In the middle
KORET UPDATES: Koret of California, which markets traditional sportswear under the Koret label, is branching out.
The San Francisco-based firm is launching Notables, an updated moderate sportswear line, to be in department and specialty stores in July.
Notables will go after women from 25 to 46 years old, offering them peacoats, slim-leg pants and 19-inch skirts. The line, which will be in such fabrics as stretch flannel, tricatine and wool crepe, will have wholesale prices of $50 to $60 for jackets, $32 and $34 for pants and $32 and $38 for skirts, according to Becky Blair, vice president of sales for the new division. She came on board in January from RF Jeans, a division of Rafaella.
Koret, which targets a 55-plus woman, has wholesale prices of $15 to $45.
Notables’ showroom is at 530 Seventh Ave. in New York, while Koret’s New York showroom is at 1411 Broadway.
Blair declined to make sales projections.
GARSON INT’L GROWS: After experiencing success with its bridge-price leather sportswear fashions under the Rem Garson label, sportswear manufacturer Garson International Inc. is offering a moderate-price version called DCG Supplies. “We were being copied at lower prices, so we decided to do our own line,” said Marc Garson, president. “Leather is hot right now — at all price points.”
The wholesale price for jackets will be $100, compared to $175 to $225 for the higher-priced Rem Garson.
DCG Supplies, to be primarily in cow leather, will be more conservative, offering straight leather pants and 18-inch skirts instead of the hip-hugger pants and 16-inch skirts offered in Rem Garson.
DCG Supplies is expected to generate wholesale volume of $3 million by the end of the first year.
The company has also hired Brand X Group, a sales company, to handle distribution of DCG Supplies. The Brand X showroom is at 1385 Broadway.
Rem Garson, which is three years old, generated wholesale volume of $1 million by the end of its first year and is expected to top $8 million this year.
NEW EXEC AT DONEGER: Mary Ann Casale has joined the Doneger Group, a buying office here, as merchandise manager of moderate/popular sportswear. She succeeds Ilene Cohen, who left the firm last month. Cohen was at Doneger for 10 years.
Casale, who reports to Abbey Doneger, president, was with Certified Worldwide Retail Consultants as general merchandise manager. Prior to that, she was with Plymouth Shops as merchandise manager of junior sportswear and with G. Fox, a division of May Department Stores Co., as buyer of misses’ sportswear.