So You Want To Start Your Own Fashion Line?

  A lot people who have the passion for fashion, do not know where to begin or they do not have the money to start a portfolio of goodies to sell to designers or better yet start their own company. The Toronto Fashion Incubator offers these individuals the chance to shine, by helping them start at a low cost. The incubator is there to support everyone. Did you know that other countries copied Toronto’s Incubator idea? For example; The United States and Japan.

Article Summary 

•  12 years ago when the Toronto Fashion Center for the Promotion of Fashion Design (the official title of TFI) was born.
• The fashion industry in Toronto was losing talents to other fashion centers and manufacturing firms were moving to regions that could offer lower costs.
• TFI’s success could also be measured by its long line of success stories: Serena Deparis, David Dixon, Noel Crisostomo, Ewa Majak, Anna Staffiere, Crystal Siemens, Joeffer Caoc to name a few.

So how does the TFI do it?

• TFI provides a support group to the designers. We’re like family. Everyone shares the facilities and has to pitch in with cleaning up and maintaining work stations. By sharing equipment and space, young designers are able to defray start-up costs.

With 6,200 sq.ft of studio space, offices and production facilities, the TFI helps smooth the transition of young talents from design student to self-supporting designer. The TFI’s resource center makes available to its residents and outreach members trade publications, newsletters and other fashion industry resources which normally will be out of reach to them due to high costs.

One very important aspect of TFI’s work is the bi-annual New Labels Fashion Show wherein up and coming designers are featured. Residents and outreach members can showcase their collection at the New Labels Fashion Show which is attended by thousands of fashion buyers and media representatives.

To be a resident of the TFI, you have to be:

• A graduate of an accredited Fashion Program in Canada
• Or have industry or work experience
• Must submit a three-year business plan
• Must have a portfolio of your work
• Must have proof of financial support

For further detail visit: http://www.fashionwindows.com

Fashion Desigers Give Back

Circa night club hosted the final L’Oreal Fashion Week party, and it featured Paul Budnit’z Kidrobot runway presentation and a display of all the Canadian Designer Munny’s in the Kidrobot display room.

The Kidrobot is a popular, vinyl toy that allows individuals to draw and decorate as they see fit.

What Circa’s Project Munny is, is that had a variety of Canadian fashion designers including favourites from this years L’Oreal Fashoin Week event decorate and design their own little Munny.

Once they have decorated their own Munny’s according to their own style, Circa put these Munny’s on eBay auction off. The proceeds will be going to War Child Canada.

Although it may not be clothes they are designing to be auctioned off, it still shows that Canadian fashion designers are very caring and will anything to support charitable causes. It shows that Canadian designers not only focus on their clothes and runway shows, it also illustrates how they help charities with their designing abilities. Acts such as these will generate more buzz around the Canadian fashion/apparel cluster, because it demonstrates to international fashion professional how much they are willing to give back to their communities.

Webiste: http://torontostreetfashion.com/

Industry Cluster in New York – Fashion & Apparel

NEW YORK, NEW YORK

The heart of the fashion industry is unquestionably in New York. The world’s most recognizable brands originate from New York based headquarter offices and design studios. New York is also a major producer of apparel products having produced over $7.8 billion in manufactured products in 2001. New York has unique access to competitive production facilities, specialized NYC niche manufacturers, innovative young designers and the world’s foremost retail market. Over 8,000 apparel & fashion companies employ over 98,000 people in New York State including: 

POLO	Ralph Lauren	Hickey Freeman
Brooks Brothers	Jones New York	Kenneth Cole
Liz Claiborne	Ann Taylor	Phillips Van-Heusen
Nautica	Tommy Hilfiger

New York is also home to many of the most respected foreign apparel firms’ US operations including:

Prada

LVMH

Chanel

Christian Dior

New York State has the ideal workforce and operating environment that allows these companies to thrive here. New York State hosts corporate headquarters, both cut & sew and knitwear production facilities, design studios and sales & marketing operations. 

Summary

•  Ten percent of national employment in Fashion, Apparel and Textiles is in New York State
• Statewide, the Fashion cluster employed 122,000 people in 2001 at 9,618 establishments.
• New York City’s Fashion, Apparel and Textiles employment is almost three times as much as would be expected from national level employment patterns. Nearly half of New York City’s employment in the Fashion, Apparel and Textiles employment is in apparel manufacturing. About one third is in apparel wholesaling.
• The Mohawk Valley also has significantly more employment than would be expected from its population, with about 3,500 workers in the Fashion, Apparel and Textiles industry
• Businesses in the Fashion, Apparel and Textiles industry cluster employed 122,000 people in New York State in 2001. Firms in the apparel manufacturing sub-cluster employed the largest number of New Yorkers, with 54,078 workers. Apparel wholesalers were the second largest segment, with 36,480 employees. New York had nearly 24% of national employment in apparel wholesaling. The state had more than 20% of employment in jewelry manufacturing, and more than 12% of national employment in apparel manufacturing

 

 

To read more about New York’s Fashion & Apparel Cluster visit; http://www.nylovesbiz.com. 

