Fashion-Incubator

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The sky is falling.

In a widely cited report published last November, a research firm projected that user demand for the Internet could outpace network capacity by 2011. The title of a debate scheduled next month at a technology conference in Boston sums up the angst: “The End of the Internet?”

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Giorgio Armani has banned NYT fashion critic Cathy Horyn from his shows. Less a complaint than analysis, she juxtaposes the changing role of media crititque with a fashion designer's traditional demands of controlling how and what is said about them.

Two hours after a hot show like Prada or Balenciaga anyone, not just reporters, can pull up images on the Internet and post their opinions on blogs around the world. The wonder to me is not why a designer like Mr. Armani bans a journalist. Rather it is why he doesn’t use the power of digital technology to take his message directly to the public, effectively knocking out journalists who complain that his clothes are out of touch...What being banned tells me is that fashion has entered a borderland between the old and the new. Practiced mainly by older designers, whose careers took flight in the 1980s, banning seems a reflexive action against a perceived threat to their power.

But... institutions like the Guggenheim, which was criticized for accepting ...$15 million in donations from Mr. Armani, don’t do well when they import fashion-world values, like cronyism, delusion and sycophancy, into their decision-making process. Well, fashion houses don’t do well with these values, either... [Are] show[s] and our almost compulsory attendance really about something else, about preserving distinct power bases in the face of their rapid erosion?

The system of inviting editors to see a new collection has been in place for decades and, despite the public access created by the Internet, has encouraged a kind of rigid caste system, with front-row chiefs, art directors, top photographers and, farther back, the stylists, junior editors and now bloggers...It is not unusual to hear journalists complain that their seat assignment does not reflect their rank, or to hear a house publicist fret about it...“The reason we go to fashion shows is to see other people and to see where they are in the industry based on where they are sitting,” Ms. Freeman said. “For shows that are so redolent of the ’80s, the only strength a designer has is his seating assignments.”

Marko Jenko... recently pointed out that perceptions are a form of public space, like the airwaves, and that designers can’t control them. Besides, Mr. Jenko said, Mr. Armani already profits handsomely from having his name blazed on television, billboards, in magazines, on scores of self-named products.

I'm continually surprised by the dichotomy of the image of progressiveness the fashion industry has as perceived by consumers, with the reality of its arcane practices both inward and outward. Human nature resists change. As I've always said, if one is forced to change with six collections a year, it's only natural to compensate by not changing anything other than the clothes. It is yet more proof of why the technology of construction for most companies, remains entrenched with processes rooted at the turn of the century.
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I need suggestions for a baby gift! Congratulations to Mike and Amy of Fit Couture who had baby Jack on February 19th.

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Below is a photo that I forgot to include in my Trip to LA entry. It's a photo of a bag design from one of the Japanese books we saw at the store. I didn't have my camera handy but Grace snapped it with her cell phone. I think it is really cool but it wasn't worth buying the book just for the one design. Besides, it's rather obvious. You can figure out how to make one from seeing the photo.

My inner mechanical engineer says an interesting variation could be a round one, more efficient too because the corners of the square one have no utility. Also, making them round would distribute the load more efficiently. Then my inner materials engineer steps into the fray objecting that round ones would result in lower yields. Worse, my inner designer protests that the corners are an interesting design feature and looks for a way to play with the concept. The ever practical pattern maker then says those corners are going to bump and catch on things whilst one walks along ..and my husband wonders why I don't like to make decisions?
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Meggiecat, who I adore, sends this:

I have something your readers may find interesting. Spoonflower will be an on demand, custom fabric printing service. It's the brainchild of Stephen Fraser formerly of LuLu.com. Currently they are asking for input from the creative community in the form of a survey. I really want this service, do you think others might too? I wrote a post about it.

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Katy sends a link to Polyvore, a way to catalog a lot of looks.
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An administrative note on commenting and site functionality.

