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26 CALIFORNIA APPAREL NEWS OCTOBER 26–NOVEMBER 1, 2007
Playboy Next Generation
A new partnership between Playboy magazine
and Los Angeles–based licensing and graphics
company Giant Merchandising Inc. recently
bowed at select retailers with the goal of conveying
the cachet of the magazine’s 50-year-old history
in an apparel line aimed at modern men.
Playboy City Nights is geared toward young
men between the ages of 17 and 30, and it aspires
to put Playboy icons in a new light.
In the past year, the company placed the line
at specialty stores such as Metropark and department
stores such as select Bloomingdale’s.
On Oct. 17, it participated in the Bloomingdale’s
“Guys’ Night Out” menswear promotion at the
Bloomingdale’s in Century City, Calif.; the Beverly
Center in Los Angeles; and in San Francisco.
Giant used Playboy graphics such as the iconic
rabbit-head logo, the skyline of Manhattan and
even a graphic of a 1971 Playboy model for the
City Nights line. An emphasis was put on giving the rabbit-head icon new, stylish looks.
The line will be composed of polo shirts with the rabbit-head icon, track jackets, hooded
sweaters and slim-fit T-shirts. Retail price points will range from $28 to $60. Giant spokesperson
Trish Tostado said that her company hopes to appeal to a wide audience by distancing
the iconography from the libertine magazine. “You can see the rabbit’s head, but you
don’t always have to associate it with nudity and sex,” Tostado said.—Andrew Asch
Dollar
Continued from page 1
“No one bats a lash at our prices.”
That’s because in 2002, nearly one U.S.
dollar bought one euro. Most recently,
it took $1.43 to purchase that same euro.
That 43 percent slide in the dollar’s value
has transformed overseas consumers into
shoppers gone wild. The same holds true
for the Canadian dollar. In 2005, one U.S.
dollar translated into $1.58 Canadian dollars.
Now, one U.S. dollar translates into 97
Canadian cents, nearly a 40 percent decline
in value.
As a result, exporters of all kinds across
the United States are reaping major benefits.
In August, U.S. exports jumped a
robust 12.8 percent, compared with one
year ago, while imports inched up only 3
percent.
While retail sales in the United States
are stuck in the mud, foreign sales keep
blossoming.
Levi Strauss & Co., the $4.1 billion
blue-jeans giant based in San Francisco,
noted that overseas sales kept its economic
boat afloat during the third quarter of this
year.
Levi’s, in its third-quarter earnings report,
said U.S. sales for its pants and other
clothing, particularly its Signature and
Dockers labels, were disappointing. But
blue-jeans sales took off in Europe and
Asia, aided by better exchange rates.
Net revenues for the third quarter totaled
$1.051 billion, up 2 percent from last
year’s $1.028 billion for the same period.
“If it were not for the benefit of foreign
currency, revenues would have been flat,”
said Levi’s spokesperson Jeff Beckman.
Helping the middleman
The weak dollar, however, doesn’t always
translate into lower prices for foreign
shoppers flipping through clothing at their
local department store.
Many of the people riding the currency
wave are overseas distributors who buy
large quantities of clothing from U.S. manufacturers
and then resell them to stores in
their native country.
That has been the experience for J
Brand, a young fashion-forward brand of
premium jeans started in late 2005 in Los
Angeles. Jeff Rudes, the company’s president
and chief executive, said his distributors
are the ones benefiting from a fluctuation
in exchange rates.
“Overall, I don’t see there being a reduction
of price [of our jeans overseas],”
he said, noting the retail price of his jeans
varies from $158 to $250. “What is happening
is our distributors are stepping out and
NEW ANIMAL: Playboy’s City Lights line
aims to offer new looks for the magazine’s
rabbit icon.
buying deeper. They are willing to have
their inventory levels higher than normal.
They are taking a little more risk because
they have the cushion to do so.”
With higher margins, he said, his distributors
have more money to advertise and
promote his blue jeans, which are made in
Los Angeles and are expected to help his
company reach $30 million in revenues this
year and $40 million next year.
For designer Galina Sobolev, business in
Britain has quadrupled in the last year and
grown threefold in Europe for her Single
label of dresses, sportswear and other highend
garb. Now, England and other countries
in Europe are major spots on her retail
map, accounting for 25 percent of sales.
Again, buyers aren’t balking at her
wholesale prices of $138 to $152.
Local retailers selling to international
tourists make up one market sector that
is really going to town with the currency
swing.
The stores on Robertson Boulevard, one
of the trendy shopping areas in Los Angeles,
have been inundated with foreigners
bent on catching a glimpse of a movie star
while snagging a few pieces of clothing.
“It’s been really noticeable since the beginning
of the summer,” said Alison Muh,
president of Surly Girl, a 2-year-old accessories
shop on Robertson Boulevard.
She calculates her store sales are up 10
percent to 15 percent over last year.
“They are spending a lot more,” she
said, “and they even comment about how
they are spending more on things because
it is relatively cheap for them.”
Two-way street
One drawback to the weak dollar, however,
is that the price of fabric and other
raw materials coming from Europe and
Japan, where the yen is relatively strong
against the dollar, is chipping away at profit
margins for U.S. apparel makers.
“If you source domestically, you are
probably feeling pretty good about it,”
said Jeffrey van Sinderen, an analyst with
Los Angeles–based B. Riley & Co. who
watches several publicly traded companies,
including Pacific Sunwear, Bebe, Quiksilver,
Hot Topic, Wet Seal and Charlotte
Russe. “If you’re sourcing product from
Italy, you are going to pay a fortune for it.”
Indeed, Sobolev has seen silk prices rise
30 percent in recent months. And fabric
that was selling for $9 to $9.50 a yard is now
costing as much as $11.50 a yard. “The fact
that our volume has increased is making up
for the difference,” she said.
She is also adjusting her styles by creating
closer-fitting garments and shorter
skirts that use less fabric. ■