaza.

Tarrant Apparel and American Rag Cie reached a settlement in their dispute over royalty payments. Tarrant’s Private Brands division produces American Rag Cie apparel for Macy’s stores under a licensing agreement with the Los Angeles–based retail chain.

Children’s wear manufacturers scrambled to meet a February deadline for the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, which requires manufacturers to test all components of a children’s garment for lead.

Costa Rica became the last signatory country to join the Dominican Republic–Central American Free Trade Agreement, which eliminates most tariffs and quotas on goods traded between Central America and the United States.

The Action Sports Retailer Trade Expo canceled its Holiday 2009 edition. The show, which was smaller than the January and September editions of ASR, had been operating since 2006.

Gardena, California-based Da-Rue shuttered the last two Ames Apparel stores, the boutique chain Da-Rue acquired in 2005.

Hot Topic enjoyed a retail rally in late 2008/early 2009 thanks to consumer demand for merchandise related to the “Twilight” film.

St. Louis–based Kellwood Co. moved three moderate brands—Sag Harbor, Briggs N.Y. and Koret—to its West Coast facility in the City of Industry, Calif.

California department-store chain Gottschalks filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Jan. 14.

FEBRUARY

U.S. chain store sales declined 1.6 percent in January, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers.

The MAGIC Marketplace debuted two new sections at the February 17–19 run in Las Vegas: Premium at MAGIC and Premium at WWDMAGIC.

Quiksilver cut 200 jobs in its Americas region.

Macy’s announced plans to close its divisional offices in San Francisco, New York, Atlanta and Miami and eliminate 7,000 positions, or 4 percent of its workforce. The retail giant said it plans to centralize some of its operations—including finance, human resources and buying—and to open regional offices around the country in May.

Fill-in goods for immediate delivery were key in Las Vegas, where 14 trade shows were spread over six days and 10 venues.

Material World announced plans to “co-locate” with the Los Angeles International Textile Show in September.

Everything But Water Inc., one of the largest swimwear retailers in the United States, filed for bankruptcy.

Canadian fast-fashion retailer Clothing For Modern Times Inc. opened a 23,000-square-foot industrial-style loft design studio near downtown Los Angeles.

MARCH

February retail sales at chain stores declined 0.1 percent, surpassing even the lowest expectations for the month, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers.

Iconic independent boutique Show Pony, located in Los Angeles’ Echo Park neighborhood, announced plans to shutter.

!iT Jeans relocated to a historic building in Vernon, Calif. The nearly 100-year-old building formerly housed a General Electric factory.

Designer Kevan Hall introduced a new daywear collection created in partnership with Paul Lewis, founder of the Paul Stanley brand. The collection, Kevan Hall for Paul Stanley, was introduced at a charity event during Los Angeles Fashion Week.

Showroom owners reported mixed results at Los Angeles Fashion Market, where core buyers placed orders for goods for immediate delivery.

Mira Loma, Calif.–based surf-and-skate retailer Active Ride filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and closed eight of its 24 locations.

Disgruntled members of the garment- and restaurant-workers union UNITE HERE split to form their own union, called Workers United.

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APRIL

March retail sales were better than expected but still declined 2.1 percent overall, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers.

Gottschalks, the 105-year-old department-store chain based in Fresno, Calif., announced plans to shutter all 55 stores.

Business was light but steady at the April 5–7 run of the Los Angeles Majors Market at the California Market Center.

Los Angeles retailer Maxfield announced plans to open a Malibu location in the newly opened Malibu Lumber Yard shopping center.

The April 14–16 run of the Los Angeles International Textile Show drew a mostly local crowd of designers and piece-goods buyers.

Mall developer General Growth Properties Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The Chicago-based company operates more than 200 malls across the country, including more than 23 in California.

Consignment made a comeback as retailers looked for ways to limit their risk and brands tried to break into new stores.

Guess? Inc. co-founder Georges Marciano announced plans to run for governor of California.

The proposed Employee Free Choice Act of 2009, which would change the requirements needed to vote for union membership, drew the opposition of large industry organizations.

Local designers turned out for the April 28–30 debut of textile trade show GlobalTex in Los Angeles.

Focused buyers turned out for an abridged run of Material World & Technology Solutions in Miami Beach, Fla. Organizers of the show said the future was uncertain for the Florida edition. The next run of Material World was scheduled for September in Los Angeles.

The Design Piracy Prohibition Law, which would extend copyright protection to fashion designs, was re-introduced by U.S. Representatives Mill Delahunt, Bob Goodlatte and Jerrold Nadler.

MAY

Expectations were exceeded with a slight uptick of 0.7 percent in retail sales in April, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers.

Fires in Santa Barbara, Calif., forced the evacuation of more than 90,000 residents and drastically cut off business for many local retailers.

The Los Angeles Fashion Center, a new 300,000-square-foot wholesale center in downtown Los Angeles, debuted with 200 showrooms.

The Beverly Center mall briefly shut down on May 18 after an up-and-coming rapper who performed under the name Dolla was shot and killed in front of the upscale Los Angeles shopping center.

The trade dress lawsuit filed by Newport Beach, Calif.–based Trovata against Los Angeles–based fast-fashion retail chain Forever 21 resulted in a mistrial when the jury failed to come to a decision after deliberating for nearly a week.

Ontario, Calif.–based Anchor Blue Retail Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

A 7.1-magnitude earthquake in northern Honduras killed six people and slowed business at Honduran apparel factories. Although the factories suffered little damage, many workers failed to show up for work in the days following the May 28 quake.

Closures at Mexican factories due to the swine flu outbreak delayed production for many U.S. apparel manufacturers who had to wait for factories to reopen to get their goods.

A growing coterie of upscale sample-sale Web sites provided designers with an outlet to sell overstock merchandise discretely while building brand loyalty among fashion-savvy customers.

Iconix purchase 50% of Hard Way LLC for mere $17 million from San Francisco-based tattoo artist Ed Hardy who founded the company and licenses his name and artwork to many companies that include Christian Audigier’s Nervous Tattoo.

Continued in “Recession and Fashion through 2009 Part 2“

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My Take: Last year was a roller coaster for everybody. Both businesses and people scrambled to save what they could before the bottom fell out of everything. Some were successful and others were not. In fact, some businesses took the opportunity to advertise with wholesale plastic bags in their effort to survive. You have to admit that custom promo bags are cheap way to advertise, but they work.

I was amazed at the end of the year with how much businesses were cutting their prices. I was looking for brass bells to hang on my porch and found some that were 75% off. Even bar signs personalized were 50%-75% off, which is a big reduction as well. I just wish the grocery products would have been cut as much as retail products.

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