Apparel Industry

Q: I just joined a Web company setting up a virtual shopping mall to carry the product lines of local retailers. We've already signed up numerous retailers and wholesalers. Where can I get contact information for the apparel retailers and wholesalers in the Los Angeles area? --Chang Lee, Los Angeles * A: You're talking about a big research job: California is host to the largest base of apparel manufacturers in the nation.

Peering up into tree branches 100 feet above the floor of the jungle, Angela Maldonado spots a family of monkeys where someone with a less practiced eye would see nothing but a maze of brown and green foliage. "They're intelligent, charismatic creatures that express happiness, pain and grief. They make you feel what they are feeling," Maldonado said, squinting up at the rain forest canopy outside this sweltering Amazon port city. "They're a lot like us." Such empathy explains why Maldonado, a 36-year-old primate conservationist, has sought, as her lifework, to keep Colombia's night monkeys out of the hands of indigenous hunters who sell them to medical laboratories for infectious disease research.

Five years ago, sewing contractors Gary and Esther Dunbar considered moving their Montebello factory to Mexico. Stagnant sales, shrinking profit margins and a flood of cheap imports had the couple preparing to join the exodus of U.S. apparel firms headed for the border. Then came the hard part. Telling G.S. Dunbar's 200 workers that their jobs were moving south. "Some have been with us 25 years, and I worried about what would happen to them," Gary said.

A bizarre series of killings, assaults and threats against officials at Carole Little, the trendy Los Angeles maker of women's wear, has confounded investigators and spread fear through the company and the local apparel industry. Two Carole Little executives were shot to death in their vehicles within the past five months and one of the company's sewing contractors was killed in 1993 as he drove away from his Glendale plant, police and company sources said.

I am amazed that the U.S. Department of Labor is naive enough to believe that by printing a list of so-called "good guys" the consumer would even react to it ("U.S. Plans List of Clothes Makers, Retailers That Obey Labor Laws," Nov. 3). What is the definition of a good guy? If you consider the companies they probably will list, many will be firms that were cited for labor violations of one form or another. In order to restore their operations, they were motivated to sign documentation that required them to agree to labor compliance monitoring.

When the boss sells most of his stock, why should anyone else want to buy it? Early last year James Argyropoulos, founder and chairman of Cherokee Group, a trendy North Hollywood-based maker of women's clothing and shoes, counted 32%of the company's stock as his own. After the company's sale of more stock to the public in April he now owns about 15%of Cherokee. It wasn't just the chairman who was selling.

You can measure the success of Woodland Hills-based Magic International both by the number of people attending its annual apparel trade shows in Las Vegas--and by the number of exhibitors shut out. Some 90,000 people showed up in Vegas last week for the five-day garb fest, making it third in attendance for annual gatherings in that convention-heavy city, after the technology trade events Comdex and the Consumer Electronics Show.

When the boss sells most of his stock, why should anyone else want to buy it? Early last year James Argyropoulos, founder and chairman of Cherokee Group, a trendy North Hollywood-based maker of women's clothing and shoes, counted 32% of the company's stock as his own. After the company's sale of more stock to the public last month, he now owns about 15% of Cherokee. It wasn't just the chairman who was selling.

A Los Angeles County economic development group has launched a Web site to link job seekers, educational programs and businesses in the metalwork, food preparation and apparel industries. The Los Angeles County Workforce Preparation and Economic Development Collaborative serves as a matchmaker, connecting the unemployed and low-wage workers with better training in industries that are hiring, and helping businesses in those industries to find a more skilled worker base. The Web site, maps.