Zipper me this

I had a heck of a time fitting my lookbook pdfs into a reasonable sized document.  I don't have the software to make it any smaller. I have everything else in CS except Acrobat.  Bizarre . Until it is in fine emailable form, I have no business promoting myself to stores.  You gotta back that talk up and make it very easy for them to enjoy.  Thankfully, my friend is jamming it out for me.

I've been researching cold-calling, because basically I am selling my line, and my vision to shopkeeps.  They have a lot riding on the curation of their store offerings.  Just as much as I need to pinpoint my market, they have the same responsibilities. Some of the things I need to express are my value to them, my commitment to quality, my history, my longevity and even customer service, of which they are my customer.

What value do I offer them?  This has been a great question to ask myself.  Creating my script or talking points really forces me to focus on my goals and product.

Environmental awareness through fabrics, production and delivery.  I'm doing my best to source my fabrics regionally and hopefully with all natural, sustainable, even organic textiles woven in the states.  I use deadstock fabrics and would like to innovate other ways to use materials that are already available instead of calling virgin resources into being.  I am regional, local even.  The costs, carbon, dollars, what have you, of delivery should remain low.  Both of these methods reduce my costs and can be shared on down the line.

I only want to make something of value.  Something that lasts, physically and stylistically.  I hate the throw-away culture we live in.  Designing for men makes more sense to me for that reason.  The trends don't move as quickly in menswear and men will pay good money for well-made items.

I am the DIYer.  I taught myself to sew and make patterns; I study production methods and dork-out on equipment;  I network with other designers when and where I can; I follow the industry.  I want to be the total package.  No one is paying my bills.

Wound has made a name for itself, locally and nationally and will continue to do so.  I don't mind playing the hype game.  It means photoshoots, educating the consumer and sales!

I have to ask myself why I'm doing this, is it just an art project, do I have something to say, do I want the hassle?!  I feel that my designs are sweet.  I've made sales and people say nice things to me about my line:)  I have struggled and endured.  I know I'm strong enough to hit my head against the wall a few more times.  I've turned the suffering into valuable learning experiences!

As far as service, I feel this door-to-door technique has so many benefits.  First, I love the old fashioned nature of it.  The interaction between business owners, talking shop and weather.  I am very interested in what is selling, what people need or want to see in their closet, put on in the morning, change into for the night.  Since, I can make plenty of the inventory in my facility, I can offer a more customized experience in the designs as well.  It gives me the ability to be flexible and responsive.  At this moment, it makes the most economic sense for me.  I don't have to incur the costs of a trade show.  While a tradshow offers more exposure to so many more markets, stores and buyers, it also increases the pressures of production and material organization AND the upfront costs.  I'd prefer to grow gracefully and have any mistakes, miscalculations or errors be more contained.

After spending more time wondering why I do any of this at all, besides that I hate being bored and unproductive, to me, it's a game, a risk, an adventure.  Since I'm not off galavanting about the globe, this gives me the dose of excitement and challenge I crave.

I do declah-ya!

Declare Detroit!

We live here because we love it!  There are untold opportunities, super hero talents, crazy territory, blank slate action manifestos, good food, the best people!  My ultimate dream would be to produce my line here.  All that is missing on my end are a few tasty machines.  The keyhole button-holer, a heavy duty coverstitch (I have one for tee shirt weights), and a laser cutter, well I can dream, would be essential to producing my line as I see fit....It be freakin fantastic if I could get my flat feller and double needle chainstitch up and running.  Get those silky covered seams in my shirts.  I'd be playing with serious fire.

What calls?!

Didn't make a single phone call today.
Here are my excuses:

• Stores are close Mondays.  Nope, not all of them.
• My lookbook is in review.  True, but I know the main problems. Better fix them when I get home tonight.
• It was too late after I finished my commission and gathering notes.  Should have started my day earlier.
• Have been researching cold-calling tips.  It's true.  Even pretending on my cell to be talking to a live person.  Kind of boring, but my pitch is getting refined.  As is my voice quality and steadiness.

