Logan has designs on international exposure for his color-conscious women's clothing line.

Logan has designs on international exposure for his color-conscious women's clothing line Getting ready with his pring line of clothes is Karl Logan, 36, owner of a firm bearing his name and considered one of Los Angeles' hottest designers of women's clothes. Along with 120 other California designers, Logan will be exhibiting his wares at the seventh annual Press Week at downtown's apparel showroom, California Mart, starting SEpt. 20.

"I think this is the year that Cal Mart Press Week has become truly national and even international," says Logan. "It's quite a chance to show you stuff -- they've got Michael Gross (fashion editor) from the New York Times this year, CBS, BBC and Donna magazine from Italy. Everybody is coming."

Cal Mart's Marketing Director Bob Becker says that more than 180 media organizations will be covering Press Week this year.

For Logan, that means his styles will get more scrutiny than ever before. "This spring I'm orienting most of my jackets to the short shide, with broad, rounded shoulders, and nipped-in waist," says Logan, a 15-year veteran of the garment design game. "My pants are softer, on the fluid side, with high, streamlined waist; my skirts are short but full."

Since incorporating 18 months ago, Logan has been tearing into the nation's better specialty retail stores. Right now Logan is placing his rags with Henri Bendle in New York, Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Ave., Ron Ross in Los Angeles, Lord & Taylor, Macy's in San Francisco and Modasport in Beverly Hills.

He expects to ship about $500,000 worth of spring garments compared with $300,000 last year.

"We'd make more clothes, but with our present production arrangements we can't make much more," he claims.

Logan says he keeps production close to home in order to maintain quality control, crucial to his clothes, which retail from $80 to $300. "I or my production manager have to be able to go into the factory and see the work being done. You can't do that if you're having your clothes made overseas -- and that's what my buyers say. They like my consistent high quality," says Logan. The designer is looking to buy his own factory somewhere in East Los Angeles, but presently employs four sewing shops downtown.

Going into business for himself was a dream for Logan, who worked for several larger garmentmakers before going it alone. "Companies would go out and buy 50,000 yards of fabric and then ask me to design into it, without any input from me before they bought the cloth," he says.

That led to strange designs: "They play down the intelligence of the consumer, and they often pay for it," Logan contends. "They never put out clothes that are fashion forward."

A native of Bakersfield, Logan says his desert upbringing gives him an advantage over city-bred designers. "The desert gave me a keen sense of color, one of the things I'm known for. The bright desert flowers, the mountains in the afternoon would literally be purpled. And the sky was blue, not like here."