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Obituary
California Mart’s
Adele Morse
Platt, 87
Adele Morse Platt, philanthropist
and former apparelindustry
executive, died on
Sept. 30 after a long battle
with Parkinson’s disease.
She was 87.
Platt was the widow of
Harvey Morse, who, with
his brother Barney, founded
the California Mart in
1962. The wholesale apparel
venue eventually grew to
encompass three buildings
and is today known as the
Adele Morse Platt
California Market Center.
Platt was one of several
general partners of the building, which remained primarily
family owned and operated until Equitable Life Assurance
took the building over in 1994. Today, the building is owned
by Jamison Properties.
A Philadelphia native, Platt moved with her family in the
1930s to Los Angeles, where she graduated from Fairfax
High School. In 1940, she met and married Harvey Morse.
Throughout their 39-year marriage, Morse worked in the apparel
industry, first in the lingerie business and then as the
developer and owner of the California Mart.
After Morse’s death in 1979, she married Conrad “Conny”
Platt in 1983.
Throughout her life, Adele Morse Platt was an avid supporter
of many philanthropic causes. She was active in her
local Haddassah and was a supporter of Cedars-Sinai Medical
Center.
There is an Adele Morse Platt Conference Center at the
City of Hope Medical Center in Duarte, Calif. She received
the City of Hope’s Spirit of Life award in 1987. In 2004, she
received the Reflections award from the Los Angeles Jewish
Home for the Aging.
“She devoted herself to support of the Jewish Home for
the Aging, City of Hope, Temple Israel of Hollywood, the
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion of the Music Center and many
other causes,” said her son-in-law Rich Reinis. “Charity was
a serious business for Adele and a barometer she used in
choosing her friends.”
Ilse Metchek, president of the California Fashion Association,
knew Platt through the Morse family. In the 1990s,
Metchek served as the general manager of the California
Mart. “She was the philanthropist in the family,” Metchek
recalled. “And she had great taste and style sense.”
Joyce Eisenberg Keefer, owner of The New Mart, was a
friend of Platt and her husband. The two women were both
active supporters of many of the same charities, including
the Los Angeles Jewish Home for the Aging.
“She was a darling, wonderful lady,” Keefer said.
Barbara Kaplan, owner of the Extra Secretary at the
CMC and Platt’s niece (she said she always called Platt “my
‘tanta’”), described her aunt as “a woman of extreme integrity
who led by example.”
“She believed nothing was more important that family
and friends,” Kaplan said, adding, “Adele and Harvey, being
the key founders of the California Mart, changed the world
of fashion.” We thank her for that, and she will be dearly
missed.”
Platt is survived by her husband, Conny; her children, David
Morse, Susan Lebow, Marjorie Richards and Lois Reinis;
sons-in-law Stephen Richards and Richard Reinis, Neal
and Fran Platt; 15 grandchildren; and 17 great-grandchildren
(with three more on the way, according to Rich Reinis).
Services are scheduled for Oct. 2 at Hillside Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made in
Adele Morse Platt’s name to the Jewish Home for the Aging
or another charity.—Alison A. Nieder
There’s more
on ApparelNews.net.
More on the Web:
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NEWS
Juniors Continued from page 1
kinds of resources I would never have considered in the past,
including juniors brands.”
The stigma, Phillips said, of picking up juniors brands has
faded as the economy tanked. “We want to maintain our upper-boutique
status by carrying [contemporary and designer]
brands, but it’s a new day. If a brand has the right look at the
right price point, we’ll pick it up.”
These days, $60 juniors dresses hang alongside Sirens &
Sailors’ carefully chosen vintage and young designer offerings
that retail in the $200 echelon.
That’s good news for some juniors brands that are struggling
with department stores that demand bargain-basement
pricing combined with fast fashion–style garments.
Gloria Brandes, founder and designer of the BB Dakota
young contemporary brand and Jack by BB Dakota juniors
brand in Irvine, Calif., said wrangling with department
stores’ demands is pushing her to seek alternative distribution
avenues—not the least of which are contemporary boutiques.
Barry Balonick, owner of the Lunachix juniors brand
in Los Angeles, agreed. “There is a big push for drop-dead
cheap clothes in department stores,” said Balonick, who also
manufactures private-label juniors apparel.
Juniors brands capable of upgrading their fabrication and
offering trend-right pieces at a reasonable price are finding
new opportunities at boutiques and specialty retailers—or in
the contemporary departments of major retailers.
