INDUSTRY 212: IN THE PARK.

WWD January 15, 2004 | Greenberg, Julee NEW YORK — Industry 212, held here at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center from Sunday to Tuesday, showcased an array of brands and a mix of markets.

Whether it was the newest bracelet from Rebel Designs or a trendy new T-shirt from Plain Jane, Industry 212 had a lot to offer buyers looking to fill their stores for summer. But it wasn’t just retailers walking the floor, as high schoolers on assignment browsed the aisles to learn about the business (and do some shopping when the teacher wasn’t looking). website oasis day spa

For many of the teens at the show, the first stop was a new resource out of Albany, N.Y., called House of Bimbo, a line of kitschy T-shirts and tank tops carrying sayings like “Boy Beater,” “I Am NY” and “Local Talent.” Owner Diva de Loayza allowed the teens to buy samples.

“It’s less to carry back home and they love to shop, so it’s great,” she said as she sold one brown baseball shirt with “Ghetto” plastered across the front.

“Only $15? OK,” said the teen shopper reaching for her wallet.

As de Loayza closed the sale, she explained that she started the company almost two years ago when she was attending Parsons School of Design here. She moved to her hometown of Albany to start House of Bimbo, which wholesales for $11 to $25. At this show, she said she was booking a lot of tanks and Ts in pink, and preppy polos in blue and pink. site oasis day spa

“There’s a lot of pink this season,” she said. “Everyone wants pink.” At young contemporary firm Blue Plate, long patchwork skirts were booking, as were short bandanna print skirts in pink and blue. Also booking were printed halters with beading detail and crochet dresses with drawstring waists. The Blue Plate collection wholesales for $20 to $30.

As for accessories, Seychelles was offering an array of styles, from black pointed flats to pink high heels and flip-flops.

“People are picking up a lot of pink this season,” said Kevin Morris, sales representative for the brand. “From open toe heels to ballerina flats, pink is the color.” Morris said retailers are looking to pick up shoes that go well with jeans, since they are selling so many.

“That’s what the girls are wearing, so we make the heels to wear with them,” he said.

Nearby, Rebel Designs was selling leather cuffs accented with crystals and antique brass. Wholesaling between $24 and $36.50, designer Gina Riley customizes each piece to the store, allowing for a choice among about 12 different crystals and leather colors.

But it wasn’t only the products buyers were looking to pick up. They took mini-breaks between appointments for a massage from the Oasis day spa, makeup reapplication from the Macy’s Herald Square Chanel counter and a smoothie from the smoothie bar. For those looking for some business advice, seminars were held throughout the three days, such as “Developing a Celebrity Following and Leveraging Its Benefits to Fuel Your Bottom Line” and “Color Therapy: Defining Your Retail Space Through Color.” Featuring more than 500 apparel and accessories exhibitors, Industry 212 showcased some of the fastest-growing segments of the marketplace. The show attracted more than 8,000 buyers from specialty and department stores, national chains, mass merchants and mail order and Internet sites, as well as buying offices.

Industry 212 is an affiliate of MAGIC International, a subsidiary of Advanstar Communications.

Greenberg, Julee

super natural phenomena; COMBING THROUGH WHAT CONSTITUTES “NATURAL” HAIR AS DREADLOCKS WANE

Pittsburgh City Paper April 16, 2003 | Anonymous In today’s here-today-gone-today world of hip-hop fashion, it’s hard for the media to keep up with all the pop-up trends. Take the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which in November 2001 published an article on black folks’ natural hair styles — specifically dreadlocks — and featured a photo of Nate Mitchell, owner of The Natural Choice hair salon in Oakland, his mane of locks spread left to right margin. Shortly thereafter, Mitchell became a lock-less monster.

“I felt they served their purpose,” says Mitchell. “Towards the end I was keeping them for the wrong reasons. I was keeping them because others had them or because chicks dug them.” While locks have lost their novelty among blacks, many have found a way to un-lock the definition of what it means to have natural hair, experimenting with Skittle-colored dyes, centipede-path designs, horsehair and even coffee stirrers to concoct a new wave of natural hair fashions. These styles say what locks did in the ’90s: give me free.

