Fashion-Incubator

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Now for some good news. It would seem that the reins of fashion incubating in Chicago is slowly being wrested from "entrenched interests". Many have disparaged the state of the industry in Chicago for quite some time, describing it as a personal fiefdom of one unnamed party so this is exciting news. Now, Stephanie Niedospial is the Fashion Program Manager of the Stitches Fashion Program, in partnership with Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center and the city of Chicago. The Stitches program also has a blog called Style Expose. If you're in the area, get connected. Futher exciting developments are anticipated.
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The winners of the Levi's 501 Runway Challenge have been announced. My first pick ("sharpietattoo") took second place.
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A tenement lined bargain district in New York is becoming an American Savile Row.

In the last three years, the Lower East Side and the area just west of it, known as Nolita, or North of Little Italy, have become the unlikely epicenter of the city’s resurgent custom clothing market. Between Houston and Spring streets to the north and south and Mott and Chrystie streets to the west and east, there are at least five men’s shops whose centerpiece is their custom clothing programs. They are Seize sur Vingt, the first clothier to open in the neighborhood, Lord Willy’s, SEW, Freemans Sporting Club and Duncan Quinn.

But the owners of the new custom shops are not tailors. Many didn’t even have retail experience—Taavo Somer, co-owner of Freeman’s; Mantegna of Michael Andrews and Duncan Quinn included—before opening their shops, let alone sewing skills. But to them, craftsmanship, while key, is no more crucial than point of view, specifically, their vision for the customer. “Any idiot can run a tape measurer around you,” says Quinn, “but that doesn’t mean it’s going to look good.”

Subsequent blurbs are worse. American-style marketing to the rescue! >cough<
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A recent study claims that 47 percent of British men would give up sex for six months for a 50" TV. Perhaps contrary to popular assumption, only thirty percent of British women were willing to do the same.
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Magic is going to three days starting in August. I think most attendees and exhibitors are pleased. Not known is whether booth fees will be adjusted accordingly. Ever recalcitrant, I'm guessing they won't be. In effect, the one day reduction will amount to a price increase for exhibitors.
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Robin Lucas writes:

Kathleen, I wanted to personally thank you for your book and blog. They have both been inspiring and educational throughout my product development journey! This is what you've had a hand in. Once again, Thank you!

Attached to her message was very exciting news about her product Chic Peeks. Robin debuted her product on CNBC’s ’The Big Idea’ with Donny Deutsch, on February 26th, 2008. I'm really flattered that amid all the excitement, she remembered me and was thoughtful enough to share the news. You can't know how much the news of your progress excites me.
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Eric says SME (Society of Manufacturing Engineers) is sponsoring a free webinar this Tuesday, March 4th at 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM, EST called "Lean-to-Green: A Path to Sustaining Your Profits, People & Our Planet". Free but registration is required. Being a member, I must admit my annoyance of not being notified. Eric got word of it via AME (Assoc of Manufacturing Excellence) and the Lean & Green Summit which promotes sustainability via lean manufacturing principles.
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Speaking of sustainability, here's an interesting interview with Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia on cradle to cradle sustainability:

And so that's why we've teamed up with some Japanese companies to, basically by 2010, make all our clothing out of recycled and recyclable fibers. And we're going to accept ownership of our products from birth to birth. So if you buy a jacket from us, or a shirt ,or a pair of pants, when you're done with it, you can give it back to us and we'll make more shirts and pants out of it.

Which is a different idea about consuming. Right now the world runs on consuming and discarding, and we're saying that we're taking responsibility for our products from birth to birth. Can you imagine if a computer company said, "When you're done with your computer, we'll buy it back from you and make more computers out of it." Instead, they sell you computer and you can't even get service from them!

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And speaking of "cradle to cradle" sustainability, I sincerely regret to say I couldn't have disliked the book more in spite of many of your glowing reports. Characterized by omission, the chapter on food was particularly disappointing. As a vegetarian for sustainability reasons, I am shocked that these experts authors pandered to the majority of likely readers by failing to mention that a meat based diet is the single most ecologically devastating habit of US citizens. I guess that's why the food chapter discussed fabric and carpets more than calories. I must admit the book changed me, raising my expectations. Henceforth if someone is over the top in trying to convince me how committed they are to the planet, my first question is going to be, "Are you a vegetarian?" Refraining from further lecture, my review is here.
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Stu Friedberg who wrote the immensely useful entry on thread and two on needles says:

While trolling the net for other things, I ran across this article called Capture Your Spirit, Keep Your Soul. The link is to the first of three fairly short pages. While the author is an independent musician rather than a fashion DE, there were some lessons about promotion and financing in there that DEs might find useful.