 

Cheers,

Caroline K

Fashion Marketing Requires Latest Trends

Innovative technologies are making it possible to communicate product attributes online, as well as enabling effective marketing strategies.

It is shocking to know how many of us would spend a fortune on a product that costs ten times more then a product that costs less, but looks similar. We live in a world of “brands.”

How many of us really shop online for clothes? I know I do! However, I never end up purchasing any of them because I don’t know if it will look good on me. Have you bought anything? If so, how did it fit?!

Did you know that e-mail marketing works better then banners for the fashion industry. This is true because today we have shorter attention spans, especially among the younger generation that drives the market.

Article Summary

There was a study from Miller – Williams and shoppers say more than 80% of the reasons behind their decision to purchase is outside the realm of their online experience.

• One can easily convey a brand experience on the Web – look and feel, brand attributes, identifiers, and other cornerstones of a brand. But what about physical attributes of a product? Shoppers can look at a nice sweater online, but they’re left with questions: Will it fit loose or tight? Is the color exactly what’s shown on the computer screen or is it slightly darker or lighter? Is it soft and comfortable or is it itchy?According to a June, 2001 article in Red Herring magazine, consumers cite their inability to try clothes on as their main reason for hesitating to buy clothing online

What?!?! NOW YOU CAN TRY CLOTHES ONLINE?!

• Landsend.com pioneered the approach of using “virtual models.” Shoppers can create a virtual model of their body to see how clothing will fit. And this approach is helping – shoppers who use the feature are nearly 20% more likely to purchase, and they tend to spend 16% more in their average orders than shoppers who don’t use the virtual modeling technology.

Getting Shoppers to the Online Experience

With all of this money invested in technology to bring the online experience closer to that of the offline experience, fashion marketers have to do what they can to realize an ROI on their investments. But how do they keep consumers engaged?

• “By keeping merchandise and content fresh and accessible,”

Indeed, online fashion sites need to move as quickly as their offline counterparts, which may revamp product offerings as quickly as every two weeks. As one might imagine, keeping things fresh is vital, yet time- and resource-consuming for a multi-channel fashion retailer. At least one high-end fashion brand has seemingly opted-out of the fresh game, instead relying on a fashion destination site to do the heavy lifting to showcase new collections.

What Online Marketing Techniques Work?

“E-mail campaigns have proven to be the best way to increase traffic to the site,” says Kessler. “I find that they act as a memory jog and people take a moment out of their day to visit the site when they receive an opt-in e-mail. Our open rate has stayed consistently at 23%.”

• “Currently we collect opt-in e-mails on mailing list cards at the store and have them sent to a data-entry house, where they are entered into a spreadsheet and imported into the opt-in database,” says Kessler. “We also obtain e-mail addresses via an opt-in field on the home page and at registration. As a company we have a number of additional databases and are working at merging them into one central location.”

Fashionable Fashion Advertising….to keep the youth interested

Last summer, just following the BMW Films campaign, Levi’s promoted its Silvertab sub-brand of jeans via an online contest. Consumers were posed the question at the Lost Change site, “What would you do if you found $100,000?” Continuing on that theme, Levi’s released a series of Webisodes comprising an Internet film that followed the adventures of a number of friends who found a large sum of money. Consumers who watched the series of Webisodes were encouraged to become active participants by searching for clues and tracking the movements of the characters in the film. Participants could earn prizes, including Motorola mobile phones and Silvertab clothing. The standalone site also included an online store, where users could purchase both Silvertab and Motorola products.Be My Buddy

The Runway Ahead

With the exception of a few major legacy fashion publications, this category is a relatively low ad spender. Fashion marketers rely mostly on their retail partners to generate traffic. Word of mouth is huge, so the viral element is key to any important initiative.

Most fashion marketers have special initiatives for getting celebrities to don their logos. The media often plays a large part. Just consider every run way-like entrance into some awards event and see the first question Joan Rivers asks, “Who are you wearing?”

It’s ironic that interactive media is well known for the blurring of the lines between editorial and advertising, yet has not found a way to substantiate the opportunity fashion marketers’ need to connect with consumers. For a category that has merchandised itself like that, especially with the haute couture side of the business, it’s partly generational. However, as teens and young adults continue to embrace the Web for social, informational and fashion purposes, fashion marketers will have a wealth of opportunities still untapped to strut their stuff!

http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/1916.asp

Why is Eco-Fashion So Hot?

