IT'S SHOW TIME! Where to look for Supima and its licensees

NEW YORK —— Supima may have switched its PREFAB sourcing show to a summer-market, once-a-year event, but both Supima and its licensees will be well-represented at this week's apparel textiles market all the same.

Here's the show-by-show breakdown:

KINGPINS
Tuesday and Wednesday, July 14 and 15, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
500 W. 36 Street, Sixth Floor
(For directions, click here.)
This season, Kingpins, the invitation-only denim specialty show run by Andrew Olah, switches venues to Skyline Studios on the far West Side of midtown Manhattan (near the Javits Center). As in past editions of Kingpins, you'll be seeing Supima there, along with some of its favorite licensees like Japanese denim specialist Kurabo and U.S. knit specialist Fessler. Look also for Cone, Denim North America, and Rainbow.

TEXWORLD USA
Tuesday through Thursday, July 14 through 16, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Thursday
Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, 655 W. 34 Street
(For more information, click here.)
Look here for Supima licensees like the high-end Hong Kong knit specialist Bros Holding and melange yarn specialist Haufu.

PREMIERE VISION PREVIEW NEW YORK
Wednesday and Thursday, July 15 and 16,
9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Wednesday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Thursday
Altman Building and Metropolitan Pavilion
125–135 West 18th Street, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues
(For more information, click here.)
Alas, the best source for fashion information and New York's first look at the famous PV color card for the coming 2010 Fall season comes last in the show order. Head here for our Turkish licensee Anteks here, a facility with state-of-the-art spinning technology and a New York-based rep who happens to count heavy hitters like Marks & Spencer in its customer base.

MEN'S HEALTH COVER GUY: Covered in Supima

NEW YORK -- The July cover of Men's Health magazine, featuring actor Josh Duhamel in a long-sleeved Agave T-shirt made of Supima, is already generating quite some controversy on the web.

After all, Duhamel skyrocketed to fame by going shirtless on the soap "All My Children" and then on the primetime series "Vegas."

In fact, entertainment blogger Amy Grindhouse positively railed against the injustice of seeing Josh in a shirt. Even while admitting that he looked sexy in his Supima.

We, on the other hand, say that if he has to be covered, at least he's covered in Agave.

(And we particularly like that coverline about "Strong & Calm," which we think is especially appropriate next to a picture of something Supima.)

We also like that fact that, while the magazine is promoting yet another Abs diet, it's giving its readers a more approachable goal: Buying an Agave T-shirt.

It may be the easiest way to look just like Josh.

BODAS AND SUPIMA: The admiration is mutual

LONDON-- Yes, we enjoy their online site too.

And, yes, we love all our licensees.

But when we got this paper catalog in the mail from licensee Bodas last week, it was like getting a love letter to Supima.

First off, there was that big heart shape written around our address (see above). Then, the back of the envelope (see below), with its Cotton USA logo.

To us, that's better than being sealed with a kiss.

But the best was yet to come.

Inside, almost every page was a valentine to the softness and strength of Supima cotton.

As the inside front cover explained:

"Bodas use U.S. Supima cotton Supima represents under 1 percent of cotton grown worldwide and is the only mark made from 100 percent extra-long staple cotton. It is 35 to 45 percent stronger than regular cotton and these long, strong, and fine fibres are what gives it its superior softness, strength, and lustre."

No wonder we featured Bodas in our SoHo pop-up store last year. No wonder so many stateside shoppers flipped when they saw it. And no wonder it's become a fashion editors' favorite.

After all, Harper's Bazaar once called described them as "Heavenly Bodas . . . simple, smart, and sexy."

We completely agree.

Not lucky enough to be on the mailing list?

Try one of the two shops in London (in Notting Hill and Spitalfields). Or catch the selection in Harvey Nichols, Lane Crawford, or www.bodas.co.uk.

TRADE SHOW TIME! New York readies for textile shows

NEW YORK -- It's that time of year again.

The next round of textile shows, the ones giving a first glimpse of Fall/Winter 2010/2111 fabrics are about to open in New York.

Première Vision Preview, now about to enter its tenth year, will be held July 15 and 16 in its usual place at the Metropolitan Pavilion in Chelsea.

Kingpins, the invitation-only denim-specialty show produced by Olah Inc., moves to Skyline Studios for its next edition on July 14 and 15. (And you'll be seeing Supima there—-alongside some of our favorite licensees.)

Texworld USA is also coming back to the Javits Center from July 14 through July 16.

And SpinExpo, a stateside version of the Shanghai yarn show, comes to the Metropolitan Pavilion on July 20.

However, PREFAB--as previously noted here--won't be making its next appearance until January.

Writing in last week's Domestic Trade Show issue of Women's Wear Daily, here's what reporter Ross Tucker had to say:

One show that won’t be returning to New York for the summer session is Prefab: The Supima Premium Fabric Show. Buxton Midyette, marketing director for Supima, said the show will return for the January textile market week. “The January shows focus on spring-summer, and that really is the strongest season for Supima in terms of lighter weight fabrics and the types of fabrics that are being marketed at that time,” said Midyette. “That’s where we want to channel and focus our energy.”

VICTOR DE SOUZA: Around and about with Supima

NEW YORK -- If you thought you saw a familiar face when you were perusing "the party pages" of Sunday's paper, you were right.