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Speaking of promotion, I've been corresponding with Dahlia Greer about a new internet product marketing construct called webisodes. She describes the project thusly:

Love, JD is the only fashion company we know of that is producing webisodes and using them for branding or marketing their product. "Love, JD" is comedic webisode series about 7 beautiful women who run a designer handbag company, produced by Junior Drake, an actual upmarket leather handbag designer and manufacturer based in Los Angeles. The series launched three weeks ago, and a new, short (2-3 mins. average) webisode plays each day on www.lovejd.tv. The webisodes will serve as advance soft-marketing and branding of a new line of handbags by Junior Drake, launching this April. I say soft-marketing because, whereas handbags are peppered throughout the sets, there is only light mention of handbags in the webisodes. The series is really about the things women discuss and bond over!

I think it's an interesting project although personally, I didn't find myself relating to the characters. Not that it matters, I'm not their target customer either. Still, I was expecting to see a DE (JD) running the show with the other women happily stitching away. That's not it. Each woman has a lovely decorated plush office. I'm not saying no factory is like this, I know there must be, but I've never seen a plant like this. Still, maybe you'll relate. If you're expecting work related conflict-resolutions, you're apt to be disappointed. I'll be curious to see how this strategy is successful for Junior Drake. This looks to be a pricey venture, the production is slick, broadcast quality. Junior Drake didn't stint on selection of a PR company either. I run across a lot of publicists; Dahlia was articulate, patient, cogent and obviously hard working and disciplined. She called me. Twice!
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Sylvia Ion (aka Class Conscious) mentions an opportunity and upcoming event:

The Second Annual Keizer Iris Festival Fashion Show (next door to Salem Oregon) is in the planning stages and designers are invited to show. This year the theme of the Keizer Iris Festival is "Acts Of Kindness". Proceeds from this fashion show will benefit the Keizer Community Food Bank. The web site (Food for Fashion) for fashion show details has just been launched. Updates will be posted as the event draws near. Please consider participating in the show.

There is no fee to participate! Sylvia (the project manager) is easily contacted via the site. Checking my email, I see that Sylvia emailed me last May(!) with a tantalizing offer; to be a judge and select the most production worthy design. I see I never responded. Oh dread.
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It seems many eBay sellers are up in arms over changes in eBay feedback policies. From what I can tell, it doesn't seem fair. I quibble less over the fee increases (also a point of contention); the real problem is the change in policy. Now, sellers can't give feedback on purchasers; it's only one way. Ouch. That's not fair. One of our members, Laura Skidmore, (Vintage Fashion Library) was prominently featured in a CNN Money article on the controversy. Pretty cool. In the article, Laura says she's found a way to bypass eBay entirely. Her last eBay sale was nearly two months ago on January 12th. NPR also ran a story on the ensuing eBay boycott. I wonder if eBay has rescinded the feedback policy?
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Liana Sandin submits two pieces. One is an entry from Paul Krugman entitled Fashion and Geography in which he brings notice of an article from the WSJ on Zara. [I never knew Krugman was interested in economic geography (more intellectually rigorous than you'd ever imagine!); I almost majored in it explaining in part my interest in LDC economic development.] Krugman blithely says Zara's responsiveness strategy "is based on using IT" . ~sigh~. Sure. Like fine cuisine is based on putting food on plates and carrying it to the table. Zara's strategy is lean manufacturing; strategical implementation is merely enhanced by IT. Zara's been using their core strategy well before IT existed. Even if Krugman didn't get it, judging from comments, his readers did. I'm glad to see that lean manufacturing is becoming more readily understood.