PLEASE! When adding your comment, only hit submit once. This site is huge, the server needs time to load your comment and rebuild the page. If you don't see your comment after 30 seconds to a minute, right click and hit "reload" or "refresh". If you've included a url (a link to your own page perhaps), your comment will be held for moderation. Don't take it personally, the system holds my comments too.
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Speaking of site functionality, I detest, loathe that Snap pop up "feature" some people install on their sites. Just stop it! I found a great website, loads of interesting stuff but Snap was loaded to run on nearly every link! It's no mystery to me why they only have 160 rss subscribers. I desperately wanted to peruse the site but pop ups left and right distorted browsing. It was so bad I actually went to look for a solution. Luckily, I found a work around to disable it which you can use if it annoys you as much as it does me.

Go to a site using the horrible, horrible widget and mouseover a link and wait for the preview to show. At the top you will see an Options link, click and and in the middle of the resulting page, click ‘Disable Snap Preview Anywhere for All Sites’

The options button is a round button, top right corner of the snap window and not labeled as "options" till you rest your cursor over it.
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Not up on the latest and greatest computing tips? Trek over to Make Use Of which provides gentle, plain speaking tech tips (videos too) for the most casual computer user. And speaking of easy, on 5 Minutes you can find short video solutions for practical questions (aka, another rabbit hole).

And speaking of rabbit holes, check out Damn Interesting for well-written histories on, well, damn interesting things you never knew.
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Speaking of history, from This Day in Jewish History, we learn (about halfway down the page):

1927: Birthdate of Lillian Vernon. Born Lilly Menasche in Leipzig, Germany, Lillian Vernon fled with her family first to Amsterdam and then to New York to escape Hitler. In the U.S., her father manufactured leather goods, which would become the base of Vernon's first foray into mail-order commerce. Married and pregnant, Vernon began the business that would become Lillian Vernon, Inc., in 1951. She took $495 out of her wedding gifts to place an advertisement for personalized belts and handbags in Seventeen magazine. Her father's company manufactured the belts and bags, and Vernon embossed, packaged, and shipped them. The ad brought in over $32,000 worth of sales, and Vernon's company was born.

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A report from Aberdeen Research that shows dramatic effectiveness of PLM/PDM (normally $399) is available free through 3/31/08. Registration is required but nobody will bug you. The research shows that using PLM/PDM packages (like StyleFile) offer remarkable results as in, "65% have improved year-over-year revenue, 56% have increased per-cent of product sell-through and 55% have improved percent of full price sales". There's a lot of high-falutin' language in the report but best-in-class companies tend to share these features via software:
90% Collaboration tools
90% Quality control
88% Audit/Sample plans
89% Results of audits
89% BOM (Bill of material)
56% Tech packs
44% WIP reports (tracking)

The key seems to be visibility and accessibility. Automating project status helps project time lines while sharing product information makes scheduling and project problems visible. A graph on pg.14 shows that the industry average for integrating product development processes is only 21%. Ouch.
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Todd Hudson sends a densely packed submission :

Via the Sleevehead blog, links to unofficial downloads of the BBC documentary on Savile Row are here. English Cut criticizes Part 1 and Part 2. English Cut shows us a more positive ITV doc done about himself here.

Todd also sends a link to W Magazine's article on fashion designers praising polyester. I didn't realize W was on the web. I guess I should have.
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Bethany says:

So a long time ago I went to a trade show and met these two girls who started a punk line of golf clothing! They were at their first show and so was I, so we chatted. It was before I had found your website, so I didn't get a chance to tell them about you. Well, when I was at Bubble, I was watching Donny Deutche and they were on! Anyway, they sent out a mass email and I am on their list. I thought you might be interested because this is pretty much a perfect example of DEs- and they got on national television. I just thought it was so cool. Plus the email has a link to how you can watch it on the computer and I thought your readers might find it interesting.

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Badmom Goodmom sends a story about Adidas's Reebok and the continuing problem of defective Chinese products:

March 18 (Bloomberg) -- Reebok International Ltd., the U.S. sneaker and apparel maker owned by Adidas AG, agreed to pay a record $1 million fine after recalling 300,000 charm bracelets alleged to contain toxic amounts of lead... A 4-year-old Minneapolis boy who swallowed the bracelet's heart-shaped pendant died in March 2006. The pendants, made in China, were free gifts included with the purchase of children's shoes... More than 34 million toys and other products made in China were recalled last year by companies in the U.S., which along with the European Union is pressuring China to strengthen product-safety regulations.

