Stylemaker / Karl Kani : New School : The godfather of hip-hop clothes heads into different territory with business suits and women’s and children’s wear.

All afternoon, Los Angeles designer Karl Kani, godfather of urban sportswear, has been waiting for this moment, when he unveils his new line.

Jesse Gutierrez, a production coordinator, walks into Kani’s downtown office: a sweeping suite of rooms, several filled with comfy leather sofas, glass-top desks covered with awards, banks of television screens playing Kani’s commercials, runway shows and rap music. In Gutierrez’s hands are two men’s suits.

“Aren’t they sweet?” Kani, 30, asks about the prototypes--one in a hot, futuristic crinkle fabric, the other in a conservative fine wool. The suit line is sleek, stylish--and, yes, very sweet.

Business suits are a dramatic departure from the signature clothes Kani designed 10 years ago: bold and baggy colorful garments splashed with his billboard-sized Kani logo. It was his popular look that sparked the urban wear movement in the early ‘90s.

Since then, companies such as Fubu, Jnco, Groove, Exsto, Mecca, Dada and scores of others, including the likes of Puff Daddy’s line Sean John, have jumped on the hip-hop fashion train led by the Kani engine when the designer moved to L.A. from Brooklyn in 1989.

But through the years, the engine lost some of its steam due to the competitors, many who do 10 times the business of Kani’s expected sales of $75 million this year.

Now Kani is moving in new fashion directions--and in some cases, away from the urban wear aesthetic that put him on the map. Besides the suits, which will retail for $600 to $2,000, Kani--ranked 34th among the top 100 black-owned companies in the country by Black Enterprise magazine--is offering a children’s line, a leather collection for women and, of course, his trademark jerseys, T-shirts, jeans and jackets.

On Sept. 17, the White House will have a sneak peak at the new Kani. That’s when the designer will show off about 15 new pieces from his men’s and women’s collections at an informal fashion presentation. The event, to be attended by the president, vice president and community leaders from across the country, will take place on the third and final day of an Afro-Latino Summit Briefing--a symposium highlighting issues affecting people of both African American and Latino descent.

A Childhood Motto

Inspires Company Name

“We are definitely taking the brand to the next level,” says Kani, son of a Costa Rican mom, Mariger Williams, and Panamanian dad, Perceval Williams, both fluent in Spanish. His real name is Carl Williams, and his childhood motto, “Can I do it? Karl, Can I,” led to the name of his company: Karl Kani.

“I think to compete in the marketplace, Karl has to continue to be cutting edge to be the leader,” says Marian Ensley, West Coast marketing director for New York-based Vibe and Blaze magazines, music, fashion and lifestyle publications. “Now he’s really taking his designs to the next level: clean and classy but still with a slight urban flair.”

Kevin A. Smith says Kani is a big seller at his 4-year-old store, 2nd Base on Melrose Avenue. The 32-year-old Smith, who previously had worked as a Nordstrom buyer, says he can hardly wait to get Kani’s fall collection, a safari influence, and next year’s spring lines in the store.

“This is the most excited I’ve been about any line in a long time. Karl is changing with the times. A lot of people in this business get set in doing something a certain way, and they don’t change,” Smith says.

“I had to change,” Kani says. “We kind of lost focus. We realized that a whole new generation was growing up on other brands and that our original, loyal customers are 10 years older now with kids. I’ve got a son myself,” he says, referring to 2-year-old Karl Kani Williams Jr., who is featured in the company’s new ad campaign. “He’s learning about the business,” Kani adds, laughing.

Kani remembers always working as a kid. When he was 12, he had a newspaper route in Brooklyn that began at 5:30 a.m.--a work ethic taught to him by his parents, who today are divorced. His mom, known as Marge, who lives in Atlanta, worked as a nurse, often on the graveyard shift. His dad, who lives in Costa Rica, started a print shop when he emigrated from Costa Rica to Brooklyn and settled in the projects with his family when Karl and his older sister, Melvenia, were kids.

But it was in high school that the designing pioneer got the fashion fever. Enrolled in a work program, he spent his money on clothes and every color of Puma and Nike sneakers.

“I always wanted to be the person that shined in the projects,” he recalls about his youth and, more important, his appearance, down to the care he took to get the right waves in his hair and to make sure not a smudge of dirt appeared on his sneakers that he cleaned daily with a toothbrush and soap. “I even ironed my shoelaces.

“None of us had cars. Your shoes were your car, so you had better be wearing the best-looking shoes during the weekend or you’d get snapped, get made fun of.”