Have you seen those bags that are made out of juice boxes or runway models wearing garbage bags?! We are moving towards a more economic friendly environment and companies are trying their best to get in with the change.  I feel good when I wear Eco-fashionable clothes since it does not involve the use of harmful chemicals and bleaches to color fabrics—and are made by people earning fair wages in healthy working conditions.

Top Fashion Designers Turn Eco-Friendly Fabrics Into Haute Couture

Dear EarthTalk: What’s up with these “eco-fashions” I keep hearing about? – Glenn Hammond, San Francisco, CA Simply put, the term “eco-fashion” refers to stylized clothing that uses environmentally sensitive fabrics and responsible production techniques.

1. eco-fashions are defined as clothes “that take into account the environment, the health of consumers and the working conditions of people in the fashion industry.”
2.  usually made using organic raw materials, such as cotton grown without pesticides, or re-used materials such as recycled plastic from old soda bottles.

There was a Eco-Fashions Debut at Fashion Week in New York

• Designers have been playing around with organic and natural fibers for year
• the show was called FutureFashion.
•  famous and up-and-coming designers showcased outfits made from eco-friendly fabrics and materials including hemp, recycled poly and bamboo.

r“People often perceive the fashion world as superficial, so it’s great to work with materials that are actually good for the environment. I had my doubts, but when we actually saw the fabric swatches we were blown away. They were gorgeous, and it wasn’t hard to design with them.”

Eco-fashion Movement Heads West

1. The party moved to the West Coast in June 2005 when San Francisco culminated its World Environment Day celebration with “Catwalk on the Wild Side.”
2. sponsored by the nonprofit Wildlife Works featuring top models and designs from the likes of EcoGanik, Loomstate, Fabuloid and others.

What do you think? Our we moving towards Eco- Friendly fashion?

Website: http://environment.about.com/od/earthtalkcolumns/a/ecofashion.htm 

China home of the fashion savvy consumer

  My parents just came back from China, and they bought back a lot of clothes for cheap that you would find in Toronto for hundreds of dollars.  I wanted an article about how China is booming in the fashion industry, and hot their style is totally different then ours.  There was a Fashion week held at China and to view pictures please visit this link http://www.staticphotography.com

Key Information from the article

China home of the fashion savvy consumer

<!–enpproperty 2008-03-21 11:44:44.0Jon Stewartjeans,cotton,fashionHome of the fashion savvy consumer1158918Top Biz News2@webnews/enpproperty–>

By Jon Stewart (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-03-21 11:44

•    Growing China’s economic growth
• “In comparison to other countries, shopping behavior in China is very similar to other markets. The Chinese are savvy shoppers. They’re looking for quality.”
• Cotton International, one of China’s leading fashion stores, has spent two years working with and sponsoring student fashion designers, four of whom presented their creations at the event in a small scale fashion show at Beijing’s Wish Club in Chaoyang. The message here was straightforward: cotton is good for Chinese consumers, and they should wear more of it.
• The message seems almost unwarranted. Not long ago the streets of cities like Beijing and Shanghai were lined with the traditional factory blue gray suits, and today jeans are more popular. In fact, Messura pointed out the average consumer here in China now owns three pairs of jeans.
•  Cotton International hopes to demonstrate to consumers that cotton is a fashionable and versatile material, but that “we also work with manufacturers to bring the most innovative cotton products to market.”

China has for many years been seen as a source of low cost labor, and for that reason the focus of the fashion industry here has been on production, the result being thousands of textiles factories scattered around the country. It’s no small secret in the US or other Western markets that much of the world’s clothing is produced in China.

• “The key is disposable income, which means consumers have new wealth and spend more.”
• In November the fashion week started at the Beijing Hotel . There were  7 runway shows over the course of three days. Above are is a photo, but if you click on the link you can see more of my favorite photos from the weeks events.

Website: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2008-03/21/content_6555724.htm

Web 2.0 to change fashion forever?

“What happens when following the fashion herd becomes wisdom of the masses? When everyone can become his or her own fashion editor? When “citizen” journalists replace glossy magazines as oracles of fashion?”

We have been studying Web 2.0 for a year now, so I thought this article would be a great example to show what I have learned, in the past year in Rod Shannon’s class.

The biggest beef I have with articles like the one published by the Financial Times is that they overestimate the importance of Web 2.0 to the world despite the fact that, most of the time, there is nothing revolutionary going on. Web 2.0 didn’t invent word-of-mouth and it’s not likely to have a major impact on the way the fashion industry operates and drives sales.

So how do YOU think the world of fashion will look after Web 2.0? Probably pretty similar to how it looked before Web 2.0.

