Designer Is a White Knight to Fans of Relaxed Sportswear

A decade ago, Gary Goldman started wearing only white. He donned white slacks, shirts and sneakers--for New York winters and summers alike.

“Obsessive is the word,” says the 42-year-old former wholesaler, who, in the spirit of that obsession, named his new sportswear firm White on White. Now based in Los Angeles, Goldman creates the kind of relaxed sportswear he says comes of a New Yorker’s image of California. And white is the centerpiece.

“I think white gives off good energy. It’s clean. It’s exciting. It’s crisp,” he says in the rushed clip of a one-time road salesman. “White to me is high conscience. Very powerful.”

Goldman focuses on comfortable fabrics and relaxed fit. His white cotton pants are rolled at the ankle rather than hemmed. His spring blazers--in mattress ticking, rayon plaids, pink, khaki, black and white--hang loosely. He also makes leggings, big shirts, tank tops, circle and short skirts. Many of his pieces come in both men’s and women’s sizes.

Seated in his white-and-gray Downtown Los Angeles loft (where he claims not to worry about his pure white couch--”It’s been Scotchgarded”), the Brooklyn native counts 20 years in the fashion business.

He worked in garment factories as a teen-ager, Goldman says, and after studying theater and psychology at Brooklyn College and the New School, he briefly entered fashion retailing. Goldman says he later turned to wholesaling, frequently roaming Europe in search of new clothing lines.

After breaking from the garment business in the early ‘80s, Goldman moved to Los Angeles--and resurfaced as a designer. His idea was to make the kind of casual, West Coast sportswear that had long been his preference--and which he says sells as well in Florida, Texas and New York as in California.

Ten months after forming White on White, Goldman’s line sells at Fred Segal on Melrose Avenue, Ice on La Cienega Boulevard, Malibu Beach Club as well as Macy’s in San Francisco.

The designer, who works with a staff of four, stays current by adding a touch of color to his personal wardrobe.

“I mix earth tones, pastels, khakis,” he says. “But I always wear white. Seven days a week.”