News from ApparelMagic clients

Around the world, the biggest names in fashion choose ApparelMagic

 

 
 
 
 
 
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Naeem Khan gives them the new razzle-dazzle at New York Fashion Week

ApparelMagic client Naeem Khan is known for his showmanship, and at his lastest event at New York Fashion Week, he did not disappoint. Turning his venue into a glitzy jazz club, live musicians played the hits while Khan’s glamazons twirled down the runway in their finery.

It was a full on rainbow of colors, pattern, embellishment, and texture. Whether strutting in figure-hugging gowns or swanning around in decadent caftans, the Naeem Khan woman is dressed to impress at all her events—and a lot of the time, she is the main event.

With maribou feathers here, and sunflower patterns there, and embroidered naked dresses everywhere, there was something for everyone. Fashion favors the bold, and Naeem Khan is only too ready to step up to the plate!

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Prabal Gurung’s all-American girls

Just before dressing seemingly nearly everyone at the America-themed Met Gala, Prabal Gurung designed a collection honoring the “American Girl” and all that means in 2021. That meant an inclusive, intersectional embrace of models across spectrums of size, race, and gender. It also meant a vibrant collection that felt of-the-moment in a time when we’re all still struggling to remember what year it is.

Florals for spring…but groundbreaking? Here, under Gurung’s aegis, it’s absolutely possible. Abstracting chintzy prints, blowing them up, and pairing them with fluorescent colors and parachute proportions, he makes the well-trodden tropes of spring fresh again. Picnic ginghams were done in bright oranges and pinks or stretched across curves in body-con cocktail dresses.

And genderplay was all over too, with suiting and skirting that was treated with little care for the binary, like a pastel menswear getup covering up a drapey silk top.

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Towards a pastel modernity with Jonathan Simkhai

The early oughts are officially back. ApparelMagic client Jonathan Simkhai’s spring 2022 collection shown at New York Fashion Week felt like a refreshing breeze from simpler times. Harkening back to the shapes and refinement of the days of the legendary Helmut Lang, Simkhai took on the minimalist mantel and drew up a line of sportswear of the most chic sort.

Simkhai multiplied spaghetti straps and subtracted midriffs. Dividing layers in suiting into multiple layers and adding on strips and ties that danced in the wind, the collection was full of things to look at while at the same time so much more than the sum of its parts.

Though sleek, almost severe cuts made strong statements, they were beautifully offset by a very human materiality. Whites, sands, lavenders, and periwinkle all draped effortlessly across models’ skins, and fabrics were buttery soft.

Simkhai is one designer never content to stay in one lane, and after this collection, it’s clear that, from maximal to minimal, he can do anything he sets his mind to.

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ApparelMagic users make the Met Gala’s best dressed list

Whether in threads inspired by home-spun Americana or in full-blown American glamor, ApparelMagic clients dressed some of the biggest names in fashion, sports, music, cinema, and photography. See our big picks of the night:

Venus Williams went old-school Hollywood in a vibrant red gown by Prabal Gurung.

Lorde took on the arts and crafts movement in custom Bode.

Actress Barbie Ferreira had a pearly moment in an intricately beaded dress by Jonathan Simkhai.

Superstar gymnast Simone Biles layered a bodysuit and a daring ballgown in AREA.

Gemma Chan paid homage to Qing dynasty artistry in Prabal Gurung.

Tyler Mitchell gave evening a sporty update in baseball-inspired Bode.

Diane Kruger lit up the carpet in a fluorescent Prabal Gurung number.

Precious Lee went business not-so-casual in a coat dress by Area.

Leon Bridges took on some vintage inspiration in his suede Bode jacket.

Teyana Taylor looked dipped in mercury in a gown by Prabal Gurung

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Watching the sunset with Cynthia Rowley

Basking in the final drops of a New York sunset, ApparelMagic client Cynthia Rowley staged her NYFW fashion show en plein air. Her golden-hour heartbreakers took full advantage of the evening, with their subtle hues lighting up in the daylight.

Printed like a watercolor, one sheer gown stood out for its ease and energy, especially as Rowley paired it with some chunky white sandals. With the lines of a prairie dress but with a mood of languid seduction, it spoke clearly as a summation of the season’s line.

Breezes across the Hudson River made diaphanous gowns flutter and gave new shape to lightweight puffer jackets. Everything was light, light, light in weight but alternatingly moody and fresh in spirit.

Other looks, in black but spangled in rhinestones, reminded you not of the sunset, but of a clear night sky bursting with starlight. Rowley scattered these sparkles judiciously in imagined constellations.

Just like the sunset, the collection captured the vibrant pastels and fleeting energy of a warm evening, as well as the navies and midnight of twilight. A poetic collection from one of New York’s most storied designers.

