http://www.fashion-incubator.com How to start a clothing line or run the one you have, better. Fri, 10 Feb 2012 19:36:44 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/selling-your-design-business/ http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/selling-your-design-business/#comments Tue, 31 Jan 2012 23:53:39 +0000 Kathleen Fasanella http://www.fashion-incubator.com/?p=10789 Do you have any articles or information about how to sell or license a design? Although I have streamlined and have one full time helper, the business has grown too big for me to handle on my own and I am interested in finding out if there are any companies out there that would be interested in buying my designs and brand. I have a small business making xxx from post-consumer apparel. I've published several posts on selling your business which I'll link to as is appropriate to sort out these issues.

• What is she selling? The business? A license? The brand? The designs?
• How marketable are those elements as they would interest a buyer?

Background: Jody included a link to her website. Personally, I think her products are awesome (and you know how I resist making such pronouncements) and priced well (commensurate to their value) but there are two core problems that can affect the sale of businesses like hers. First the downsides: With respect to licensing -this isn't going to happen, or it shouldn't. Only someone who is really green would buy a license and these people tend to not have much money so its a zero sum game. If you are toying with the idea of selling a license, keep in mind the option is limited to celebrities or very well established brands. A license is only good for an add-on product, it's not a take-over of your primary one. In other words, Ralph Lauren can sell a license to a sunglasses manufacturer but the license is worth nothing if RL stopped producing -which is what Jody wants to do. So unless you're Beyonce, Martha Stewart or Hello Kitty, cross licensing off your list of options.]]> http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/selling-your-design-business/feed/ 8 http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/forever-21-sued-by-feral-childe/ http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/forever-21-sued-by-feral-childe/#comments Sat, 16 Jul 2011 04:05:03 +0000 Kathleen Fasanella http://www.fashion-incubator.com/?p=9744 Feral Childe is a clothing line owned by Alice Wu and Moriah Carlson. You may remember the wonderful pattern puzzle challenge featuring one of their styles (part one and two). As Alice has been an active and supportive member of our forum, I was more dismayed than usual to hear Forever 21 copied one of their fabric prints. Exactly. Unfortunately, this means Alice and Moriah had to hire attorneys to deal with the unpleasantness -as though they didn't have enough to do already. Below is a press release from their attorney announcing the lawsuit they've filed against Forever21 for copyright infringement. ------------------------- DESIGN DUO FIGHTS BACK AGAINST INFRINGEMENT BY FOREVER 21 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 14, 2011 Los Angeles, California – Bi-coastal creative duo Moriah Carlson (Brooklyn, NY) and Alice Wu (Oakland, CA), who design together under the Feral Childe brand, have struck back at the blatant infringement by Forever 21 of one of Feral Childe’s original works of art. The company, through its attorneys at Doniger/Burroughs APC, has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Forever 21 in Federal Court in Los Angeles, alleging that Forever 21 has copied one of Feral Childe’s original hand-created designs, and created and sold apparel bearing this design. Below on the left you will see the original work, and on the right you will see Forever 21’s blatant knock-off: A review of the above makes clear that Forever 21 has continued in its campaign to steal outright the creative output of some of the brightest minds in the apparel industry, and trample the intellectual property rights of others in an attempt to boost profits. Forever 21’s attempt to profit by misappropriating the work of Feral Childe, however, will not go unpunished.]]> http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/forever-21-sued-by-feral-childe/feed/ 18 http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/prada-and-post-office/ http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/prada-and-post-office/#comments Thu, 02 Jun 2011 01:24:22 +0000 Kathleen Fasanella http://www.fashion-incubator.com/?p=9523 this instant! Don't get me wrong, it's great if you can do your own electric but it's even better if you don't have to. Hopefully it will be done this evening because I have a class starting tomorrow. That's what is really going on. I won't have much time to spend on site over the next few days but I will be checking my email if you need something. In what scant time I had to read, there are two items to share from my feeds. ]]> http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/prada-and-post-office/feed/ 13 http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/free-speech-social-media-and-employment-policy/ http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/free-speech-social-media-and-employment-policy/#comments Tue, 26 Oct 2010 21:24:42 +0000 Kathleen Fasanella http://www.fashion-incubator.com/?p=7918

