LAS VEGAS

Girls in skimpy clothes straddle souped-up cars. Japanese kids stroll by wearing sequined sneakers. Rapper Jay-Z booms out over speakers the size of Cadillacs.

The Magic Marketplace, the world's largest trade show for fashion, is drawing more than 120,000 people from 80 countries this week - and all the hype that Vegas can muster.

Models wiggle at the entrance to the two-story, department-store-size "booth" for Phat Farm, Russell Simmons' hip-hop-inspired clothing line.

A bodyguard waves off people without an appointment to enter the even-larger booth for Rocawear, the line co-founded by Jay-Z.

Walk past those giants, toward the back in the "streetwear" section of this 3.2-million-square-foot convention center, and you'll find Shmack, a clothing company based in Virginia Beach.

Shmack is among the 5,000 fashion brands displaying product lines this week at Magic. Spend a little time at the booth, and you can see why the Hampton Roads fashion industry has been growing so steadily that representatives from the region can even compete in this carnival of cool.

Shmack's booth is a white lacquer box about the size of a successful bachelor's master bedroom. The company drew steady waves of buyers and businesspeople Tuesday.

"We're doing more washes," Todd Askins, one of the label's founders, explains to Sue Barrett, the London-based denim editor of wsgn.com, a well-respected trend research firm.

Askins is one of four company representatives inside the booth trying to sell clothing to buyers to stock stores around the world.

"It's not as in-your-face," he says to Barrett. "And look at the embroidery."

This is exactly why Askins comes to Magic - so people from London and Japan and Baltimore can come to his booth and ooh and ahh over the crinkle he has decided to have baked into jeans.

Dozens of people from Hampton Roads are here this week to make the same kind of connections.

Some are streetwear retailers looking for the right stuff for their stores. These include Norfolk-based Commonwealth, which GQ magazine called one of the 100 best stores in America, and Funky Beat, a clothier in business in the 757 since 1994, with stores in Chesapeake and Virginia Beach.

Brock Frederick, a co-owner of Cream, is shopping for his store in The Gallery at Military Circle that specializes in hard-to-find sneakers, T-shirts and jeans.

Some are clothing brands, such as Shmack. Blac Label, a brand based in Virginia Beach that has clothing in Macy's and Dillards department stores, has more than 10 people here. Akademics, the $300 million clothing line founded by Virginia Beach natives Emmett Harrell and his brother Donwan, has an expansive, wood-floor booth.

Others are here to watch and learn. Illusive Media, a graphic design firm in Virginia Beach, sent four people to network, seek out new clients and gain footage of the many celebrities here for videos it produces. Rachel Hugo, who's looking to start some retail projects in Virginia Beach, is trend-spotting. (It is rumored that her husband, Chad Hugo of the Neptunes, might pop in to DJ at one of the many parties thrown during the week.)

Also roaming the convention floor are Pusha T of the Virginia Beach-based rap group Clipse; 20 fashion merchandising students from Old Dominion University and six Beach high school teachers; and the owners of a T-shirt company called Hardnox Clothing Co., based in Portsmouth.

Even though they're not working together, they are creating a movement that has the potential to make Hampton Roads just as well-known for its fashion stars as it is for its musicians.

"We're all so different," says Somos Thompson, head designer for Blac Label, which did close to $100 million in business last year, according to Mike Black Yussuff, the company's vice president of product development. "There's no bad blood - it's all love. We ask each other how their business is doing. It's a possibility that Hampton Roads is going to be a player in the fashion scene.

"Hampton Roads is changing. You can see it."

Shmack gives an example of how some local companies have used the twice-a-year Magic convention to bring about that change.

 

The Shmack story

In 2002, Askins, a native of Virginia Beach, was living in Washington, D.C., with a childhood friend, Josh Malbon.

They decided to start a line of T-shirts, called Haute, which went nowhere. They moved back to Virginia Beach and tried again.

The guys wanted a name that sounded hard but wasn't specific to anything. What was meant to be "smack" was misheard by Malbon as "shmack," and it stuck. Malbon was the designer, and Askins did everything else.

Meanwhile, Malbon's cousins Stephen and Mike Malbon were growing a counter-culture magazine in Atlanta called Frank 151, and part of their strategy for creating buzz was to post stickers and posters with the brand's name on lampposts, street signs and other conspicuous city spots.

