![]() Under a new division he dubbed Oscar Watch, A.B.S. He began thinking about new business strategies that could rescue A.B.S.’s fortunes and had an epiphany while watching the Academy Awards telecast and realizing that many viewers tuned in just to see what the stars were wearing. department stores, including Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, and Bloomingdale’s-but the company teetered perilously close to failure when Schwartz discovered an embezzler at his headquarters who absconded with $2 million. stores, and his clothing was also sold at major U.S. I’m in the business of selling 10,000 dresses.”īy 1995 Schwartz had opened several more A.B.S. I’m not in the business of selling 60 dresses. “I’m not here to have someone hand-cut a garment for 12 hours,” he told Munk in the Forbes interview. ![]() In his opinion, he was simply meeting the demands of the market. Most designers banned him from their runway shows, especially after imitations of the new, athletic gear-inspired line from DKNY-shown in New York City the fall of 1993 for the coming spring-actually turned up in stores before the DKNY goods arrived. became known for its knock-offs of top designer clothing-a practice that had gone on in the apparel industry for generations, but Schwartz’s ability to get the look to the stores with such a quick turnaround time ushered in a new era of copycatting. The company’s first store opened in Santa Monica, California, in 1988, followed four years later by one in Wheatley Heights on New York’s Long Island. Schwartz’s first few years in business were uneven financially, but around 1985 he began using some new, cheaper but more sophisticated fabrics in his line, and sales soared. ![]() It was kind of the beer pocketbook, champagne taste theory.” “It was risky because I didn’t know if that customer was there but I felt that somebody would appreciate its value. “Our target was to be a designer line in the contemporary department,” he explained in an interview with Mary Lynn Richmond in WWD. by Allen Schwartz” and began designing and making women’s apparel to fill what he saw as an underserved niche in the market. Four years later, he sold his share of the company to his partners, and by 1982, he was living back in California, this time in the Los Angeles area. After leaving the company he returned to New York City, and with two business partners in 1977 he launched the East Side Clothing Company, a junior-apparel maker. Schwartz had moved to San Francisco to work at Esprit. In 1968, he joined the company that became juniors-apparel manufacturer Esprit de Corp as a sales executive, and he left nine years later after selling his 20 percent stake in order to strike out on his own. Early on, Schwartz began looking for a job in the field on his own, and he started off in the mailroom of a lingerie company before moving on to Russ Togs, an apparel manufacturer, where he spent four years in sales. His parents were involved in the fashion business-his father, Daniel, was a dress sales executive, while his mother, Sue, had a clothing boutique in Long Beach, New York. Schwartz was born in the mid1940s and grew up in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. I’m doing nothing different than Calvin, except he’s probably at La Grenouille for lunch for three hours, shaking hands with the editors. ![]() The founder is impervious to his critics, once telling Forbes journalist Nina Munk that “when something costs $1,400 they call it an original at $400 it’s a knockoff. Based in Los Angeles, Schwartz’s company has been scorned by the fashion establishment, but it consistently racks up impressive sales figures year after year. ![]() SidelightsĪ llen Schwartz is design director of A.B.S byAllen Schwartz, a clothing company that surgedto fame in the 1990s with its clever copies of designer originals. 1964-68 sales executive, Esprit de Corp, 1968-77 East Side Clothing Company, New York City, co-founder, 1977, and executive, 1977-81 founded A.B.S by Allen Schwartz, 1982 launched “Oscar Watch” line, 1996 company acquired by Warnaco, Inc., 2000, and Schwartz became design director. W orked in the mailroom of a lingerie company,early 1960s sales associate, Russ Togs, c. Corporate, 1231 Long Beach Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90021. 1945, in NY son ofDaniel (a garment salesperson) and Sue (a boutique owner) Schwartz married Pam (a homemaker) children: Danielle, John.Īddresses: Office-A.B.S. ![]()
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