This article is a great example of misusing social media marketing and word of mouth marketing. Do you listen to what your friends and family think of the clothes you wear?! Then read this article!

Cheers

Caroline Krikorian

Article Summary

• Recommendations from trusted sources such as friends and ‘experts‘ are (or can become) important promoters of sales in the fashion business.
• In the realm of luxury brands and high fashion, celebrity and exclusivity still remain key drivers for success. If powerful Influentials exist for fashion brands, they’re more likely to be celebrities, athletes, supermodels, hip fashion designers etc. than they are to be trend followers and average consumers.
• “celebrities, models, and the wealth that buoys them“.
• There’s a very good reason that many shows at Fashion Week use significant chunks of their budgets to ensure that celebrity attendees are in the audience.

The Financial Times states:

“People are starting to trust friends or those they consider to be their peers. If someone recommends something to you, you’re more likely to trust that recommendation and then go on to buy it.”

• Somehow social media proponents seem to be doing quite a good job of convincing the world that this is a new phenomenon that they control.

Osoyou.com’s Dawn Bebe, for instance, states:

“Five or 10 years ago, people used to look to magazines for that kind of referral but now, peer-to-peer referral is the first option.”

• Keller Fay Group, a ‘word of mouth research and consulting’ firm, found in a 2006 study that 92% of word-of-mouth marketing takes place offline.
• Interestingly, 41% of the conversations about brands “involve a reference to something seen or heard in the media or in marketing material“, which seems to go against the notion that traditional advertising is on its deathbed.
• A 2007 study by Keller Fay Group found that, while teens are more likely to be involved in online word-of-mouth marketing, 61% of this still occurs offline.

WEBSITE: http://www.e-consultancy.com/news-blog/365094/web-2-0-to-change-fashion-forever.html

For more information about web 2.0 and fashion visit http://www.businessoffashion.net/web_20/

Fashioning a Fashion Career

Welcome!

I decided to write my first blog on what fashion is all about. The article below describes exactly how I feel about the world of fashion and Apparel. It is not all about parties, and drinking. J.Simpson describes how you need to study, know how to draw perfectly, have good communication skills and to know exactly what you want out of your fashion ideas.

Enjoy the article below!!

http://www.fibre2fashion.com/industry-article/free-fashion-industry-article/fashioning-a-fashion-career/fashioning-a-fashion-career1.asp

Aside from being model or a Hollywood A-lister, perhaps there is no other career more glamorous or exciting as fashion design. Most people conceive of a career in fashion designing as merely drinking cocktails, dressing celebrities up and attending chi-chi affairs. But fashion designing is more than that. Fashion is not just about clothes design either; designers pursue other interests like shoes, accessories, or bag designs. Of course, nothing gives a designer glory than a famous celebrity wearing and acknowledging her creations. Excited about pursuing a fashion designing career? Don’t grab your pencil and paper yet, there is more to designing than just drawing.

In setting up a fashion design business, a budding designer needs to know the basics. Knowledge and experience in designing, drawing, sketching, and CAD applications are necessary to facilitate design illustrations. Expertise in sewing, embroidery, and detailing are important and give a young designer advantage over starting competitors. Of course, knowledge in textiles, fabrics, and clothing technology are also requirements. Certification from design schools and workshops give additional points for a budding designer but are not really necessary.

Possessing the above-mentioned skills does not guarantee fashion designing success. These are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg in starting your own fashion business. As a starting fashion designer, you must identify the type of design you are interested in pursuing. Whether it is clothes, accessories, bags, or shoes design, it is important to equip yourself with the know-how of that particular industry. Also, defining your market is a vital step. Are you going to concentrate on women, teens, kids, men, or be a general designer? Some starting designers opt to concentrate on a special market by being a formal wear designer or a bridal gown designer. General designers however, usually get the most profits since they cater to everyone. Employees are also crucial part of your planning stage. Starting design businesses opt to open their own store and hire their own pattern-makers, sewers, and staff. Others choose to do consignment and affiliate themselves with department stores and boutiques. Custom and per-order designing are the usual pursuits of budding designers. Fashion business experts recommend the latter two to most starting fashion design business as these require less capital and workforce.

But still, there is nothing like the thrill of working close to top models and famous designers. To jumpstart a fashion design career quickly, applying as an employee in a fashion house is another option. Positions for entry-level applicants are usually pattern makers, sample maker, and sketcher. The key is to see these lowly positions as training ground for your fashion empire. To apply for these jobs, it is important to prepare an impressive portfolio with your designs and pictures of finished products from past customers. Fashion house managers agree that they tend to look for individuals with great style and flair for fashion. So dressing the part for interviews and applicant workshops help a lot.

Website: http://www.fibre2fashion.com