Don’t get it twisted: Just because they’re using materials that aren’t indigenous to the scalp doesn’t mean they don’t have the right to still call it natural. According to Tamika Williams, a stylist at Natural Choice, “natural” simply means free of any chemical processing to change the hair’s natural texture: no perming, relaxing, gelling or anything that would disrupt the normal course of black hair growth. And where locks were once the premiere way to make that earthy statement, the style has been amended to include braids that coil like a snake charmed out of his basket, cornrows that replicate Barry Sanders running routes, plaits that reduce thugs to Li’l Bow Wows, and micro-braids that resemble blackened strands of angel hair pasta. site natural hair blogs

Those who chose to maintain the locked hairstyle have even expanded their lot by braiding, dying and twisting hair in ways the original Rastas, who began the method to purposefully offend British authorities, never imagined. Kia Frazier, Williams’ “soul sista” and virtual twin stylist at Natural Choice, has a multi-tiered lock style where her hair’s complexion transitions from a candy-apple red to a botanical fuchsia to a deep shade of merlot.

Locks experienced a tremendous surge of popularity in the early ’90s as black-is-beautiful preening rappers such as YZ, Speech of Arrested Development, Lord Jamar of Brand Nubian and Ish of Digable Planets branched out from the previously popular boxed and S-curled fashions. Blacks here in Pittsburgh captured the same spirit, and familiar local personalities such as Luqmann (better known as B-Tree), Bridgespotters’ captain Kamau Ware, poet extraordinaire Davu, as well as Mitchell of Natural Choice, took up the cause. Today, only Davu has locks, though even he went through the painstaking, near-surgical removal procedure — and then grew them right back. naturalhairblogsnow.net natural hair blogs

“Biblically, I was into Solomon and Samson,” says Ray Merriweather, a senior at Pitt and Natural Choice regular who just recently excavated his head’s branches. “Their reasons for growing their hair were more physical, but my reasons were more mental — ’cause I ain’t but so big. There’s a lot of energy in [locks] but you come to a point where you realize you don’t need them to be where you need to be.” Mitchell’s shop is the first regionally to specialize solely in natural hairstyles. And with the distinction of being the first shop of this ilk, it’s fitting that it sets the trends of what is and ain’t natural. Why are they able to make this distinction? Says Frazier, “It’s a generational thing — the generation defines what it means and what they believe is real.” Or, judging by her tone, basically because she said so.

The style that has replaced locks as the black hairdo du minute is cornrowed hair. And even that style continues to mutate from the conventional styling — arched rows beelined over one’s skull — to where the rows take dizzying cursive paths defying linear theories, never really connecting point A to point B, but instead swerving from quadrant III to quadrant I with polynomial properties.

Hip-hop etymology blatantly robs Webster’s for its words and occupies them with his own meaning; hence — in the corniest of examples — “fat” becomes “phat” — no longer denoting obesity, instead meaning attractive. Today, natural doesn’t change in spelling but its definition has been extended, while at the same time it can no longer be limited to just the look of Bob Marley disciples. It makes just as much sense as that “natural” Aquafina spring water that’s been bottled through pipes in Pepsi-Cola factories.

But of course, by the time you read this, the Jheri Curl will have re-emerged as the new hair fashion for blacks.

Photograph (Natural Choice co-owner Nate Mitchell) Anonymous

AG charges Hollister, 26 others broke child labor laws.(Business)

The Boston Herald September 9, 2008 | Goodison, Donna Byline: DONNA GOODISON Hollister Co., the teen clothing chain inspired by the laid-back surfing lifestyle of Southern California, apparently isn’t getting the message about the state’s child labor laws.

A summer sweep of Massachusetts malls resulted in 27 retailers being cited for 106 child labor violations, and Hollister garnered nearly half of them, according to state Attorney General Martha Coakley’s Office. go to website child labor laws

Hollister, an Abercrombie & Fitch Co. subsidiary, must pay $2,750 in penalties for 51 violations for employing minors without work permits. The Hollister store at the Solomon Pond Mall in Marlboro was responsible for 34 of the violations. The company was also the biggest offender of child labor laws in a December sweep of malls by the Attorney General’s Office during the busy holiday shopping season. site child labor laws

State child labor laws require 14- to 17-year-olds to have work permits from their school superintendents before starting jobs. Employers also must keep the permits on file at the locations where the minors work.

The Steve & Barry’s store at the Liberty Tree Mall in Danvers was cited for 12 child labor law violations, also for employing minors without work permits. It received a $600 penalty.

Only one store, Aeropostale at the Cape Cod Mall in Hyannis, violated child labor protections that govern how late teens can work. It earned a $100 penalty for letting a minor work after 10 p.m.

- dgoodison@bostonherald.com Goodison, Donna