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3 Tips for the Emerging Fashion Designer

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Yet another week of fashion extravaganza stormed through our city, and many emerging fashion designers have had the opportunity to mingle, network or even launch their collections.

I am a big follower of everything that moves in the fashion industry: bloggers, stylists, designers, fashionistas and pretty much anyone that cares and is involved in the local fashion scene. I lived every moment of the fashion week by digesting Twitter feeds , Instagram pictures and Facebook posts.

And here is tip #1: If you are an aspiring or emerging fashion designer – you must stay connected to your local fashion influencers! Twitter is a good place to “stalk” them and stay up-to-date with latest news and events in the fashion industry. Find bloggers, stylists, fashion publications and organizations that will surely overload you with the latest fashion news.

Indeed, during fashion week it can be a little overwhelming with all the media hype around the big established designers and the runway shows. But learn to listen and filter to what is of real value to you
FashionWeek

Tip #2: Attend smaller events where you can get valuable networking done.

Best part of fashion week is the high concentration of fashion influencers, but you will have to find the appropriate event to network with them. One of these opportunities was the speed-networking event organized by Fashion Group international and Fashion Takes Action. This event is typically sold-out, and you can meet with potential clients, HR recruiting firms specializing in fashion, bloggers, boutique owners and mentors. I recommend these types of events to anyone starting up in any kind of industry, and make sure you bring tons of business cards!
speed_networking

Tip #3: Enroll in industry specific organizations before the fashion week.

You are very lucky to be able to start a fashion business in a city like Toronto. Bigger metropolitan cities typically have fashion hubs that come with non-for-profit organizations, incubators, and an abundance of mentors. Being part of these will give you access to latest news, reduced ticket prices to fashion events and more networking opportunities.
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Here is a short list of organizations that as an aspiring or emerging fashion designer in Toronto you should seriously consider:

Toronto Fashion Incubator – an innovative and highly respected non-profit organization dedicated to supporting and nurturing small business entrepreneurs in the fashion industry.

Fashion Group International – global non-profit organization of executives, designers and entrepreneurs in more than 30 chapters around the world. Toronto is their only Canadian chapter.

Fashion Takes Action – Canada’s premier non-profit organization that focuses on sustainability in the fashion industry.

pre-ordering retail fashion for independent fashion designers

Crowdfunding and Crowdsourcing Fashion

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In one of our previous posts we highlighted some of the challenges that aspiring fashion designers encounter when starting up their businesses (you can find the full article here). To sum up, here are the top three problems:
INITIAL FUNDING – FORECASTING DEMAND – GETTING PRE-ORDERS

Let’s be honest, the fashion industry does not take full advantage of the advancements in IT, and the designers have to be very creative to overcome their challenges. Many resort to major online marketplaces to sell their creations. These work for designers offering custom made products – and they can sell one item at a time based on customer’s requirements. On the downside, the designers can’t source materials in large quantities because of the unpredictability in demand and they end up sourcing expensive supplies and pass that cost to the buyer. Furthermore, it is very difficult for the buyer to find a particular designer as these marketplaces become more like a universe of everything for everyone (For example, Etsy reportedly has over 800,000 active shops).

What we’ve recently noticed is that independent fashion designers are now appealing to the public to support their businesses and they do it on crowdfunding websites. Still, the fashion category on Kickstarter has the lowest success rate. We believe this is because the existing crowdfunding platforms don’t make for an elegant e-commerce solution. Consumers can’t really shop the designers’ products, but rather “donate” in return for different types of rewards. Crowdfunding works for fashion retailers that sell single products (such as the super-famous pebble watch); however, they don’t work as well for fashion designers that sell multiple products. crowdfunding fashion

Finally, a lot of new designers try crowdsourcing their designs, which takes care of the second obstacle they encounter – forecasting demand. By using a voting, liking and sharing system you can learn from your potential buyers more than if you were to investigate yourself. You can choose to produce only the most popular products or modify your collection based on consumer’s feedback. Still – desirability doesn’t necessarily translate into orders, as the potential buyers are not required to commit to a purchase.

At Luevo, we are working hard to develop a new kind of crowdfunding solution specifically targeted at aspiring and emerging independent fashion designers. We will use a combination of best practices from existing crowdfunding and crowdsourcing business models to create one solution to a designer’s top three challenges. We understand that as independent fashion designers you have certain production requirements. On our platform you will be able to obtain the pre-orders you need by crowdsourcing your demand.

You can find out more on how our fashion crowdfunding platform works here.

Challenges of an Aspiring Independent Fashion Designer

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As an aspiring fashion designer, creating patterns and designs is fun, creative and for some – a relatively easy process. But, consistency of sales and strong demand forecasts is the most difficult aspect of starting up a fashion business. Here are some obstacles that you will have to overcome in order to achieve a sustainable business model.

