Wednesday, Sept. 2, 1998 | 10:15 a.m.
More than 60 years ago in California, a Menswear organization was created that was made up of Los Angeles-based Menswear manufacturers. They called themselves the Men's Apparel Guild in California (MAGIC).
Growth was slow for the limited organization until 1979, when manufacturers worldwide were invited to participate. What happened then was magic. By 1989, MAGIC had grown enormously and could not be accommodated in Los Angeles. There just weren't enough hotel rooms, so it was relocated to the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Covering the Las Vegas show was easy in those early days. One could easily walk the show in a day and it was all under one roof. Writers could wander the show looking for possible stories. The exhibitors were readily accessible and would chat with everyone who stopped by.
Today, MAGIC -- a trade show running through Thursday and not open to the public -- occupies nearly two million square feet of exhibition space (we've grown, too, here in Las Vegas) and attracts more than 175,000 apparel buyers and sellers from more than 125 countries.
MAGIC has gone global in a big way.
No longer just for men, MAGIC now includes women's apparel as well as children's apparel. To do the show in its entirety could easily take three days, so I decided to cover only the menswear, still housed in the Convention Center.
The show opened at 9 a.m. Monday. But, long before the opening, the parking lot was almost full. Inside, the action was already starting as retailers scanned maps of the exhibit hall and searched the planner book for the location of the exhibits they wanted to shop.
I headed for the press room to do the same thing. Without a plan, one could easily get sidetracked. Almost immediately, I changed courses to include MAGIC Sport, a new portion of the show devoted to active and not-so-active sport apparel. And I wanted to see the fashion shows taking place in the lobby on a high-tech stage, complete with monitors and runway.
Of course, had I wanted to, I could have walked over to the adjacent Las Vegas Hilton hotel to see the children's apparel, or taken a shuttle to the the Sands Convention Center, where the women's wear was housed. It was all very organized.
But back to menswear. Never before had I seen such a display of designer and street clothes for men. Each category had its own designated area. Walking the designer pavilion, with its handsome displays and well-dressed staff, was like visiting Savile Row in London.
Throngs of eager buyers crowded the aisles. Some of the more exclusive designers had limited access to their areas, presumably to keep out all but the most serious buyers.
Soon, it was time for the fashion show and an interview with Tom Julian, who is the Men's fashion director for MAGIC International. "Don't miss the fashion show," he told me, "it's a mirror of what's going on in the marketplace."
It was a captivating show. Handsome, young male models strutted the runway wearing the relaxed, dress-up casual clothes from Moose Creek, L.A. Sporting Club, Boss by IG Design, Pendleton, Mavi, DKNY, Wilke-Rodriguez, La Coste, RLX Relax, Kenneth Cole, Tommy Jeans, A Month of Sundays and much more.
Cargo shorts and pants, designer sportswear, the new looser, wider pants, sensuous fabrics, see-through shirts and lots of pink were a few of the highlights. The sheer and shiny techno touches in the fabrics are part of what's being called The Edge, and it's heralded as the "future of fashion." It may be casual, but it's also very sexy.
Even sexier were the designer tailored clothes worn in the finale. Among the highlights: a dark navy silk three-button suit worn, with a lilac cotton shirt and lilac iridescent woven silk tie (Calvin Klein) and black loafers (Kenneth Cole); and a stone-colored, wool three-button blazer, blue iridescent cotton short-sleeve shirt and sky blue wool stretch trousers (Aesthetic by Maurice Malone).
Sophisticated and most appealing.
The show was in keeping with what Julian told me was happening with MAGIC. "MAGIC has become a sophisticated marketplace with a global point of view and it's attracting the best in American brands and the best of the international designers.
"There has been tremendous growth in designer clothes and those designed for sports performance and in weekend sportswear."
The growth of sports performance clothes means more than work for such sports figures and entertainers as Magic Johnson, Roger Staubach, Mo Vaughn, Richard Petty, Cal Ripken Jr., Veronica Vasquez, Brian McNight, En Vogue, Earl Woods, Bill Bellamy and Melvin and Mario Van Peebles. Some of the celebrities were part of the opening day and second-day events. The company representing them, Legends and Heroes, will donate 20 percent of the profits from sales of its Spring Collection '99 to Athletes and Entertainers for Kids.
Although still very young, Julian has seen many changes in MAGIC since he became involved, especially in the international aspect. "It is definitely a global event," he said, "and includes the best of Italy, Germany, Spain and France (Paris)."
Since MAGIC first came to Las Vegas, it has more than doubled in size. It has the second-highest attendance of all trade shows. Attendance for this show is approximately 90,000.
Julian spends about six weeks a year in Las Vegas and says that one of the best things about the success of MAGIC is that now, even the cabbies know that this is serious convention for the fashion crowd and that it is not a convention devoted to card tricks.
If a list were compiled of the top 10 designers, Julian would include such international biggies as Hugo Boss, Calvin Klein, Donna Karan and Kenneth Cole, and U.S. designers Mossimo, Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, Jhane Barnes, Wilke-Rodriguez and Sandy Dalal. Dalal is the Wunderkind of the menswear industry. At 22 ,he is already an award-winning designer noted for the quality of his materials and workmanship. Dalal designs his well-tailored clothes for those twentysomething to thirtysomething.
The MAGIC men's portion covers everything from accessories to neckwear to footwear to hosiery. And, let's not forget the retro style apparent in the many displays of Hawaiian shirts. My favorites were the colorful shirts from the Kamehameha Garment Company. The venerable Hawaiian firm made its first original Aloha shirt, Anthurium, in 1936. Today, it's still its biggest seller.
What does the spring '99 season hold for men's fashions? Julian says the season will be known as the season of light and will give new definition to menswear in many forms -- construction techniques, fabric combinations, weaving elements and color palettes.
All of these elements were apparent in the fashion show.
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