Shmack's creators copied that idea, postering and stickering "Shmack" everywhere but private property. (They definitely caught the attention of Virginia Beach officials, who wanted some of the posters taken down.)

The strategy worked: People started talking about Shmack. What was it,

"People still ask me about that, remembering those stickers," Askins says.

They stumbled with one line of T-shirts, but then Askins got a deal with the Up Against The Wall chain for 1,500 shirts for its Hampton Roads stores.

Up Against The Wall is regarded as a pioneer in the urban clothing market, and having that on their resume looked good. "That was our big break. They just kept reordering," Askins says. "And now I had it in my head that I was going to do it."

With that mind-set, they went to their first Magic show in August 2003, where a chance meeting during a smoke break led to a $6,000 order from a California store, followed up by monthly reorders.

They struggled with finances and finding the capacity to fill the growing orders, but they headed for Las Vegas in February 2004 for the Pool trade show that runs concurrent with Magic.

Askins met more buyers, and even though the line was expanding out of Hampton Roads, the business had trouble maintaining cash flow.

Luckily, it was around that time that the concept of immaculate sneaker boutiques - sleek spaces that look more like art galleries than stores - migrated out of New York and Los Angeles, allowing Shmack to get placement in more stores.

Also, there was an explosion in Web sites and blogs worshipping sneakers and skate/hip-hop gear. Up Against the Wall put Shmack in more stores across the country; they landed in Fred Segal, an uber-hip store in L.A. frequented by celebrities.

For the Magic show in February 2005, Askins was working with a new designer because Malbon, his partner, had pulled out.

Askins had reached out to another childhood friend, Frankie Collins, who was designing for the RP55 group, based in Virginia Beach.

Collins and Askins came up with a new line of T-shirts and branched off into sweatshirts. Askins bought fleece and zippers in bulk, and they designed a hoodie with a dinosaur theme. They took samples to Magic and got orders for more than 100,000 units.

"I was like, 'Oh, my God, how are we going to ship this?' I had to come up with at least half of the money to get that stuff made," Askins says. "My bank account was in the negative."

Askins found a guy in Fairfax. He used vacation time to leave on a Friday and packed a U-Haul to get the product made.

"I had to leave the van outside," he said. "I was so scared someone was going to steal it. A large chunk of my money was in that van."

He woke up at 4 a.m. and drove his future back home.

Soon after that, he lost his day job, and decided to expand Shmack into denim.

Askins conferred with friends he'd made at Magic who taught him the ropes of making jeans.

In fall 2005, Askins returned to Magic and got with a big order for sweat shirts.

By this time, he'd reached out to Ralph Reynolds, operator of the RP55 label, in hopes of getting a partnership. Shmack was doing well, but it was basically a one-man show being run on the fly.

"I was out of a job," he recalls. "I didn't own anything. I don't have a house. It was crazy. The amount of debt I'd accumulated - it was just overwhelming."

He eventually worked out a deal with RP55 that gave him some security. When Shmack went to the February 2006 Magic show, it was a real-deal company.

"The show was awesome," he says. "We got tons of orders."

With its new backing, the little company took off. In 2007, Shmack grossed more than $8 million.

 

Back at Magic

Music by Digable Planets and Pharrell Williams pours out of a Mountain Dew booth near Shmack's space, as Askins goes over the itsy-bitsy details of his clothing line.

Where the average retail customer would just see neatly displayed jeans, collared shirts, shorts and T-shirts, the tradespeople here see rivets, stitching and zippers.

Antonio Gray is impressed with Shmack's line.

"Shmack is definitely relevant," says Gray, a buyer for the store DTLR, which has 66 stores from Baltimore to Atlanta.

He's picking out what pieces will be in stores next season. "Look at what he (Askins) did. He did it on his own. He has a following. We don't have to build it."

As for the brand, Gray says, "It's evolving. It's definitely getting better. That's a difficult process, but you can see the fruits of their labor."

Askins shows Barrett his special crinkle-baked denim.

"I just love this brand," says Barrett. Her firm is regarded as one of the best trend research companies in the world, yet she's close to swooning. "I saw someone wearing this in London, and I wanted to chase him down and say, 'Where did you get that?' "

Malcolm Venable, (757) 446-2662, malcolm.venable@pilotonline.com