High Fashion Shopping Goes High Tech on New Channel

The home-shopping craze will get a new wrinkle this summer with the launching of the Fashion Channel, a cable-TV program featuring only apparel, cosmetics and accessories.

Scheduled to air beginning July 1 in about 5 million homes nationwide, the Fashion Channel is the brainchild of Charles Gee, a Los Angeles apparel manufacturer who will head the operation at a 300,000-square-foot facility under construction in Carson. He has enlisted two former May Co. California executives--Raymond L. Klauer and Wayne C. Smith--to help run the show.

“We’re not a discount or close-out (operation) like Home Shopping Network,” Klauer said Thursday. “We’ll sell first-quality, name-brand apparel for men, women and children, with some merchandise exclusive to us.”

With about $5 million in backing from the cable industry, the Fashion Channel hopes to capture some of the billions of dollars that Americans spend on apparel featured in catalogues each year. The program will be shown by at least 21 major cable operators.

While acknowledging that the Fashion Channel has “an impressive lineup” of cable support, Larry Gerbrandt, an industry analyst with Paul Kagan Associates in Carmel, Calif., said: “The specialized (home-shopping) services have yet to prove themselves financially. Apparel isn’t the easiest thing to sell by TV. They’ll have to plan for a high rate of return.”