I did, however, list my top choices for fabrics and their vendors for when the orders do come through.  I bought the original yardage at a local jobber.  Wouldn't you know, I bought the only yardage of each.  When I started, I didn't think I'd be going straight through to producing this collection.  So that adds a nice kink.  So far it hasn't been awful.  I've found some new vendors that look interesting and feel solid about the ones I've maintained.  

Cold-chillin, cold-calling

Gonna get buzzed on coffee and head to the studio.  Gotta finish/start some projects and get cracking on those phone calls.  I have to return home with swatches to scan and upload, organize some dates for travel, and gather numbers for fabric hunting and production.

While in some of these towns, I'll be checking out manufacturers and jobbers, as well.  Gotta have some back-up.  I have a friend in Chicago with a store and she cuts all her own garments, then schleps them to her manufacturer.   I can do that, if I don't end up hiring my own staff.  The major reason against hiring my own staff, is that I don't want to have to let them go when we finish up my order.  I want to keep them in steady work, keep the needles running, as they say.  If I can't be a reliable source of income, how can I expect them to be a reliable source of labor.  I just have to find people who don't mind working contractually.  As we grow to like each other and the environment we create, I can take on more jobs to keep them busy.

The Weeks To-Do

I feel like I got  lot of leisure time in this weekend.  Even if I barely left the hizzy!  Sheeeet.

My mind stays preoccupied with receptive feelers out gathering code and process.  Monday is go time.  I will work with intensity this week.  I need to leave the thumb-sucking crib and enter the world of giants.  Of course, by starting with baby steps.  Gotta crawl before you can walk.  I hope I don't have to grovel, though!

No, no, seriously, I've got to start the phone-calling.  I am bolstered by the fact that I have a pro look-book and polished website.  Those tools combined will show that I can hack it and one would be a fool not to carry my line.  I will build the first relationships regionally.  Hell, if they don't bite, I will cast my line farther.  Opening Ceremony, anyone?  Just in time for the Olympics!  What's to lose.  Can't worry about dignity, right?!?  The regional plan has so many benefits and contemporary morality.  Think of the reduced shipping and drive time, the loyalty to ourselves and our economies, the flexibility, immediacy, non-profligacy, relevancy, mercy.

Designing for Fall/Winter 2010.  It's going to be gorgeous, handsome, succulent.

First things First

So I thought everyone would be heading to the shows, i.e. Magic, mid-February.  I forgot about all the shows in NYC, most importantly Capsule.  That starts next Sunday the 17th, or at least that's when the party starts.
That doesn't really work with my timeline of hitting the stores face-to-face before they blow their wads.

Then I got myself nervous.  Designing the layout for the book is easy and enjoyable.  Making phonecalls, not so much.  I will be changing that perspective ASAP.  I've definitely done many things in my life without checking the rulebook, with great results.  But this is serious, it's technical.  So I made a few calls to friends in the industry before I assaulted stores in my innocent arrogance.

A trusted friend told me to have my lookbook tight, with order form and technical drawings, fully PDF, BEFORE any call.  Cool.  Last night I drafted my first Order Form template.

Another friend, formerly in sales, recounted that a lot of her business came from door-to-soor sales rather than the tradeshows.  That's reassuring.  The advice I picked up on was to have a good fit and show it on a body.  I need to find a boy to go on tour with.  Do you think they'd mind a manne?!?

xos

Look Book Shoot

(say that 3x's fast)

We do have a really good Plan B for this kind of thing...

The shoot was broke into three components: Staged, Catalogue, and Document.  I will not be offering everything from the runway.  I am proud of the work, though and want a loving keepsake of it;)  Through artistic rendering of the looks, I hope to make the line a compelling buy for the retailer.  Establishing relationships with the buyers is as much convincing them that you're work is great and needs to be supported/bought and sold.  On the other hand, I have to assure them that I can produce results, in multiple with accuracy.