Protect privileged business information

Avoid lawsuits

Good will

]]> http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/free-speech-social-media-and-employment-policy/feed/ 1 http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/how-to-get-customer-lists-or-how-to-get-others-to-hate-you/ http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/how-to-get-customer-lists-or-how-to-get-others-to-hate-you/#comments Tue, 12 Oct 2010 22:29:14 +0000 Kathleen Fasanella http://www.fashion-incubator.com/?p=7834 http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/how-to-get-customer-lists-or-how-to-get-others-to-hate-you/feed/ 5 http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/how-to-be-sustainable-protect-your-ip-and-still-make-loads-of-money/ http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/how-to-be-sustainable-protect-your-ip-and-still-make-loads-of-money/#comments Wed, 01 Sep 2010 20:50:38 +0000 Kathleen Fasanella http://www.fashion-incubator.com/?p=7528 My favorite books aren't about sewing but about building things sustainably. Like how to dig a well, build a water pump to plumb a home, pull stumps, how to make your own tools, sanitize drinking water with leach fields you build yourself -all without electricity or fossil fuel dependent machinery. There's a danger in being chained to the reliance of a complex power grid that could be withdrawn at any moment. I feel the same way about sewing. Wait too long and the low prices we've become accustomed to paying will evaporate. Asia can charge what they like, we won't have the choice of doing for ourselves once we've forgotten how or worse, no longer have domestic supplies to do it. By way of illustration, Vesta sent me a link to a disturbing story about the mining of rare earth minerals, elements used in everything from hybrid cars to smartphones. We used to mine those in the US but in a "cost saving" gesture, we passed it off to China along with the intellectual property and tooling to do it. Last year, China implemented dramatic quotas to limit their rare earth mineral exports, now they're keeping the minerals for themselves. Meaning things like smartphones and hybrid cars will only be manufactured in China or locations they dictate and at the prices they charge or else. And it's not even that there's something nefarious behind it. With rising wages and living standards in China, they need materials to meet increasing domestic demand. Our problem is that we've forgotten how to mine the stuff cost effectively and we're sitting on 15% of the world's supply.]]> http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/how-to-be-sustainable-protect-your-ip-and-still-make-loads-of-money/feed/ 10 http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/idpppa-yet-another-fashion-design-copyright-law/ http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/idpppa-yet-another-fashion-design-copyright-law/#comments Fri, 06 Aug 2010 14:09:57 +0000 Kathleen Fasanella http://www.fashion-incubator.com/?p=7420 Innovative Design Protection and Piracy Prevention Act. The bill represents a workable compromise as compared to its highly problematic predecessor, the Design Piracy Protection Act (DPPA) which would have put 90% of independent designers out of business (and me along with them). The proposed new bill represents a compromise between the AAFA and CFDA. We also have your voices and advocacy to thank for making this possible. I'll summarize the changes within the contexts that concerned us most and provide a link to an official press release once it becomes available (the only corroboration I've found this morning is a post on Cathy Horyn's blog). Pending official confirmation, here are the biggies: 1. Design registration will not be required to protect your stuff. Under the earlier proposal, registration would have been required -if not by law- then for all practical purposes to avoid indemnity. Redux: your contractors and pattern makers are not going to refuse to work with you if you haven't registered your designs. Previously they would have because they could have been sued by someone who sued you however baseless or unjustified their case. Previously everyone would have been required to incur incredible legal costs just to sell anything. Now you only register if you want to.]]> http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/idpppa-yet-another-fashion-design-copyright-law/feed/ 19 http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/ip-update-dppa-fashion-law-blog/ http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/ip-update-dppa-fashion-law-blog/#comments Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:57:14 +0000 Kathleen Fasanella http://www.fashion-incubator.com/?p=6285 reports that NY Senator Charles Schumer is preparing to reintroduce the Design Piracy Prohibition Act for the fourth time. His latest effort has been buoyed by Jeannie Suk, feminist cum fashionista at Harvard Law School who recently authored a paper entitled Law, Culture and the Economics of Fashion. From the Boston Globe: Suk says she found it strange that there were laws in place protecting artists and writers, but not fashion designers. She was also concerned that this anomaly could deter people from going into fashion design. Other than that there are existing laws and regulations to protect designers that aren't being enforced, I'll grant she knows more about law than I do but then I know more about apparel than she does. If the DPPA passes, our problem won't be limited to deterring people from coming into the industry, it'll be keeping the ones we already have alive. Under DPPA, every DE will have to spend incalculable thousands of dollars on legal fees to prove originality of their concepts or they're not going to find a contractor who will sew it up for them. They won't be able to find retail buyers either. Without indemnity, who wants to get sued and go to prison? ]]> http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/ip-update-dppa-fashion-law-blog/feed/ 20 http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/how-to-license-fabric-designs/ http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/how-to-license-fabric-designs/#comments Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:39:38 +0000 Kathleen Fasanella http://www.fashion-incubator.com/?p=6166 http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/how-to-license-fabric-designs/feed/ 6 http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/three-reasons-youll-be-knocked-off-pt-2/ http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/three-reasons-youll-be-knocked-off-pt-2/#comments Wed, 06 Jan 2010 18:24:38 +0000 Kathleen Fasanella http://www.fashion-incubator.com/?p=5785 yesterday, a little recognized way you make yourself a target for knock offs is if you make it unnecessarily difficult to buy from you. Don't make it so hard to buy from you that your customers go to your competitors and beg them to knock you off. It happens. More often than you'd know. Here's the back story: My friend Andrea called me the other day. This is the same Andrea from I can't think of a spiffy title for this sales rep post you must read. She's a retailer who does a bit of manufacturing to fill out her merchandising mix. She's super-connected, whatever she says is solid gold. The long and short of it is you can unknowingly make purchasing so onerous that you drive your customers to your competitors but it's another thing entirely to be so roundly inhospitable that your customers go to your competitors to ask them to knock you off. In short, they want your product even if it means they have to go to someone else to get it. The issue here is not lower price, it's terms (see list of articles to read on terms at close). Here's a profile of Company C (being copied) and Company KO (knocking off). Both are privately held so no annual sales figures are unavailable. Company C: In business since the late seventies, they didn't get much traction until ten years later (actually closer to 20) with a signature piece that got a lot of press and loyal customers. Apparently a good corporate citizen, everything is produced in the USA by 200+ employees. They sell moderately priced goods (daily wear) in 100 different colorways to both wholesale accounts and consumers directly. As evidenced by a 2 week shipping black out to take inventory (!), they appear to have serious fulfillment problems in spite of 30 years in business. Their wholesale customers are frustrated by their outdated wholesale policies. Company KO: Is much smaller (50 employees) and younger. While they also sell moderately priced goods, they're known for items that are more innovative, costly and exclusive ("date" wear) with high consumer and celebrity loyalty. Based in the US, production is off shore in a western European nation known for high quality craftsmanship and not inexpensive labor. With 40 colorways, they also sell wholesale and consumer direct. Wholesale accounts are pleased with this firm's sales and fulfillment policies.]]> http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/three-reasons-youll-be-knocked-off-pt-2/feed/ 7