Liana's second submission is about pleating. She knows my fondness for that. She says there was a lot of pleating in the spring couture line of Armani Privé. She's generously posted photos from the show here. Thanks Liana!
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Speaking of lean, WWD says Jones Apparel Group is planning to be more like H&M and Zara. Tragically, I only emailed myself the link to the article, but I didn't do more than scan it before it was relegated to the archives. Access to the archives is a separate subscription, I don't have one of those. Do any of you? Please send me the article if you have access. I'll be grateful. Thanks. As I recall, I wasn't impressed with JAG's implementation strategy. It was hinged on more more more more IT (ala Krugman's misalignment). If JAG does figure it out, we could be in yet more trouble, tightening up domestic contractor resources still further.
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Material World's next show is April 8-10, 2008, Miami Beach Convention Center, Miami Beach, FL. Is anyone going? I won't be. I don't want to be a total downer on it because I think we need to encourage better fabric shows outside of NY and LA but we weren't real impressed with it when it was held in conjunction with SPESA last May.

Miami Beach is kind of cool though. I never tire of the architecture and there's some real characters locally. Mr Clucky's owner for one. Good grief, checking I see he has a website now! Did I ever tell you about this guy? Eric and I bought his owner a beer. He found Mr.Clucky, with his beak sawed off, in a pile of discarded poultry outside of a processing plant, not quite dead but almost. Took him home, over time the beak grew back (I didn't know that). He rides all over town on the handle bars of a bicycle and has become somewhat of a media sensation. Sensing his owner straddled the gap of insanity and provenant lucidity, I asked him why Miami Beach reminded me so much of Las Vegas. Without hesitation he said both were sunny places filled with shady people. Brilliant.

Before I digressed, I meant to mention that some of the seminars at Material World look interesting. Green being the new black and others on sustainability.
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Stas Kmiec says that the New York Fashion Walk of Fame is back. I never knew about this but apparently, NY does with fashion designers, as Hollywood does with actors and actresses, embedding the names of their respective stars in sidewalks. Nominees have been selected and the ballots dispensed (I didn't get one). I imagine I'll be updated when the winners have been selected. Maybe the press release will include a link next time (you'd think!) so I don't have to scrounge for it on the web.
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From the throwing good money after bad department, Slate's undercover economist on consumer -and business owner- psychology at work:

People are even less willing to sell if that means realizing a loss. Research by Terrance Odean, a professor of finance at University of California, Berkeley, suggests that stock-market investors tend to sell shares that have made money and keep poor performers, even though tax efficiency suggests the opposite strategy. The tendency is called "loss aversion"; people hold on to poor investments grimly, hoping for a turnaround.

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Todd Hudson sends links to a video inside the factory of Adrian Jules, custom suit maker for mostly professional athletes. I'd imagine they've gotten good at big and tall. Not surprisingly (as with most high quality producers), patterns are made by hand and then digitized into the computer. Make note of cutting; the plotter print out is not pinned. Good detail on how chest pads are made although I have to say they're far from being the only ones who make theirs like this. My least favorite thing to do was making all the different pattern pieces for the different layers. Good grief, six patterns for one component! And also, I hate hate hate how they sew the underside of their notched collars. Ickyickyickyicky! Best example of a work around elevated to a "couture technique" as I've ever seen. Todd says there's also a higher quality version of the video.
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Canada and the Caribbean are teaming up. Susan says in part (more here):

We are partnering with Canadian-Caribbean fashion businesses and Caribbean countries to act as a bridge between the talented Caribbean apparel design sector and important international markets. We believe the Canadian fashion industry is ripe for exposure to the innovative designs and vibrant colours of Caribbean designers. Our strategy is to eventually showcase and market the Caribbean apparel industry to the world.

CFC wants to meet all talented emerging and established Caribbean fashion designers interested in showcasing. We are interested in applications from Caribbean Designer from all of the Caribbean islands, Europe, United States and Canada who have the talent and drive to make a big splash on the world stage. Palais Royale Ballroom, Toronto, Ontario, on July 25th, 2008

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Lisa Blank sends this cool tidbit (sub required):

I saw an article about research into making nanofibers that produce electricity when they are rubbed together. While the amounts produced so far are quite small, some hope that the technology might be used someday by weaving these treated nanofibers into entire articles of clothing and gaining the benefit of our everyday movements. The article is in the journal Nature.

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Jamin Wilkins sends two articles from the New Zealand Herald. First is Spanish study finds a better fit for clothing.

Concerned by the results of a survey which found that 41 per cent of Spanish women had trouble finding clothes to fit them, the Spanish Ministry of Health has proposed a radical overhaul of the existing clothes-size system. In fact, the notion of "sizes" could eventually be done away with altogether. Results showed that despite the difficulty women reported in finding fitting clothes, 86 per cent of them had a healthy height-to-weight ratio. The problem, it was established, was not that the clothes were too big or too small - they were simply the wrong shape.