Kani always looked sharp “because your clothing spoke for yourself. Being from the projects, clothes represented everything. It gave me a sense of confidence.”

Enough confidence to start making his own clothes, he says. His father, a snappy dresser, had clothes made by a tailor. Kani would help his dad pick fabric. “One time I asked him if the tailor would make me an outfit,” he says, recalling how at 16 he described an off-white linen suit to the tailor. Kani wore the outfit to the movies on Easter Sunday.

“Everybody was like, ‘Where did you get that?’ because they knew it wasn’t from the stores we shopped. And I was like, ‘If you want this suit, I’ll get it for you.’ ”

From his Brooklyn bedroom he began designing other garments and making samples--shirts, trousers, coats--creating a brand without knowing it, only knowing that “I had the freshest outfits out there.”

He Tries College,

but L.A. Beckons

After high school graduation, he wasn’t sure if fashion was in his future. In 1988, he went to college to please his mom, “but I lasted 10 days and quit.” A friend in Los Angeles invited Kani to the West Coast. A year later, they opened a custom-made clothing store, Seasons, on Crenshaw Boulevard, where they also lived.

Three months later, the place was robbed. He shut down, moved into a Hollywood apartment, placed an $800 ad in Right On magazine and launched a mail-order business producing apparel--again from his bedroom. Eventually, his clothes landed on store racks in Brooklyn, Washington, D.C., and Detroit.

Then in 1990, he met Carl Jones, co-founder of Cross Colours, an urban apparel business, at a party. The two joined forces and a year later reached sales of $89 million--40% attributed to Kani’s designs--with their fashion-forward urban take: baggy and colorful. In 1993, Cross Colours fell on hard times, and the two parted. Soon after, Kani was back in business with Karl Kani Infinity, which he still produces, along with other lines.

For years, die-hard Kani customers have worn the Kani logo confidently. It’s those guys who have grown up with the brand--and those guys who still want to wear it to work.

“His new stuff is real nice. It’s more conservative but definitely stuff I would wear because my wardrobe tastes have changed,” says Chris White, 29, an advertising executive in New York with the Source, a hip-hop culture magazine. “I need to be on the dressier side because of work and all the meetings I go to,” adds White, who wore Kani in high school.

Kani acknowledges “it’s a tricky time right now” as he repositions his privately held company, which has gone through growing pains, including the ceaseless struggle to keep his name in the marketplace he helped create, to keep reinventing himself and his product, and to grow with his customer.

“My customer has grown up. They’re working now, and they’re in the business world, but now we’re also at the point where we’re trying to get the new generation of kids that didn’t grow up on Karl Kani.”

That generation is obviously younger--12 to 17 years old and a lucrative market that could “take us from $100 million to $200 million to the $400-million mark” in sales, he says.

“We’re at the point where we are trying to decide how do we get those kids and at the same time how do we keep the original customer, the loyal customer who still wants Kani for the office?”

Kani and his team--a design staff of four and some 20 other employees--launched a new advertising campaign five months ago to regain a stronghold on the youth market that has turned to brands such as Fubu and Nike, a market he says “we can’t afford to lose to other brands.”

As for his newer designs, Nordstrom has shown interest in Kani’s sleek leather jackets and skirts. Select Nordstroms carry his garments as do Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, JCPenney, Foot Action and numerous specialty shops like Mr. Rags and Coda. He also has showrooms in Los Angeles, New York and Chicago.

But Kani also wants to get into stores like Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue. “I want to be a staple brand,” he says, a household name like Tommy Hilfiger, Nike, Timberland, Nautica and Ralph Lauren--a giant in the business Kani admires.

“I see these guys as my competition because they are going after the same market that I helped create. They are the companies doing $500 million to a billion a year,” he says. “I don’t want to compete against the small fish. The big fish is my competition, because by comparing myself to them, I’ve given myself a milestone. I’m going after the big guys--and there’s no room for failure.

“More than anything else, I fear not making it--and that’s enough to keep me going, to make sure that nothing will go wrong. That’s my mantra up there,” he says, pointing to a line from a greeting card given to him by his son and Dina, Kani’s girlfriend and little Karl’s mom. The phrase is taped onto a photo of Kani with his son. It reads: “You only fail when you give up trying.”

“It’s like asking myself, ‘Can I do it?’ ” he says. “And my answer always is ‘Karl Kani.’ ”

Michael Quintanilla can be reached by e-mail at [email protected].