Show Casts a Spell of Style and Celebrity

New York, Paris and Milan may have their highfalutin fashion runways, but the West Coast has MAGIC--the premiere showcase for street style and one kickin’ party crashed by rappers, thong-wearing nymphs, pro ballplayers and club kids alike. This week, the once-stodgy 68-year-old apparel trade show blanketed the city with looks for spring 2002. Labels such as FUBU, Sean John, Quiksilver and others have come to embody fashion for the masses with their synergy of music, technology and sports.

The event, which is held twice a year here, drew nearly 100,000 exhibitors, buyers and media to the convention center and the Sands Expo. A fair share of looky-loos who haven’t a thing to do with fashion came to soak in live radio broadcasts and celeb appearances during the day and free vodka shots and tunes spun by the likes of star deejay Mark Ronson at night.

Practicing his moves with a dozen or so break dancers in front of the Tribal Streetwear booth Tuesday was Salvador Harvey, 23, who came from Brooklyn to hang out. “There are always a lot of breakers here,” said the actor-dancer, after spinning on his head and jackknifing his body off the floor.

Megan Floren, 21, and Jill Sabeno, 22, of West Hampstead, N.Y., tagged along with apparel industry friends in hopes of meeting a few celebs. “Who is this guy?” one of the denim-clad, gum-smacking bombshells giggled to the other. Never mind that she’d just clawed through a pack of people to score autographed pictures from someone she didn’t know who turned out to be Denver Nugget Nick Van Exel.

“Snoop Dogg is over there, but you can’t get anywhere near him,” a passerby interjected. It was sad but true. The rapper’s monstrous booth, a carefully constructed fortress of hype, was guarded by earpiece-wearing security guards who, if not so well coiffed, could have doubled for Secret Service agents.

But as raucous as the scene was inside the convention center, at parties at the Bellagio, Mandalay Bay and Hard Rock, and after hours at the craps tables, there was a sense that MAGIC had lost some its, well, magic.

“If you look across the show floor, there’s not much that’s new,” said Cindy Adams, the trade show’s marketing director. Because of the economic slowdown, manufacturers may have been playing it safe, she said.

“Every company is copying each other,” said Koresh Sion, a clubwear manufacturer from New Jersey. “I think now you have to go to Europe to find what’s new.” (Isn’t the grass always greener?)

Even hip-hop wear, which has dominated the young men’s market for the last decade, was ho-hum. Rappers Nelly and Sisqo debuted lines, joining Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, Russell Simmons and a host of music types with signature togs. But the formula is in danger of becoming too familiar.

“Like anything else, when there are too many players in the game, the market starts to get saturated. And we’re almost to that point,” said Juka Evans, 29, vice president of merchandising for rapper Snoop Dogg’s eponymous line, which will hit stores this fall. “In our case, Snoop has been around for a very long time, which gives us kind of an iconic status. He’s not a young rapper coming out who has one album and wants to do a clothing line.”

There were, however, a few bright spots amid the acres of virtually indistinguishable men’s varsity-inspired jackets, track pants and denim of every wash and treatment (“whiskering” being the latest). The clean, colorful new line from Atlanta rap duo Outkast looked promising--a combination of the flamboyance of Andre “Dre” Benjamin and the more streetwise style of his partner Antwan “Big Boi” Patton. At a party to celebrate the launch at House of Blues Tuesday night, Dre wore his own designs--hand-painted white trousers and a shirt jacket with a pastel-colored geometric pattern, paired with a lime-green hat designed by London milliner Philip Treacy that was the essence of funk. The line, he said, is a combination of street and royalty that “looks like it costs a lot but you threw it on real quick.”

Apart from hip-hop, Newport Beach-based Paul Frank introduced its first menswear collection of jeans, T-shirts and tops emblazoned with the company’s cartoonish graphics. Frankie B., the hotter-than-hot women’s line of super-low-riding denim, offered its rock star look to men for the first time, replacing the signature butterfly logo on jeans with a more masculine skull. Designer Daniella Clarke shouldn’t have trouble hitting on what male rabble-rousers want; she’s been married to former Guns N’ Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke for nearly two decades.

Though MAGIC was named after the Men’s Apparel Guild in California, it isn’t just about men anymore. Roxy, Dollhouse, Todd Oldham Jeans and hundreds more junior and young women’s companies also rolled out spring looks that were largely uninspired, including denim, denim and more denim, 1980s graffiti T-shirts, sweater jackets and miniskirts.

Still, buyers seemed plenty content with alternative “classics.” They’re gunshy about the economy too. “Our clientele ranges in age from 10 to 60 and we can find something for everybody at this show,” said Hillary Fultz, a tattooed buyer for the Record Exchange in Boise, Idaho. Among the things she ordered: deejay-inspired looks and cutesy girl’s panty and T-shirt sets for younger customers, and Jimi Hendrix shirts popular with all ages. Because, after all, the NASDAQ may rise and fall, but there will always be a new crop of kids who’ll think they’ve discovered the guitar god.