Montreal still a fashion hub for dress firm
It’s a familiar scene in the fashion business, but impressive nonetheless: a huge warehouse stocked with acres of garments swathed in plastic. At J.S. Group International’s 30,000-squarefoot corporate headquarters on Chabanel St., there are about 30,000 dresses hanging, and those are just dresses destined for the Canadian market. There are another 40,000 or 50,000 frocks in an L.A. warehouse.
Elsewhere, there are sample and cutting rooms, showrooms, offices and more racks of dresses, short and long, in a rainbow of colours and prints, and most spectacularly, in intricate beadings of silver, gold, even raspberry. One short strapless dress with silver petal crystals weighs several pounds, for sure.
The dresses are from the company’s four lines, Theia, J.S. Collections, J.S. Boutique and ML by Monique Lhuiller.
Started in 1971 as part of the oncemighty Algo dress company, the Hops family bought the company back from Algo in 2000.
Today, chairman Sam Hops and sons Mitchell, president and CEO, and Andrew, vice-president, preside over an empire of frocks, with 3,000 points of sale in 40 countries, 120 employees, and offices in Montreal, New York and Los Angeles.
About 80 per cent of sales are in the U.S., Mitchell said, with most major U.S. department stores carrying the lines. Without giving sales figures, Mitchell allows that the company is definitely a major player in the North American dress market. He will say that gross sales have more than doubled in the past 12 years.
U.S. sales and design are done in New York, while Montreal is the hub for operations. Manufacturing is overseas, except for a few items still made in Canada. For instance, in the warehouse were black, flowy dress pants destined for Lord & Taylor in the U.S.
Both brothers sing the praises of Montreal and its fashionability, despite the angst over a changing — and shrinking — garment industry.
“We all grew up in Montreal and I think that was one of the things that allowed us to be very cosmopolitan,” Mitchell said. “It’s still a cosmopolitan city, more so every day. Montrealers dress exceptionally well.”
Manufacturing might be in China, Vietnam, Bangladesh or India, “but it is still a hub of fashion. The excitement still goes on.”
Asked why the company, with the bulk of its sales in the U.S., doesn’t move there, Andrew replied, “We
“We are Montrealers at heart. We are very proud Canadians and we support the industry in Canada.”
ANDREW HOPS
are Montrealers at heart. We are very proud Canadians and we support the industry in Canada and I think we always will.”
He adds that the Canadian factor gives J.S. Group an edge. Canadians have a reputation for quality and honesty that Americans appreciate.
“Buyers love the fact that we’re from Montreal, a French city, with a European edge.”
A facility of our size would be cost-prohibitive in the U.S., he added. In fact, the space has recently come down by more than half as U.S. distribution has moved to L.A.
And there is the talent pool in seamstresses, pattern makers and production, Andrew said.
“There is a different level of expertise,” Mitchell added. “We started off as a domestic manufacturer that sewed across the street. Now it’s across the world. But J.S. Group is still based in Montreal.”
How the company has evolved reflects the changing nature of Montreal’s fashion business, in which manufacturing has moved offshore and some companies have gone under while others have thrived.
Patriarch Sam Hops, 84, sitting in his moderate wood-panelled office, with a stocked bar and bust of Elvis on an end table, attributed the company’s success to “his boys.” He himself was content, he said, doing $8 million or $9 million a year, but Mitchell had the notion of going to apparel management school in Philadelphia, Pa.
Mitchell said it was the international exposure aspect that made the difference. When he joined the company in 1982, he wanted to start selling abroad. They opened an office in New York in 1985, and when NAFTA came into effect in 1994, the company was already well positioned to grow as tariffs decreased.
Why it has been successful over the years is that it has remained very focused in product, very broad in distribution, Mitchell said.
When it moves away from its core product — dresses in all categories — it has got into trouble, he said.
J.S. Collections is the largest line in terms of volume, Mitchell said, but Theia has the press and sales reach from Paris to the United Arab Emirates.
The Carrie Underwood dress at the Grammys doubled volume on the website, he said; what it means in terms of sales he can’t say.
He, too, will be watching and hoping for a Theia dress at the Oscars. “At the very least, we will get inspired by the beautiful dresses we see.”