As if to illustrate that point, Brandes is transforming BB
Dakota, which
started out as a
true-blue juniors
brand, into a young
contemporary
brand. Jack by BB
Dakota, which was
launched to fill the
juniors void left by
its big-sister brand
and retails for 30
percent less, is
also moving more
upscale, Brandes
said. “I’m doing
almost no business
with juniors
departments [in
department stores]
because they are
so price-oriented.
We’ve abandoned
them for more specialty
departments,
and, as of spring 2010, we’ll be out of juniors departments
completely. I have no interest in it,” she said. “Juniors is an
over-populated segment. It isn’t the success story it once
was.”
Eyeing the competition
MORE YMI: YMI has significantly expanded
its offerings to include sportswear
and activewear, but its price points
remain juniors.
Luckily, contemporary buyers for years have been sneaking
a peek at juniors brands. “Why wouldn’t they? Contemporary
is taking on a younger edge, and juniors brands have
been skewing a little older. The lines were already blurring,
and then the economy pushed it all over the edge,” Lunachix’s
Balonick said.
Lunachix has enjoyed a strong uptick in interest among
contemporary retailers actively searching out juniors resources.
The brand, which offers a full range of garments—includ-
JUNIORS PARADISE: Lady owner Camille de Soto’s mix of juniors,
contemporary and vintage has earned her a loyal following
among shoppers aged 25 to 45 and kudos from Lucky magazine,
which named it one of the 50 best boutiques in the city.
ing knit and woven tops and pants, dresses, and denim—was
one of the first to take its fabrications more high-end than the
typical juniors fare. The breadth of its offerings, its fabrications
and its $24–$80 retail price points have been the key to
getting the brand into non-juniors distribution channels, Balonick
said.
YMI, a Los Angeles–based juniors denim brand, is looking
for wider distribution possibilities by fast-tracking its expansion
into sportswear and activewear for Spring 2010. Deke Jamieson,
the brand’s executive vice president of licensing, said that while
YMI will remain a true juniors brand, expanding its offerings is
key to growing.
“Expanding into tops, dresses and activewear, while maintaining
a high price-to-value relationship, is going to make
us a more important brand to both retailers and consumers,”
he said.
From a design perspective, juniors brands and more highend
brands are pulling from the same sources for inspiration.
“We’re all looking at the same magazines, the same trend
reports, the same everything. Where juniors brands differentiate
themselves is price point,” Jamieson said.
To communicate its new positioning, which includes upgraded
styling and fabrications, YMI dropped the “Jeanswear”
tag from its label and went to the MAGIC Marketplace
in September with a new booth for the new concept.
“The booth was bigger and featured a fresh, new look for the
brand. It didn’t look like a booth for jeans, and it communicated
that to buyers,” Jamieson said.
JUNIORS NO MORE: BB Dakota keeps a young contemporary
price point but skews more high-end with leather pieces and
sophisticated styling.
Barbara Fields, founder of the Los Angeles–based buying
office bearing her name, said there are many juniors brands,
both established and brand new, waiting in the wings for
their shot at specialty and contemporary retailers. “I’m looking
at a list that’s five pages long of new juniors brands that
don’t want to be in department stores and are targeting good
specialty stores,” she said.
The burgeoning “better juniors” market, as Fields calls it,
is making it so that specialty stores can still get exclusivity
and “attitude.” “These new resources offer elevated perception
at juniors prices,” she noted.
Creating a new price point
Balonick thinks the interest from contemporary buyers
will remain even when the economy recovers. “There is less
resistance on the part of [specialty and contemporary retailers]
now toward juniors because everyone is looking for help
keeping their doors open and their lights on. But we’ve created
a new price point in the market, and it will stick.”
Camille de Soto, owner of the Lady boutique in Los Angeles’
Eagle Rock neighborhood, agreed. She has stocked her
shop with a mix of contemporary, vintage and juniors brands
since she opened in 2007 and can’t see losing the walletfriendly
juniors resources. “Most customers don’t realize if
it’s a juniors line. They’re not aware and it doesn’t matter.
I’m always going to buy [from juniors resources] because
the fashion is fun and inexpensive and it sells,” she said.
Kaitlyn Whalen, the manager and buyer at the Animal
House specialty store in Los Angeles’ Venice Beach, said
juniors apparel accounts for 25 percent of her business. The
store stocks goods from high-end and mid-range brands as
diverse as Mike & Chris, !It Jeans, Jack by BB Dakota,
Ella Moss and Joe’s Jeans. “We’ll keep selling [juniors
goods] because our customers keep buying it. People like
a $60 jacket that is of decent quality,” Whalen said. “Joe’s
Jeans aren’t flying out the door [at over $120], but we sell a
lot of !It Jeans [in the $50 range].” ●
OCTOBER 2–8, 2009 CALIFORNIA APPAREL NEWS 7