That was Brooklyn-based, Argentina-born, French-trained designer Victor de Souza, who took home the prize for "Best Design/Denim" in Supima's second annual Competition for Emerging Designers when it was held at Gotham Hall earlier this year.

This time, The Style Section of The New York Times captured the frequently photographed Victor as he attended the opening of the Fashion Institute of Technology's latest exhibition, which is devoted to designer Isabel Toledo.

Above, the conclusion of his most recent runway show--a reminder of why he deserved that Design Prize from Supima.

Contact him at Victor de Souza NY.com.

UNIQLO IN WSJ: "Fast Retailing Lives Up to Name"

NEW YORK — These days, not many fashion companies end up at examples of well-managed, fast-growing, profitable businesses profiled by The Wall Street Journal.

Which is why Supima is so happy to see Uniqlo--one of its favorite licensees (just look at our last post)--on the coverage it received in today's paper.

Writing under the headline "Fast Retailing Lives Up to Name With Global Gains; Uniqlo's Japanese Roots, Efforts to Make Itself Vital to Buyers Are Key to Growth," here's part of what the paper had to say:

Despite the economic gloom brought on by Japan's shrinking domestic consumption, Fast Retailing Co. has had no trouble living up to its name: domestic same-store sales in May of its Uniqlo chain shot up 18.3%, extending on-year gains to seven consecutive months. Japanese consumers -- and for that matter, tourists -- can't seem to get enough of Uniqlo's inexpensive but high-quality products, from undergarments and T-shirts to tops, jumpers and jeans in a plethora of colors.

But being dominant in Japan doesn't satisfy founder and President Tadashi Yanai, 60 years old, who aims to make his company Asia's leading fashion retailer within five years and "the world's No. 1 fashion retailer" by 2020, pitching itself against XL-size industry leaders such as Gap Inc. of the U.S., which boasts 3,100 stores world-wide under five brands, and the Spanish fashion distributor Inditex Group, which operates 4,264 retail outlets in 73 countries, including the Zara chain, with 1,292 stores.

"Without growth, a company would have no point in existing," Mr. Yanai wrote in his 2003 autobiography "One Win, Nine Losses." To seek growth in a changing environment, companies have to repeatedly reinvent themselves, and this process involves far more failures than successes, says Mr. Yanai, who has a degree in economics and politics from Waseda University.

Mr. Yanai has come a long way since he took over his father's small clothing business in the 1970s in Hiroshima, where he opened the first Unique Clothing Warehouse -- later shortened to Uniqlo -- in 1984. Fast Retailing soon began to manufacture the apparel it sold under its brand, adopting a business model similar to Gap and Zara.

The business grew rapidly and the company listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 1997. Uniqlo's first overseas store opened in the U.K. in 2001. The chain now has 775 stores in Japan and 82 abroad, in China, Hong Kong, South Korea, the U.S., the U.K., France and, most recently, in Singapore. Under all its brands, Fast Retailing has 1,974 retail outlets world-wide.

Reflecting Mr. Yanai's global ambitions, Fast Retailing has set aside a merger and acquisition kitty of about $4 billion. Although its $950 million bid in 2007 for luxury apparel franchise Barneys New York Inc. wasn't successful, the company recently acquired Link Theory Holdings Co., which owns the New York-originated Theory fashion label. Fast Retailing also owns French casual-clothing brand Comptoir des Cotonniers, with more than 300 stores mostly in Europe.

In March, the company said it signed a long-term consulting agreement with German fashion designer Jil Sander, who will be involved in the design of Uniqlo products.

In the fiscal first half through February, Fast Retailing reported a 24% rise in net profit to 35.55 billion yen ($359.6 million), while revenue was up 13% to 357.42 billion yen.

The WSJ team of Juro Osawa and Ching-Li Tor interviewed Mr. Yanai in Japanese at Uniqlo's Tokyo headquarters and then posted a transcribed and edited Q&A.

As for us, we're particularly proud that everyone Uniqlo's "high quality products" are always the first thing everyone seems to notice about the company.

UNIQLO AND SUPIMA: Great fashion, great value, great partnership

NEW YORK -- After checking out the Uniqlo website and admiring its latest Stylebooks, we proudly noted how prominently Uniqlo displayed a picture of a snowy Supima cotton field.

A few clicks later, we were even more impressed to read the details of Uniqlo's partnerships with prominent mills and how much this volume retailer values quality materials.

Here, for example, is what they have to say about Supima licensee Kaihara on the Uniqlo website:

Kaihara Corporation, based in Fukuyama City, Hiroshima Prefecture, is known within the denim industry as the world's best thanks to the company’s high quality, highly original denim materials. Kaihara can boast a 50 percent share of the Japanese denim cloth market and the firm also supplies cloth to well known denim manufacturers globally.

The relationship between UNIQLO and Kaihara dates back to 1998 when UNIQLO opened its first ever urban store in Tokyo’s trendy Harajuku area. Kaihara has proved itself to be a strong UNIQLO partner ever since continuing to provide us with high quality denim at surprisingly reasonable prices.

After that, we couldn't resist stopping by the Uniqlo store here in SoHo, where we were absolutely blown away by the Supima promotions.



As we were leaving the store even the cashier commented about Supima saying that "when you wash it, it just gets softer and softer".

We couldn't have said it better ourselves.