The California Fashion Association, a Marina del Rey-based 140-member organization, represents the state’s apparel and textile industry. Since its founding in 1995 it has been led by Ilse Metchek.
The group is now joining forces with Sacramento-based California Retailers Association, which will set aside a category for the manufacturing sector. The merger is expected to happen by May 1.
Metchek caught up with the Business Journal to discuss the merger, her career and how retail and manufacturing have changed in L.A.
The foundation is merging with the California Retailers Association. Can you tell me why, and what that will accomplish?
Retailers are, in essence, private-label developers, so they are in essence stepping their toe in manufacturing and need to know the issues that the manufacturers have … They need to know what the issues are that the manufacturing sector is facing. And they have not stepped their toe in online retailing. They (CRA) are still, if you look at their membership list, it’s a membership list of brick-and-mortar retailers, albeit the big ones, but 30% of apparel, not only apparel, consumer products, is done online. And the conversation is not being represented there. So that’s what I’m charged to do. I’m going to be the consultant for manufacturing for California Retailers Association, and we’ll have a subset of CFA with its own board.
Do you have any plans to retire after the merger?
I don’t play mahjong or play tennis or golf. So what else am I going to do? This is my industry. I was born into it and I do this. I have a crystal ball. I’m not surprised ever. I’m never surprised.
You’ve had a number of prominent roles over the years, including serving as director of the California Market Center and president of clothing brand White Stag Inc. What made you interested in leaving the private sector for the California Fashion Association?
The California Market Center was purchased from the family, the original family (that owned it), by Equitable Life Assurance, also gone now. And they needed somebody as president who knew everyone in the industry, and who was not a family member. Those were the only two criteria.
I was executive director when the El Monte sweatshop crisis hit (in the 1990s). I was part of the roundtable of stakeholders in the industry. Mayor (Richard) Riordan did not want his city to be the sweatshop capital of the world, which is what it was being painted as at the time because the union wanted to get involved in the industry and the federal government came in; it was quite a to-do and he said you as an industry need an association. Now we never had one.
I was the only woman at the table, so they all looked around and said, she’ll do it.
And I did.
There’s been a long-term decline in payroll jobs in manufacturing. In 1990, there were 823,000 manufacturing jobs in L.A. County, with about 95,000 of those in apparel and textile manufacturing, according to EDD stats. In January, there were 316,000 manufacturing jobs in L.A. County, with about 22,000 of those in apparel and textile manufacturing. Will manufacturing come back to LA.?
No. The short answer is, at $20 an hour you cannot make a T-shirt.
You can make one-of-a-kind, you can make bespoke clothing, you can make higher-end value in terms of what the influencers say they should have and we make it in a local shop, but the sweet spot of contracting shops in Los Angeles is 40 machines. The larger factories have 200 machines, 400 machines are few and far between and 1,000 machines is not here at all. And that is labor. It is oversight.
For the most part the machines that are working are registered and pay fair wages and pay overtime. No piecework, they abide by all the laws, but the only press that is given are the ones that do not do that.
Factories for the most part that are here are not in L.A. City. They are in the Inland Empire. They are in other cities in and around the region, but not L.A.
Is L.A. still a place where retailers want to be?
All trends develop in Los Angeles, all current fashion trends for cosmetics, home furnishings and apparel start here. Why? Because of the television, music, the movies, the influencers. It all starts here …
You always have a new brand popping up. What happens is that a new brand, if it gets past $2 million, if it is rumbling along and gets past the $2 million level, people start looking at it as a brand. (And) a bigger company comes in buys them.
Are you seeing more manufacturing and brands leaving L.A.?
Factories may be leaving, but factories are not owned by companies. They are independent contractors. We have very few; I know perhaps six companies that have their own factory. That’s it. Everybody is a contractor. So it doesn’t really matter where it’s sewn. The brand, the corporate entity, the marketing is here. It’s a California brand.
Are there enough programs in the area for people interested in fashion?
I’m so glad you asked about that. That’s my passion. That’s something I’m going to be devoting a lot of my time to on freelance, on a foundation basis. The schools are oversubscribed by young people who want to be in the business of consumer product development. Young men as well as young women, beyond designing beyond sewing and beyond patternmaking, they want to create something, they want to create a brand. We are unique in California with creating this imagery that you can be your own boss.
And this is an industry where you can be your own boss. But the schools have not kept up with curriculums that develop businesspeople, professionals in how to be in business.
The art of sewing is not necessary, beyond knowing how to sew one semester; you’ll never sew your own garments in this business. But you will need to know a profit and loss statement. I have people coming out of high school, going into the fashion schools that do not know how many sixteenths of an inch are in an inch. I mean, they have no idea of you know, three feet make a yard, they have no idea. It’s remedial. So yes, our schools need a lot of training, a lot of repurposing, and I’m working with them by the way, I’m working with the community colleges and all of the other schools.
The state’s Responsible Textile Recovery Act, which is still in committee, will, if passed, require apparel producers to establish recycling programs. How might this impact the industry?
That’s the dumbest thing I ever heard. Now, I can be absolutely blunt and I have had this conversation with the vice president of Waste Management: There is absolutely no facility in the state of California to recycle anything. Zero.
We have to send our scraps to Texas. There is no facility in the state until they build the facility, which is very expensive.
That’s the dumbest thing I ever heard. Now, I can be absolutely blunt and I have had this conversation with the vice president of Waste Management: There is absolutely no facility in the state of California to recycle anything. Zero.
You have to take the buttons off, the zippers off. You can’t just throw a garment into a recycling machine. It’s got to be repurposed.
More generally speaking, are you seeing a greater push toward green practices in the industry?
My philosophy: progress, not perfection. Sustainability, the environmental consciousness, it’s a process. There is no perfection right now. Because you have to change everything. Progress in the way you do business, in the way you set up your work environment, is much easier than progress in the merchandise alone …
The companies are all looking at ways to be environmentally better because it’s good for them. It saves money, changing the lights to LED lights, not using as much paper, not using as many cartons. All of this is part of doing good business, and the industry is really working toward that progress, not perfection.
What are some of the big ways in which the California Fashion Foundation has changed since its founding?
It moved away from labor. Labor is not an issue. There’s a right and a wrong …
The issue is public perception of the industry. That is the issue. We’re not getting people to work for an industry that they consider a manual labor … The biggest problem that our industry has is getting industrial talent that is willing to learn and stay at the job.
What are current views on manufacturing things in China?
The mantra of the industry right now is anything but China. The focus on the industry brands is finding new ways to make merchandise and get out of China. Not for political reasons, but it’s very difficult now structurally.
What do the next few years look like for you?
For me, it will be a lot of work on international. Internationally, every country that has a fashion industry wants to have a presence in Los Angeles … Guiding them through that has been a very big task on my part because before they come I want them to know the rules. We are very different than any other country in the world.
We don’t have distributors. You don’t just go into California and find the distributor and leave the sales to them. You’ve got to know your market. I will address myself to the international groups that want to come here.
I also work with 14 schools, there are 14 schools with design-based curriculums, and they are as frustrated as I am. Changing a curriculum is so difficult.
