Tribal - California Apparel News

L.A. Denim Maker Pays Back Wages to Garment Workers
Los Angeles denim producer Joe’s Jeans
has paid 110 workers nearly $160,000 for
back wages that were not paid to them by a
sewing contractor.
The U.S. Labor Department said the contractor,
Angel’s Finishing Inc., located at
5619 S. Main St., had been paying employees
on a piece-rate basis without guaranteeing
they received at least minimum wage or
taking into consideration overtime pay and
work on Saturdays and Sundays.
“Piece-rate pay is not illegal as long as employers
have a record of the hours employees
worked,” said Deanne Amaden, a spokesperson
for the U.S. Labor Department. She said employers
should look at the total hours and the
total pay. “If it shows the workers were paid less
than minimum wage, you have a problem.”
Joe’s Jeans paid $158,952 in back wages
for work done between Sept. 29, 2008, and
Oct. 6, 2010, Amaden said. Joe’s Jeans also
agreed to a plan promoting compliance by
all its contractors through periodic monitoring
of its garment producers.
“Upon being informed by the Department
of Labor that one of its contractors may have
violated minimum wage and overtime regulations,
as required by the Fair Labor Standards
Act, Joe’s Jeans acted quickly to cooperate
with the DOL and to give them the information
they requested to complete their investigation,”
Lori Nembirkow, senior vice president of
legal and compliance at Joe’s Jeans, wrote in
an e-mail. “Joe’s Jeans met with the Labor Department
on two separate occasions to discuss
their findings, as well as to reach resolution on
the matter. Joe’s Jeans voluntarily paid the full
amount of back wages of Angel’s Finishing to
ensure that Angel’s employees were properly
paid for all hours worked.”
FASHION
DISTRICT
2 CALIFORNIA APPAREL NEWS January 14–20, 2011
NEWS
In addition, the owners of Angel’s Finishing,
Daisy Mazariegos and Eduardo Santizo,
were ordered to pay $41,140 in civil penalties
for willfully violating the law by falsifying
employees’ time records, Amaden said.
They are appealing that fine, she added. Neither
Mazariegos nor Santizo was available
for comment.
Angel’s Finishing worked exclusively
for Joe’s Jeans, finishing jeans that were
later shipped to U.S. stores such as Bloomingdale’s,
Macy’s, Neiman Marcus, Dillard’s
and Nordstrom.
“We expect employers to take responsibility
to ensure that anyone manufacturing their
products follows the law, and if they do not, we
will take necessary actions to ensure that they
do,” said George Friday Jr., administrator of the
Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division’s
Western regional office.—Deborah Belgum
Quiksilver Repositions Women’s
Brand, Outsources Design
The road for one of Quiksilver’s newest
brands has been a circuitous one.
Quiksilver Women debuted in 2008 with
a contemporary design aesthetic and contemporary
price point. At the time, the only
thing reminiscent of the beach was the label’s
name and heritage.
Now, the company has enlisted POP Studio,
the Culver City, Calif.–based design firm
founded by Modern Amusement alum John
Moore, to bring the brand closer to its surf
roots. Replacing the more forward, trendy
pieces of seasons past are simple, crisp beachtinged
designs and a new name for the brand.
It will be known as QSW, continuing to
target better specialty and boutique stores but
with friendlier young contemporary prices to
make some of QSW’s offerings accessible to
better surf/skate shops.
The evolution of the brand has been continual,
said Steve Ellingson, QSW’s vice president
of sales. Initially, Quiksilver Women was
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positioned as a brand for urban creatives. The
brand enlisted bloggers, musicians and artists
as muses and ambassadors. Along the way,
Quiksilver tested a variety of fabrications and
inspirations. Some seasons were decidedly
more runway-inspired and heavy on luxe fabrications
while others were more low-key.
“We were challenged on a number of
fronts,” Ellingson said. Core retailers liked
the collection but were resistant to the line’s
price points, he acknowledged. Another sticking
point was that the line’s fashion-forward
styling appealed to better specialty retailers
but didn’t speak to the brand’s heritage.
Quiksilver has been emphasizing its heritage
across its brand roster—from the Quiksilver
men’s collection and Roxy to the new Quiksilver
Girls collection. Now it is applying that
same focus to QSW. “We’ve gone from being
more aggressive in our styling to being a modern,
coastal classic,” Ellingson said. “We’re
more connected to the ocean now.”
