With two new garment mega-centers opening within weeks of each other and a driven group of industry insiders hoping to give fledgling fashion designers a place to work and sell downtown, suddenly everybody's spewing our favorite F-word: fashion. What does it all mean? We sew it up for you.

PaperCity
June 2004
Author: Rob Brinkley

Fashion Industry Gallery

Snappy little nickname:
FIG

What:
Sexy, concrete-floored gallery space for more than 30 permanent and temporary clothing and accessories showrooms -- men's, too.

Buzzwords:
Contemporary, sportswear, modern.

Where:
Downtown at Ross and Akard in the former mid-century-mod Southwestern Plaza office building, smack in the middle of the Arts District.

Size matters:
Phase one, 50,000 square feet; phase two, another 50,000.

Who goes:
Retail and wholesale buyers from around the country.

Lines to love:
Tracy Reese, Me&Ro, Trina Turk, Nicole Miller, Tocca, Frankie B., Jack Space, Poleci, Puma, Paul Frank Industries, Miss Sixty.

Locals to love:
Eve Reid, Elizabeth Showers, Two Blonde Lizzards, Bonnie Basham.

Between appointments:
The chic FIG Lounge offers up food and drink under spectacular rainbow-hued tile mosaics saved from the building's original interior.

Design detail:
Each showroom gets the sexiest security gates in the universe: sliding panels of square steel tubing and different gauges of metal mesh, all arranged in a Mondrian-like composition.

Sexy tenant:
The Clutts Agency (reps for modeling, hair, makeup, location scouting and more).

Next market:
Thursday to Sunday, June 3 to 6.

Copyright 2004 PaperCity
REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION OF PAPERCITY