You will need an initial capital investment to produce your first collections. You will either outsource your production or open your own studio and you will require funding. But, the fashion industry is high-risk, capital intensive and highly seasonal. This is one of the main reasons why banks don’t easily hand out loans or lines of credits to support independent fashion start-ups. You will have to rely on your personal savings and assets or borrow money from friends and family.
Fashion business funding

Then, you need to decide on the production method that works best for you. If you are outsourcing, consider the shipping costs, lead times and the minimum requirements for each order. Unless you have paid in advance pre-orders that can secure a large production batch, it is best if you start with smaller quantities to avoid holding a large inventory. Also, the location of your manufacturing facility is important; closer to home means quality control trips are easier and more affordable.

Fashion design is fun and creative.

Forecasting your demand is a daunting task. Big retail chains and established fashion businesses can easily forecast their demand by using historical data and predictive algorithms. However, when you are just starting up in the industry, you don’t have the historical data you need to build such forecasts, nor do you have a known brand that will guarantee you the traction of sales. So, the biggest question remains: how do you know exactly which products are going to sell and in what variations (sizes, colors)?

woman shopping for fashion

There are several steps you can take at any stage of your business to better understand your demand. First, determine who your customers are and get to know them by asking questions. Go beyond your close friends and family, as you are most likely to get positive reinforcement anyway. Start with your professors, peers and go to local meet-up groups – you will receive criticism and unbiased opinions. Then, generate a conversation on forums and on your Twitter and Facebook pages. Grow a customer following that will provide you with real-time feedback.

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In a way, you are “Crowd-sourcing” your designs, by learning what your ideal customer is most likely to buy. Always network with your peers, search for support from your local fashion incubator and don’t sign away rights over your designs. The fashion industry is not very regulated when it comes to design protection; you want to ensure that when selling on a third party’s website, you retain rights over your designs.

Our mission at Luevo is to change how aspiring independent fashion designers do business. We want to help independent fashion designers streamline their production processes, minimize financial risks and increase the success rate of fashion start-ups. Click here to learn how we plan on achieving this!

Is Eco-Fashion Just a Trend?

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I recently attended the GREEN JOBS FORUM in Toronto to find among the speakers many young entrepreneurs in the fields of fashion and beauty.  I became curious about eco-trends in fashion when we were recently approached by local designers Alexandra Wilson and Jessica van Enckevort from LittleWhiteDress (we will review their line in a separate post).

We are picky eaters, picky travelers, picky partners, but how about fashion? How concerned are we of where our clothes are being made, or if young children were the “tailors” of our clothes? I would leave that up to you my reader, but my guess is most of us aren’t. Most brand name labels do produce their lines in a third world country, but I am not even going to go there.

This post is about those designers that are trying to make a difference, and not only that they source their materials and produce their designs locally, but they also try to incorporate sustainable practices in the manufacturing process of their clothing lines.

At the GREEN JOBS FORUM I listened to Shawna Robinson co-owner of LABEL.

The designers at LABEL use recycled and organic materials as much as they can and they use eco-friendly printing processes for their T-shirts. Shawna also made an interesting point on being  sustainable versus eco, as a company. They choose “sustainable” design patterns, to make full use of the materials available and reduce waste. This is one of the reason why their most recent collection has a lot of asymmetrical designs – which is not only sustainable but also very trendy, and we love it!

Obviously, prices are always going to be an issue for the buyer, as most of the sustainable and eco-friendly clothing will bear a higher price tag than, you know their non-so-sustainable competition. But I believe if we can pay  50% more on organic foods than we should consider local designers that  not only are they doing something good about our environment, but they are also a source for  innovative  fashion and high-quality craftsmanship.

For more information on sustainable and eco-friendly fashion you can have a look at FASHION TAKES ACTION,  an industry non-profit organization.

What to wear to a fashion event?

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So you were invited to a fashion event, and the day before you start wondering what should you wear! This time is not your girlfriends checking out your outfit head to toe, but it’s your local fashion experts, and in a city like Toronto the pressure is on!

So, with an invitation in my hand to go to a fashion event in the famous Yorkville district of Toronto, I start lining up different outfit options, and what else can I do, but categorize, sub-categorize, and choose! (Must be the divide and conquer theory I was taught in history class a while ago…).