Kenna Florie, QSW’s vice president of sales
and marketing, agreed. “There is a difference
from our prior seasons. The [collection] is more
understandable now, and our focus is making a
young contemporary collection that reflects our
brand heritage that feels ‘coastal,’” she said.
The return to the beach also marks a potential
shift in distribution. QSW—which
will continue to target retailers such as American
Rag, Atrium, Fred Segal and E Street
Denim—will also be marketing to core and
specialty retailers more keenly in upcoming
seasons. “There is a need in the surf [market]
for elevated product. They need to reach for a
$300 jacket,” Ellingson said, to attract shoppers
that are as likely to shop fast-fashion
stores as better contemporary stores.
The first inkling of QSW’s ocean-minded
new direction came in August, when the
brand showed its Spring 2011 collection at
the Class@ASR trade show in San Diego.
Cotton dresses, tunics and breezy staples
made up the bulk of the collection.
Fall 2011, the first collection under Moore’s
direction, is the culmination of QSW’s return
to the beach. The line, which wholesales for
$16 to $147, incorporates silk blouses, sophisticated
striped linen dresses, wool duffel coats
and a leather moto jacket with more accessible
pieces such as Tencel/silk-blend graphic Tshirts,
marled Henley tops and sporty cotton
beach shorts. Approximately 45 percent of
QSW’s Fall offerings are at the brand’s opening
price points, Ellingson said.
Moore, whose firm has designed the fledgling
Quiksilver Girls line since its debut in 2010,
said his goal for the QSW brand is to “tell authentic
coastal stories.” For Fall 2011, Moore
turned to San Francisco–based artist/surfer/retailer
Serena Mitnik-Miller for inspiration.
Mitnik-Miller’s dreamy watercolors appear
in the QSW collection on T-shirts,
dresses and blouses. Some of her favorite
vintage pieces, including cardigans, are recreated
with a QSW twist in the Fall collection.
Florie said she expects to see Mitnik-
Miller’s influence extend to the Spring 2012
collection.—Erin Barajas
Week
In RevIew
California
Shirt recall. About 20,800 men’s pullover
Sherpa shirts imported by Foria
International Inc. of City of Industry
have been recalled by the U.S. Consumer
Product Safety Commission.
The shirts, with a Norm Thompson
label and made in India, are an 80 percent
cotton/20 percent polyester blend.
They were recalled because they failed
to meet federal flammability standards
for apparel. There were two reports
from consumers that the shirts quickly
caught on fire. Consumers should stop
wearing the shirts and contact Foria International
at (888) 999-6568.
Cherokee in Japan. Van Nuys–based
Cherokee Inc., which licenses its brands
to stores such as Target and Tesco, has
entered into an exclusive license agreement
for Cherokee with the Nishimatsuya
Chain Co. in Japan. Nishimatsuya
is a specialty chain that sells baby and
children’s products. The multi-year
agreement covers a range of categories
such as infant and childrenswear, footwear,
accessories, and home products.
Nishimatsuya plans to launch a range
of Cherokee products in more than 800
of its stores within the next 12 months.
Cherokee is now licensed in more than
30 countries.
National
Perry buys Rafaella. Perry Ellis International
of Miami announced it has
agreed to buy the Rafaella Apparel
Group, a women’s better sportswear
label, from Cerberus Capital Management
for $70 million plus warrants to
purchase 106,564 shares of common
stock. The deal is expected to close on
or before Jan. 28. “With the addition of
the Rafaella Apparel platform, Perry
Ellis will immediately become a more
significant player in the women’s apparel
industry,” said George Feldenkreis,
Perry Ellis’ founder and the company’s
chairman and chief executive officer.
Perry Ellis’ other labels include Jantzen,
C&C California, Laundry by Shelli Segal,
Girl Star, Redsand, Original Penguin
by Munsingwear and Gotcha. The
Rafaella label is sold in department
stores. For the 12-month period ending
Sept. 30, Rafaella’s revenues were
$122 million.
On Target. Target Corp. announced
it will be opening 21 stores across the
United States this year. Five of them
will be in California—in Oakland, San
Luis Obispo, Oxnard, San Clemente
and Dublin. Most of the stores will be
at least 135,000 square feet and employ
100 to 250 people. Target is scheduled
to open a new store in downtown Los
Angeles in 2012.
Quote of the Week
By this point, to be a
designer is also to be a
businessman.
—Olivier Saillard in a New York Times
story, talking about the 1990s as seen in his
curated contemporary fashion exhibition at
the Museé des Arts Décoratifs in Paris