She seeks chic so clients befriend trends
Paris, Milan and New York have their runways, but for “casual chic,” Southern California is ground zero.
National retailers want the look and have come to depend on our local cognoscenti to advise them. What’s hot here and will it sell in Boise or Birmingham or Boston? Retailers turn to consulting firms such as Directives West, Barbara Fields Buying Office and Doneger Group for the answer.
What these firms do “is beyond the runway,” said Ilse Metchek, executive director of the California Fashion Assn. “It’s how the business works.”
There was evidence last month, when hundreds of retail buyers packed the L.A. Over Easy fashion show. Sandy Richman, whose firm, Directives West, produced the event, took the stage and introduced Paris Hilton, who was launching a new clothing line. Hilton was nicely received, but it was clear once the program was over that Richman was the show’s star.
“You look faaabulous,” a buyer gushed as Richman walked to her office at the California Market Center after the program, wearing a gold lace tulip shirt, gold wedge shoes, a ruffled top with a deep scoop neck and a braided gold belt that, she pointed out, really was gold.
“You look magnificent. You look spectacular,” another admirer effused. Then, the trump: “You look better than Paris Hilton.”
If Richman knows anything, it’s what looks good. The fashionista is a petite powerhouse, funneling tips to Macy’s, Neiman Marcus, J.C. Penney, Abercrombie & Fitch and other clients. Metchek calls her the West Coast gatekeeper.
“These stores would be hard-pressed to find their way around this market without someone like Sandy,” Metchek said.
Or Barbara Fields, who has spent 28 years tracking trends for teenage girls and young women. She sends her trend spotters to high schools, clubs and concerts to monitor what youth is wearing. If the paparazzi are perched in front of a hot store or restaurant, “we’re there as well,” she said.
“We have people that’s all they do is cover things that are happening on the streets of L.A., constantly,” she said.
The much larger New York-based Doneger Group opened an office in October 2005 at the California Market Center, where its competitors also are housed. Now it’s expanding.
“There’s a West Coast lifestyle that’s very significant in terms of trends,” President Abbey Doneger said. “It’s important for us to be here.” As West Coast director, he hired Janine Blain, a former Directives West employee who was born in Glendale.
“Abbey didn’t care about my resume,” Blain said. “He cared about my birth certificate -- to make sure I was really from California and understand the California lifestyle.”
The attention the local retail consulting firms help generate can create work for local manufacturers.
“It creates a reason for buyers to come to California and shop the market and see what’s new, and it creates a buzz,” said Lonnie Kane, president of Karen Kane Inc. in Los Angeles, a women’s sportswear maker.
If, for example, Directives West likes a manufacturer’s baby doll dress, it may appear in the firm’s weekly “bulletin” to clients. Such exposure can be particularly helpful to start-up firms and emerging brands.
“You need all the PR and hype you can get,” Kane said. “And having Sandy like your products or tell buyers you need to look at this line.... It can literally make a company turn a corner, from obscurity to being hot.”
When apparel maker All Access launched in 1997, Directives West introduced it to retailers that knew nothing about the Montebello company’s Self Esteem brand, co-owner Richard Clareman said. Richman’s team talked up the line, he said, and persuaded retailers that “we could help them.”
He also relied on Richman’s competitors to expand his company’s sales, which have now pushed past $200 million. “It’s Doneger, Barbara and Sandy,” he said. “They’re amazing.”
Identifying a line that looks great but lacks exposure is one of Blain’s favorite challenges. She recalled a particularly feminine T-shirt line from Core Clothing, a downtown L.A. company that she introduced to one of Doneger’s clients, Nordstrom.
“They bought it,” she said. That got the attention of other retailers, who started buying it too. “That’s the most exciting part of what we do.”
“With the assistance of Doneger Group and the exposure, we’ve more than tripled our business,” said Core owner Claudia Mihok.
Knowing what’s likely to sell came naturally to Richman, whose family owned specialty stores on the East Coast when she was growing up.
“I used to go on buying trips with them,” she said. “I always had a point of view.”
And she’s not shy about expressing it.
“She can be very blunt,” said L.A. designer Sue Wong, a longtime friend. “Some people really see her as tough and powerful, and she can be intimidating.”
But underneath that toughness is a “pussycat,” Wong said. “It’s not a pretty or soft business. You have to put on a tough front to really survive.”
Surviving as a trend forecaster takes a certain knack, said Sandy Potter, Richman’s former business partner. Watching trendy retailers is part of the trick. If shorts started selling at Fred Segal, for example, Directives West would urge J.C. Penney to stock up, she said.
“There’s some very, very savvy retailers in Los Angeles,” she said. “To be a competitor here, you’ve got to get it.”
Fashion forecasters also look well past L.A. to track trends.
Fields, who has opened a New York office, is in London every month and Tokyo every six weeks. “I think it’s necessary to be global,” she said.
Richman is also a frequent flier. “I love L.A., I love New York, I love London, I love Paris,” the West L.A. resident said. “Hong Kong is one of my favorite places, and China. And I love Tokyo.”
Her favorite spot? “Home.”
