Comments on: The Clothing Broker

By: manish vinchhi

manish vinchhi — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 23:12:55 +0000

Hi! This is manish vinchhi from chennai india.
I am tie & dye specialist, i do hand dyed tunics.
Are you in need of such tunics?

Waiting for your feed back.

Sincerely,

Telephone- 091 44 25585700 & 091 9884668968

By: sipho mbatha

sipho mbatha — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 15:34:17 +0000

Iam a fashion student at TSHWANE UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY in SOUTH AFRICA.Iam interested in being a FASHION BROKER but I do not have much information about it.i would be much happy if you can help me to achieve my dream.THANK YOU FOR READING MY EMAIL.hope to hear from you soon BYE.

By: kathleen

kathleen — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 17:01:04 +0000

Camille, it is not people-like-us that would have problems with wholesalers beyond a misstep or two. You are direct and can express your needs. Candor and disclosure is what’s appreciated. A lot of designers can’t be direct; often their behavior is governed by mythinformation (the fabric rep will steal their ideas etc) so they don’t provide enough of the right kind of information or detail. It is the counterproductive self-censoring of information by designers that gets them into trouble. Wholesalers just don’t have time to play around or coax detail -and why should they? This is business, not a therapy session.

Some suppliers can be rude -and in my opinion- justifiably so because a designer’s failure to ignore the pull of paranoia is an implicit if not direct way of saying the supplier cannot be trusted. I don’t know about you but I couldn’t do business with someone who just assumed I’d steal their ideas unless they stood over me with a big stick. Why would I want to sell them a product that would then increase their leverage with me? Successful people increase leverage with suppliers through purchasing but designers try to do it through neurotic self-defeating behaviors and what supplier is willing to sign on for that? There is nothing more insulting so it’s no wonder that suppliers can be rude. I think anyone could be rude under those circumstances.

I mean, you just wouldn’t believe what we’re subjected to. I had one guy who wanted me to help him (memorable because his last name is the same as mine) with his product but he was so vague that I couldn’t tell if his product was made of wood, plastic or metal; he was so ambiguous I never guessed it was a sewn product. He treated me exactly like a scummy design thief so ultimately the situation ended with him thinking I was rude. For my part, I can only hope I was! I know I wasn’t as rude as I wanted to be, that’s for sure.

By: MW

MW — Mon, 13 Jun 2005 06:05:58 +0000

“Scammers always appeal to the temptation to get something for nothing.”

That’s so true. I hope you don’t mind if I blog it.

By: Camille Clark

Camille Clark — Sun, 12 Jun 2005 09:17:37 +0000

Hey!

I like that point about not being thin skinned. I tend to be thin skinned. I don’t do business with wholesalers, but it’s still a good point.

I understand that people in Europe think Americans are kind of suspect because we smile too much (to strangers, etc)

Camille

By: Eric H

Eric H — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 16:55:39 +0000

I remember an essay by Ayn Rand in which she illustrates the meaning of the saying, “you can’t cheat an honest man.” An honest man always knows he has to pay for what he gets (one way or the other). Scammers always appeal to the temptation to get something for nothing. Ever seen one of those spam messages that start out, “Please allow me to introduce myself: I am a former ambassador from Dirkadirkastan …”? They always contain some appeal to your greed in order to take advantage of it. “Help us out by letting us use your bank account, and we’ll cut you in on the deal.”

It’s also a recurring theme in Heinlein stories; TANSTAAFL.