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Sandy Liang has a spring in her step at NYFW

What’s cool in 2022? Honestly, the best person to ask is Sandy Liang. Long the cool girl par excellence, this ApparelMagic client knows the hum of the street as well as the buzz at whatever gallery opening or dive bar the pretty young things of art, fashion, and music congregate.

So when Liang does her signature sportswear, you know she’s got her finger on the pulse. This season, it’s far beyond her trademark fleeces, and into cottony realms that feel just right for the times. Getting out of our pandemic knits, she’s encouraging an easy-breezy approach full of ruffles and layers, but done with such a je-ne-sais-quoi that it’d be impossible to accuse her frills of frippery.

These are in fact ironic ruffles, that look as aloof as the models wearing them. Even her approach to a classic skirt suit has an air of above-it-all detachment, the tailoring sitting away from the body with the structure of a neoprene. Liang is referencing the greats but making it all her own.

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LaQuan Smith’s Empire State of Mind

ApparelMagic client LaQuan Smith was in a different headspace this season, an Empire state of mind. And quite literally at that, staging his Spring/Summer 2022 show atop the Empire State Building smack-dab in the center of midtown Manhattan.

The venue choice was a statement all its own, and it signaled a new prominence for the designer. Smith, long associated with larger-than-life celebrity clients, is now a household name of his own. And the clothes? They reflected it.

He went bold. Fishnet bodystockings, plush robes, and lingerie transitioned effortlessly into satin minidresses and diamante-encrusted bras. This was not a show for the faint of heart—and not just because of the runway one hundred stories in the air!

Later in the collection, he traded the slick and shine for dazzle-print patterns that evoked the famous black-and-white warships. The LaQuan Smith woman is fierce in the real sense of the word.

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Calder Carmel’s access to ApparelMagic’s instant inventory reporting aids their customer loyalty journey

Mark Calder is no rookie in the menswear game. From stock boy for a haberdasher to creative director of a luxury menswear brand, he has spent decades refining his craft and distilling it into the perfect luxury sport shirts.

In 2018, he put his years of experience center stage when he launched his own shirting line, Calder Carmel, with his merchandising and production manager Kristina Stuckenbrock.

The driving force of the brand isn’t anything new, but it’s something far too hard to find in today’s market.

“The quality will last you forever,” Stuckenbrock says. “We buy from the same mills as top Italian brands, and we use the highest quality fabrics and materials.”

And as if that Italian quality isn’t enough, the design too is special, using exclusively-designed fabrics, unlike the competition, most of whom buy a mill’s collection as-is.

This attention to detail is making a mark. Just two years in business, and they’ve already sold almost 20,000 shirts! The real secret to their success though goes back to the basics: forming positive, sustainable relationships.

“We’re partnering with the best retailers across the United States,” Stuckenbrock says. “Some of them have been in business for a hundred years. They really know their customer.”

And that knowledge is key. Calder’s business strategy is to let retailers do what they do best and provide them with the best products possible, showing real loyalty in the process.

“We really believe in partnering with our customers to sell our product,” Stuckenbrock says. “We’ve taken the position that we don’t want to sell online because we don’t want to compete with our customers.”

While direct-to-consumer sales are many brands’ preferred pivot, this one has its own strategy that precisely suits its market.

“We’ve taken the approach that if we partner with our customers, we’re hoping to gain more market share within their stores because they know we’re not going to be coming up with a fifty-percent-off sale in the middle of November.”

That loyalty goes both ways, and already men are learning about the brand from their favorite specialty stores and becoming repeat customers.

“What’s really exciting is when we hear about how customers in store are reacting to it.” Stuckenbrock says. “We have some dedicated Calder customers now that they call on anytime our shirts arrive!”

Even during 2020’s retail struggles, Calder Carmel worked with their retailers to help them get through a difficult time. Whether it was sending them extra collection photos they could use promoting online, extending payment terms, or shifting delivery dates.

And you know what? It’s worked out. Customers reported their best sell-through numbers this past Fall, even with reduced foot traffic, and some styles even had to be reordered from factories—during a pandemic!

“For this terrible year, we had a positive end to it,” Stuckenbrock says. “We’re confident that we’re going to be able to get back to where we were and see some more increases.”

Alongside their dedicated relationships with retailers and mills, Calder Carmel has been powered by ApparelMagic. For a small team of two, it’s an essential service to get work done efficiently and accurately.

“ApparelMagic helps me do the work of ten people, really,” Stuckenbrock says. “What a gamechanger it’s been for us to easily access information so quickly. We don’t have time to be sorting through Excel documents all the time. When I get a call from a customer, I can tell them what our inventory is.”

And for an era when what can go wrong will go wrong, ApparelMagic has a whole suite of tools to keep businesses on track.

“Without ApparelMagic, we would not be able to instantly report on overdue invoices, upcoming payables, and the many pending orders in the system that remain to be filled,” Stuckenbrock says. “It is truly a lifeline that I am very grateful to have!”

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