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Lisa sends a link to something I think is really cool! It's a heretofor unknown pattern drafting system called Cornwell’s Self-fitting System of Dress Cutting. I wonder if I can interest the new owner in a loan? It is quite beautiful too. I have a similar pasteboard patterning system but it's not nearly as old or beautiful.
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Jasmin, John, Lisa, Mark and I don't know who all else, sent me links to the WSJ article on Cricket Lee's latest fitting epiphanies. I'm glad to see she followed my previous advice on purchasing the Sizing USA data set. The WSJ article is gated but you shouldn't have any problem finding it on the web.
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Timo left a link in a comment this week that bears greater exposure. He says he'd just finished reading another awful report about exploitation in our industry.

A report [A Disgrace to the Uniform: Sweatshop Conditions at American Power Source] recently published, ... details the abuses suffered by workers ... at American Power Source, including wage cuts and increased production, shorted paychecks, excessive overtime, unsafe working conditions with accidents being ignored, and workers reporting a regular pattern of harassment and general disrespect by management. This isn't a report about a sweatshop in Mexico, Bangladesh, or China; this is happening in Columbus, Mississippi. And this isn't a story about workers making clothes for Wal-Mart or Nike; these workers are working for American Power Source, an apparel manufacturer that receives millions of dollars in contracts to make military uniforms for the U.S. government and its armed forces.

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Renee sends news of her latest adventures.
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Daisy Pilbrow sends word of a new game, fashion solitaire! Free demo. Not really my speed (I've never used the computer to play games) but you might like it.
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Trousers made from recycled WWII British army tents.
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Wicked Liana Sandin says:

Thought you’d be interested in this Dutch designer who did some amazing leather pieces in the 70’s and 80’s. The pieces shown are in a museum, but Els (Surfer) one of the Sewing Divas has seen them, and scanned some postcards she had which are better photos. The designer is Fong Leng. She also designed some denim things for Levi Strauss. Els found photos of an interesting jacket and jeans on a Dutch auction site. You can really see the leather influence in her jacket design, I think.

Link to Museum Photos – click on captions to enlarge and here's the Stitcher’s Guild post by Els with links to info on the designer and also to scans of postcards. Here's a link to Levi’s garments designed by Fong Leng.

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Rachel Hospodar mentions a new project she's undertaken, Craft Con.

Craft Con is a business development conference for the craft community. It's happening in San Francisco April 4-6 of this year. It has grown out of the current wave of internet/indie crafters but part of my goal as its new helmsperson is to expand the breadth of attendees at this unique and much-needed event, bringing disparate groups that are in the business of making things together to talk about the business aspects of what they do.

See the site if you're interested in participating.
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Speaking of events, Sylvia sends an update saying the The FoodForFashion Show is gaining momentum. She mentions that the deadline to participate is May 1, 2008 and sends the floorplan of the show.
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Sabrina Cove sends word that Optitex will be exhibiting and demonstrating their products at the upcoming Material World event in Miami Beach, April 8-10, 2008. Their booth number is 303. I've never attended a solo Material World event, only ones that were held in conjunction with other shows. Anyone planning on attending?
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Shauna Smith has started blogging. First Samples is a required resource for Austin entrepreneurs.
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WWD has announced the CFDA 2008 nominees:

Marc Jacobs, Francisco Costa of Calvin Klein, and Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough of Proenza Schouler have been nominated for the 2008 Womenswear Designer of the Year award by the Council of Fashion Designers of America. In the men's wear category, Tom Ford, Thom Browne and Michael Bastian are nominated for Menswear Designer of the Year. Jacobs, Michael Kors and Tory Burch will compete for the Accessory Designer of the Year award.

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"Mister Ghost" writes to announce an Uzbekistan fashion blog.
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Good grief, even after all this, I'm still not through the submissions sent through March 5th. I'll have to catch up -soon. Promise. Is it too much to post News From You twice in one week?
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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.