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With the athleisure clothing category hitting its stride, a new show highlighting that segment was launched by the California Market Center to coincide with Los Angeles Fashion Market.
The new Shape show invaded the CMC’s 13th-floor penthouse with some 30 exhibitors.
Most of the vendors were glad to have a show they could call their own that concentrated on yogawear, athletic pants, tops and accessories to go with them.
A lot of the buyers were from either yoga studios, yogawear shops or athleticwear boutiques.
Jin Ryee of Aimee Mwas surrounded by walls of patterned leggings that come in 120 different designs created with sublimation printing. All the fabric comes from Taiwan, but the garments are cut and sewn in Los Angeles and wholesale for $34.
Ryee was seeing buyers from mostly gyms, yogawear stores and athleticwear shops. While traffic wasn’t super busy, he was realistic about how much business would be done at a new show. “This is the first show, so you can’t expect too much,” he said as a yoga-studio owner wandered by and took note of the unicorn print on one pair of pants as well as other designs.
One buyer from a contemporary store in Boulder, Colo., Ryee said, noted she was interested in the printed leggings to pair with some regular sweaters and tops. “It’s not a legging legging these days but a part of fashion,” Ryee said.
Megan Lengyel, owner and chief executive of SQN Sport, was contacted by the CMC about the new show, which interested her. So she flew down from her office in Sun Valley, Idaho, where she also has a store. She is just branching out into the wholesale market after concentrating on online sales and her own retail sales.
She was getting a good response to her women’s luxury activewear line, which incorporates fabric made in Los Angeles. Her collection includes leggings, fleece ponchos, viscose T-shirts and coverups that wholesale for $21 to $40. In the first two days of the show, Lengyel said, she had seen about 20 buyers from all over the country. “I have met good people so far,” she said on the second day of the show.
Last year, L’Etoile Sportexhibited at the Selectshow, located in the Fashion Theater in the CMC building. But that wasn’t the right fit for the company, so the New York–based venture decided to try out the new Shape show to display its mostly contemporary tennis and golfwear. For Fall/Winter 2015, the company is expanding into athleisure.
Lindzi Ebernik and Sophie Caster, who represent the line, said buyers perusing the show were interested in the skorts and tank tops the company manufactures in New York. Resort shops were looking for cute athletic dresses. The median wholesale price point for L’Etoile items is $65, but the V-neck flapper tennis dresses go for $165.