Option #1: Wear something famous! Choose a brand that anyone would recognize and flaunt in front of snapping cameras and the on-site fashionistas…but..  that can be a bad idea when the event is organized by a designer or a store that showcases certain brands, which is the case with my event. So no, this is not a good opportunity to showcase the one most expensive piece of clothing that I own; however, here are some designer outfits that most certainly will be a hit at a Toronto fashion event:

An outfit signed by Lucian Matis – one of the best shows at Toronto Fashion Week 2012:

 

Option #2: As an alternative, I could wear one of the labels carried by the respective boutique, such as :

 

A Back stretch knit dress by Arti Gogna you can buy here.

Cowl neck 3/4 sleeve dress by Dagg & Stacey that you can get here.

 

Option #3: Or you can be totally fresh, and wear Canadian label no other than Joe Fresh:

 

Ultimately I think the rules of the game are: while you want to stand out, don’t overdo it, be yourself! Be considerate to the event’s theme, if the event is organized for independent local designers don’t walk in wearing Prada!

And finally, in my case, I want to wear something that will represent me and my company, and most importantly bring forward the creations of the designers that we at Luevo have discovered.

  

Custom made clothing: the comeback!

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Creating an Image

Nina Ricci. Valentino. Fendi. Lanvin; the list goes on. These fashion gods and goddesses are among the many designers creating custom-made outfits destined to be worn by some of the hottest names in Hollywood. Not only are these designers responsible for making celebrities turn heads as they enter a room; they are part of a team responsible for creating an image that reflects the personality and brand of each actor, singer or eccentric to walk the red carpet. Take, for example, the white Givenchy number sported by Rooney Mara at the 84th Annual Academy Awards in L.A. It was the perfect blend of edge and elegance, a sincere reflection of the image portrayed by the Girl in the Dragon Tattoo. Need another example? Bond, James Bond. Made famous by his witty retorts, womanizing escapades and specific choice in cocktail (vodka martini, shaken not stirred), he is best known for the style with which he successfully executed top secret mission; and by style, I mean suit. Granted, Bond wasn’t so much styled by the stars as he was clothed in suits that were tailored to perfection, but in this case, as in so many cases, the clothes really did make the man (dare I say legend?).

The history of tailoring as an art form

The art of tailoring, which has its roots in the 12-14th centuries, became exceptionally popular during the Renaissance as clothing started moving away from conservative trends sweeping the old empires and towards designs that accentuated and brought to life the human body. Curves and skin were suddenly in! Not too much of course, but enough to get the creative juices of designers and tailors flowing as floods of orders for custom made apparel came in from the crème de la crème of European society.

 During this time, tailored apparel was an expression of power, wealth and influence for men and women lucky enough to afford it. Moving into the twentieth century, tailored clothing became less a luxury for the nobility and more a way for women, in particular, to express themselves as they made the move from traditional wear to garments that allowed for simultaneous functionality and femininity.

Going, going… still here?

It seems to me that somewhere along the line, tailoring fell out of fashion. Perhaps wartime experiences and depression simply made indulging in custom-made clothing unaffordable for the average buyer. Perhaps woman, the provocateurs of fashion around the world, became less inclined to invest in custom made garments, preferring to mix existing pieces to create a sort of “self-made” look similar to that trending around the streets of Toronto as I type. As I see it, outside of particularly trendy (or wealthy) communities, tailored clothing is quickly falling through the fashion cracks. For starters, the definition of tailoring has moved from meaning custom-made to clothes that fit well without necessarily being tailored to fit the contour of a particular individual. Gone are the days of visiting ones tailor in order to be fitted for a new jacket; today, “tailored” suits, jackets and pants are widely available at popular department stores and independent boutiques. Perhaps there is a link between the decline of custom-made clothing and globalization as imports allow for the selection of material to increase tenfold. Whatever the reason, custom made clothing is due for a comeback, don’t you agree?

Putting customization back on the table

At Luevo, we believe that creativity is the essence of fashion and we are big supporters of customization tailoring. Some of the selected designers on Luevo will be able to offer clothing that are literally made to fit your body. There’s only one you, so make it count and dress it up! Get in touch with your style and check out Luevo soon for the latest line of customizable products.

Featured Designer of the Week: Claudia Llado

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Over the next few months, we will be shining a spotlight on some of the most unique designers to hit the streets of T.O.

This week, we would like to introduce Claudia Llado, a talented jewellery designer and artist from Peru who uses inspiration from her travels to design high-end, handmade products with universal appeal. Specializing in unique designs, Claudia produces only a small number of must-have pieces that remain available only as long as supplies last.

All of Claudia’s accessories including rings, bracelets and necklaces are made with 950 Sterling Silver, and come in a hand embroidered gift bag made from 100% natural cotton and designed by the artist herself.

These eye-catching pieces provide a unique twist on classic favorites and are a great way to accessorize featured items from our signature coat and jacket line. Exclusive collection from Claudia will soon be available for purchase online at Luevo.

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