In the high stakes world of girls’ fashion, the Vesture Group keeps a low profile. That’s how founders Robert Galishoff and Gayle Lupacchini like to operate the Burbank-based company, which has its offices beneath a flight path of the Bob Hope Airport and across the street from a National Guard Armory while the rest of the Los Angeles apparel industry is congregated in and around downtown. Shoppers likely know the company by its Pinky and Zunie clothing lines, sold at department stores such as Nordstrom, J.C. Penney, Macy’s and Dillard’s. Since opening five years ago, apparel industry veterans Galishoff and Lupacchini have made the most of their experience and ability to interpret fashion trends for a target market. They have grown Vesture into a $27 million in company with 40 employees and a showroom in New York City. Apparel companies must deliver contemporary styles with value to appeal to today’s consumers, Lupacchini said, noting Vesture’s brands look expensive but are affordable. “They respond to our look because we look fresh,” Lupacchini said. Galishoff added: “There is a certain youthfulness.” Regardless of the niche, the clothes making business is highly competitive. Low barriers to entry constantly bring out newcomers claiming to have a pulse on the next hot trend. A recent research report by Santa Monica-based market research firm IBISWorld projected children’s & infants’ clothing stores will generate about $10 billion in revenue this year. The outlook is for 2.3 percent annual growth in sales between 2012 and 2017. California has the highest number of infant and children’s clothing stores in the U.S. with 12.5 percent of the total market, the report states. Success in the apparel industry requires a certain amount of flexibility and commitment to being involved in all facets of the clothing production, said Ed Handler, the accountant for the Vesture Group and other clothing manufacturers. For example, if a company has factories overseas, then its leaders need to visit them as they would if their factories were in the U.S., he said. “At Vesture, Robert and Gayle will go to China or get into a car and drive downtown,” Handler said. Industry expertise Lupacchini and Galishoff are Southern California natives who came to the apparel industry for different reasons. Lupacchini said designing clothes is all she ever wanted to do. She’s been at it for 35 years. Galishoff learned, while in college at University of California, Santa Barbara, he had a flair for salesmanship and the right attributes to deal with the buyers from the retail stores. Galishoff and Lupacchini met when working together at another Los Angeles apparel company. They started Vesture Group in 2007 after being let go when their employer sought to head in a different direction. The pair focuses on the toddler through pre-teen markets because it aligned with their expertise — Galishoff in sales and Lupacchini in design. The duo said they work well together because their experiences are complementary. “I trust him to make certain decisions because he has the knowledge,” Lupacchini said. “We don’t step on each other’s feet,” Galishoff said. Handler classified the pair as merchandise-driven. Apparel companies can have the greatest looking product but it is not worth much if nobody is buying it, Handler said. “When Gayle is designing, or Robert is selling, they are on the same page to want to get the merchandise into stores and into the customers’ hands,” he said. The best retailers know how to create excitement about shopping their aisles and have a story to tell based on that excitement, Galishoff said. After all, no one wants to go into a dowdy shop, he said. “You can see those stores in the mall and there’s nobody in them,” Galishoff said. Mervyn’s bankruptcy A turning point for the Vesture Group came not long after the company started. The Mervyn’s chain, then the company’s single biggest customer, was teetering on the edge of collapse and it was risky to continue to do business with the retailer. When Mervyn’s filed for bankruptcy in 2008, Vesture still had some open invoices and ended up taking a loss. Still, the firm stuck with Mervyn’s because, at the time, it needed the orders. Plus, Galishoff said, taking that risk was what being an entrepreneur is all about. “We had people who doubted in doing that,” Galishoff said. “It’s our decision to determine if the risk was less than the reward.” While this was happening, Vesture was doubling down to find new stores for distributing its product. The lesson Galishoff and Lupacchini learned was to avoid becoming too dependent on a single retail customer. These turning points are not infrequent in the retail business, and Vesture faced another one earlier this year when a national department store it supplies to faced increasing financial woes. The chain devised a new pricing strategy for its merchandise. “Fortunately the new management likes our products,” Galishoff said. Intuition and inspiration Designing apparel products involves a combination of intuition and inspiration of styles already in the market. There are trips to Europe and Asia several times each year, and Lupacchini also visits independent boutiques in Los Angeles to get an idea of what’s selling and then interpret those styles for its market. Bright colors are always a good place to start, so the clothes catch the eyes of the mothers who are doing the buying, Lupacchini said. “You cannot be subtle,” she said. Indeed, the sewing room at Vesture headquarters, where clothing samples are assembled, is a world of color. Racks of dresses and outfits in all shades of colors fill the room along with bolts of fabric and spools of thread for the sewing machines. In one area, employees stand before large tables with paper patterns and fabric spread before them. In another area, the sewing machines are running at top speed. When Galishoff visits the shop floor, he often has the company mascot Tony, a bichon mix, in his arms or at his feet. “It’s good for morale to bring a dog to work,” Galishoff said. For the mass production of the clothing, Vesture uses some third-party factories in the U.S. but most of the work is done in Asia. Entrée into those Asian factories was through Wanda Lee, whom Galishoff described as a key early hire. Without Lee’s contacts, Vesture would have been at a disadvantage in securing those partners, he said. “We are still with the same (manufacturers), and Wanda is still with us,” Galishoff said. Strong ties with its employees and other business partners are critical to keeping Vesture Group on a growth trajectory, Galishoff and Lupacchini said. Rather than look to competitors for cues on how to grow, Galishoff said he takes lessons from Fortune 500 executives who won’t settle for being anything less than No. 1 or No. 2 in their industry. That is where he believes the Vesture Group is positioned in the toddler through pre-teen girls’ fashion arena. “As we’ve grown our business, we’ve opened up in those areas and now the customers are coming to us,” Galishoff said.