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© St. Petersburg Times, published March 3, 2003
The hopeful
This year, Chris Bevans slipped into designers' shows at Bryant Park without an invitation. Next year, he hopes to be putting on a show of his own.
But the 30-year-old tailor from Rochester isn't going to make the transition from gate-crasher to runway designer alone. He's design director of a new clothing company backed by rapper Ja Rule and music executive Irv Gotti (born Irving Lorenzo), owner of the Murder Inc. label.
In a world where popular musicians are rushing to extend their brand to the clothes on fans' backs, Bevans insists his designs, which will sell under the Ervingeoffrey label, will have an approach that cuts through the clutter.
"Our customers will be young adults out of high school, looking for something that's not falling off their butts but not as uptight as Ralph or the Gap," Bevans said. "We'll be designing a line that's more of a contemporary street feeling with clean finished denims and great European fabrics."
The first collection is expected to be available by August.
Bevans knows the ropes. For the past two years, the graduate of New York City's Fashion Institute of Technology was a designer for Sean "P. Diddy" Combs' trademark clothing line. From his work with Sean John, which last year had sales of $325-million, Bevans knows the importance of being able to deliver on design promises.
"You need to have your backside production covered," he said. "If you can't ship it on time, the stores don't want to deal with you."
Soft-spoken but confident, Bevans said he doesn't doubt his backers have the capital to make Ervingeoffrey a reality. Told that Women's Wear Daily recently estimated the cost of breaking into the design business at more than $250,000, Bevans chuckled.
"You can get lucky and do it with maybe a quarter-million," he said. "But we'll spend more than $1-million to get started. We're fortunate to have a nice bit of change."
There may be one snag: In early January, a federal task force raided Murder Inc.'s offices to investigate possible ties between Gotti (no relation to the late Mob boss) and convicted drug gang member Kenneth McGriff. Authorities are trying to determine if McGriff provided the seed money for Gotti's music business, an allegation Gotti denies.
Alison Miller is nervous.
Sitting in a loft at the Bryant Park Hotel during Fashion Week, she's desperately trying to attract the attention of any of the hundreds of editors, buyers, stylists or reporters flooding the tents across the street to glance at her new line. But her airy suite overlooking the big white tents is depressingly quiet.
As a model trots out in style after luxurious style, Miller, 33, described her whirlwind transition from painter and ad director at an auction house to designer. Though she has been dreaming about creating her own line of clothing for years and studied at the Fashion Institute of Technology, Miller attended her first fabric fair in September.
"It was overwhelming," she said of the biannual exhibit held in Italy. "There were rows of zippers, rows of buttons."
Miller, who went to the show armed with sketches, found the cashmeres, laces and leathers she wanted. Then came the challenge of finding factories willing to make limited sample runs.
"You've got to find the right factories because they'll butcher your things (if you don't)," she said. "The last thing many of these places want to do is make samples."
But determination and money can make things happen. Using factories all over Italy, Miller and her husband-partner got leather pleated and bonded to cashmere and lace then whipped into the capelets, coats, pantsuits and gowns that comprise her first collection.
Though she declines to disclose how much it cost the privately owned company to produce the 35 pieces, which could retail for up to $4,000 for coats and $400 for pants, Miller makes one admission.
"If I really knew what I was doing, I probably never would have done it," she said.
Cynthia Steffe, who has been designing women's sportswear since 1989, might not be a household name. Yet.
But since her company was bought by Leslie Fay Co. in 2000, the designer has ratcheted up the marketing machine. And sales, which have doubled since Steffe joined Leslie Fay, are following.
"Being acquired meant we could really start investing in the business to grow it," said Richard Roberts, president of Cynthia Steffe and the designer's husband. "We've always designed beautiful clothes that are made well and 85 percent of them are made here in New York. But the biggest danger when you're an independent, run by a couple of principals, is that you're always on the line personally. In order to make the really big jumps, you have to reach into deep pockets."
Part of the Leslie Fay-funded marketing push meant a return to Bryant Park's tents in early 2001 for Steffe's first runway show since 1997. That launched a fast-selling corduroy trench coat trimmed in leather. The hit of last fall's show was a silk baseball jacket that made the cover of Women's Wear Daily.
Despite being eight months pregnant, Steffe returned to the tents earlier this month to show her fall collection, a "luxe rock 'n' roll" look of skinny pants, shrunken jackets and creamsicle colors. Roberts said the 20-minute runway show is more important for press than buyers.
"The president and fashion director of Neiman's were at our show, but the buyers don't make their selections until they sit down in the showroom later," said Roberts, who also counts Saks, Nordstrom and a slew of specialty stores among Steffe's customers. "But the runway gives you exposure all over the world. It's on the Internet, being seen in Japan, the afternoon of the show."
With the Cynthia Steffe name getting increased play -- and appearing on celebrities like Katie Couric, Mena Suvari and Marcia Gay Harding -- the designer is getting ready to leverage the name through licensing.
"We've purposely held off because we were concerned about making products of the same caliber," Roberts said. "Now we're starting to look at it seriously. But if we didn't do the shows, we'd not be as great an interest to licensees."