Marcus Lemonis of ‘The Profit’ fame opens a showroom in downtown Los Angeles
Entreprenuer and television personality Marcus Lemonis is expanding his fashion footprint with the opening of the ML West Showroom, a 4,000-square-foot multibrand showroom in downtown Los Angeles’ The New Mart building.
Among the lines housed there are those that have been featured on his CNBC show “The Profit,” in which Lemonis helps struggling family businesses turn things around.
Those include Susana Monaco, swim and resortwear brand Siloett, Flex watches, Inkkas shoes and in-house brands The Line (casual basics) and AM by Marcus Anthony (silk blouses). The latter two are stocked in Lemonis’ retail chains Denim & Soul and Runway. He also has fast-fashion concept Union 73 and a sample sale concept called Final Sale, and is developing a fifth retail concept.
ML hosted an opening party on Monday during L.A. Market, drawing crowds of buyers, influencers and reality stars. Siloett president and designer Mary Ellen McAteer said, “We were very humbled by the process on the show. You see so many family businesses suffer, and with Marcus’ help and some reworking we have cohesion. He told us to do brand extensions, see what works. Now a weekender bag is our bestseller and all of a sudden we have a new category.”
Because of its exposure on “The Profit,” the brand was also approached by department stores such as Bloomingdale’s during the recent Miami Swim show to produce private-label accessories.
Launched last summer, Marcus Lemonis Fashion Group has offices in New York and plans to open an ML East showroom there in the coming months. So far, several episodes of the reality shows have been shot in the new L.A. space.
Stephanie Menkin, president of ML Fashion Group, said, “The sky is the limit. This is the first time Marcus has ever done anything like this, and being in the New Mart is so key for us because there is traffic. This is just a snippet. We have so many new brands in development in different categories. Nothing in the showroom competes.”
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