During the extensive five-month study, more than 10,000 Spanish women between the ages of 12 and 70 had their images recorded in 3D form. From the resulting images, researchers identified three main female body shapes: the cylinder (similar bust, waist and hip measurements), the diabolo (hourglass) and the bell (pear-shape). The cylinder was recognised as the most common body type in children and teenagers while the diabolo - named after the popular toy spinning tops - became predominant among adult females and the bell shape was most common in older women. It says that although most women will fit the categories outlined at the ages specified, some women are already a bell shape at age 20 while others remain a cylinder into old age.

Over the next two years, each item of clothing will be given three measurements - bust, waist and hip - instead of a single size. A woman's height will also be taken into account, essentially giving consumers a 1-2-3-4 system, which would allow them to find the perfect fit every time. The Spanish Ministry of Health says the new measurements will better reflect not only women's real shapes, but also how their bodies change as they get older.

The second piece Jasmin sends is also quite interesting. As reported in Clothing industry acts to fix skill shortage, we find that New Zealand is retrenching from the boom in off-shoring, such that there's a desperate shortage of skilled workers for domestic production.

The local apparel and textiles industry has reinvented itself to focus on niche and high end products, and is now crying out for skilled people. The historical picture of it as a dying industry has put off many from entering or returning to the trade. DesignTex, a group of 21 textile and apparel companies mainly in the Horowhenua and Kapiti Coast areas, recently won a $500,000 contract to supply uniforms to the New Zealand Olympic team and has come up with its own answer to the skills shortage. In 2006 the newly established DesignTex was allocated $2 million over three years from New Zealand Trade and Enterprise to develop the textile industry in the lower North Island. Some of that funding is being used to set up a small school in Levin to train machinists, and to develop a three-month internship scheme for school leavers at local firms.

DesignTex chief executive Andy Wynne said the lack of skilled staff was now inhibiting member firms' growth - "we could employ probably 10 machinists this morning, put them behind a machine today" - and the only solution was to create them. John Baker, chief executive of another Levin DesignTex member Levana Textiles, said he exported 50 per cent of his production and was looking to expand. He would hire three people right now if he could.

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As we are all well aware, it's not just New Zealand with a shortage of skilled labor in the needle trades. Timo sends word of the skills dearth in the UK, manifesting in a most surprising way:

Models have posed outside the Houses of Parliament to highlight a skills shortage in the UK fashion industry. Skillfast-UK says many fashion graduates lack the technical know-how to turn their ideas into workable designs. It wants fashion colleges and universities to put more focus on pattern-cutting, garment construction and other practical skills. The "No skills, no fashion" campaign will hold a series of summits for colleges and universities to share research on the skills gap... The Skills for Business network aims to boost the productivity and profitability of the UK by identifying and tackling skills gaps and shortages.

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Alas, I have to conclude this edition of News From You because it can only be so long. I've only gotten as far as February 10-29. I'll try to finish this up, backtracking further still.

Notice: I will be out of the office this week on Thursday and Friday. I'm going to LA to meet with my friends at PatternWorks. Lest anyone get the idea that I've come to enjoy jet setting about, let's just say some serious bribery is involved. I kid, I kid. Actually, I'm making a premature announcement but the software program I mentioned before, is ready to launch. I'm going for an orientation and training to use the product. I can't tell you how thrilled I am about it. This is the PDM, PLM or pre-ERP package designed for designers, pattern makers, and small to medium sized manufacturers to organize and manage style development. I do think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread so you might have to tell me to shut up about it after awhile. If anyone's interested in lunch on Saturday, or possibly dinner Friday night , email me . Here's a map of the area (Fountain Valley) where I'll be.
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I welcome noncommercial submissions from anyone be they useful, quirky, weird and offbeat. I credit all sources, include your web address for link love. Be kind, save me some time and include your url with your message. If it's not obvious from the content that you want to remain anonymous, you'll have to tell me.

Commercial notices are encouraged from community members. I will print your commercial news posted such as openings, launches, new websites, news and press pieces if you're one of my designers or allied member of the community; we're thrilled to see your progress. Non-members with commercial notices should review the submission guidelines. I regret the limitation but if I didn't, then NFY would be dominated by PR fluff, jewelery and handbag designers with no ties to the community looking for free advertising.

Send your submissions to News From You.