We did three scenes for Staged shots, shuttling the boys to a plainer background for product or Catalogue shots of the pieces I did intend to make.  More close-ups, more details.  I hope there is a good one of the blazer pocket!!!  The bulk of the collection was just shot for the archives.

I like working with the photographers vision.  Nicola has a definite style that works for my market.   It's artful, staged, awkward, tense, intelligent.  As a person, she is very organized and go-getting.  So, I stand around a little bored when working with someone good!  The same was true when working with Rich.  I'm there to make sure the clothes are in the right combinations and look tight on the bodies, they do the rest.   Both are very good directors and composed the subjects confidently to get their shot.  Collaborating with another can be rewarding, if you like their work and value their opinion and know how to let the other do their thang.

Thanks to Nicola, Dominique, Julian and Jeffrey.  Peter and Hernan too, they just can't know about it yet!

Photoshoot

I felt a little burned out shooting this collection 3x.  But our crew and location was freshhh.   After rounding up some willing (and less-willing) boys, we settled on a two locations.  Somehow I always manage to get local bands to do the shoots.  Musicians have that performers spark and swagger.  They are artists and plenty good-looking!

Count on my brain to do some last minute monkeying.  The locations were to be friends homes.  I was feeling unsettled though.  My collection was Spring/Summer 2010.  I was getting a tucked-in, hibernation vibe from the domiciles.

A quick phone call and we moved it to the Belle Isle Conservatory after consulting their website.  Nicola, Mama Bear, called in the morning to confirm their openess.  Confirmed.  Weather check: should permit.  Woke up to a gray snowfall with plenty of diffused light.  I think everyone was due for a day of nature, a trip to the desert.  I know I was thrilled!  The plan was to act like it was a college project, that we were innocents.  They did not get the plows out this morning.  I might as well pull up on the lawn - only to see a hand-written sign of premature closure.  Aurrgh.  Already cancelled with my homie's.  Not to be deterred!

The BIC in summer:

by Mary Stebbins Taitt

Dialing with Pleasure: How to make those tough calls.

If there is one thing I could put off, it's making phonecalls.  Not just any phonecall, but serious inquiry's.  I would rather ask those questions over email where I can take time to compose my thoughts and not interpret verbal cues as being dismissive.

Why I let shop keeps and vendors intimidate me, I don't know.  This is even before I pick up the phone.  An inner dialogue goes on in my brain to scare me.  Ultimately, it is the fear of rejection.  Steps must be taken to overcome this skewed perspective!

Some people are very powerfully positive about their product and the amazing effect it will have on your life, sometimes to a level reaching obnoxious.  I would rather hire a salesperson.  I've gotten my share of praise and attention for my brand, unfortunately it often has the opposite effect.  "They're just being nice."  It's time to get out of my safety zone.  Here are a few tactics to employ:

• Reframe my perspective.  I need to dig deep and find my core confidence.  Look at my portfolio and remind myself that I am just as good (or better!) than anything out there.  Realize that stores and vendors are looking for new business.  Anticipate a store or vendors hesitation at working with someone new and provide them with the depth of my experience.  Get excited about your product!
  

• Prepare a script.  Write down my talking points.  The best speakers always prepare notes and they practice, practice, practice. 
  

• "No" is not the end of the world.  I say no sometimes, too.  It's not because I think a thing is awful, necessarily.  There could be a number of reasons.  Instead of wasting energy trying to convince the few doubters/haters,  focus on seeking out those who see the genius instantly;)
  

• Willingness to be persistent.  Turn that weak no into a yes.  Try again later.  Don't be discouraged.  Let them know you are serious, you are in the game.  Find out when would be a good time to talk and call them back.  If they are busy, reschedule until you are in their face.  People are busy, they get distracted.  I know I do!
  

• Ask questions.  Find out what their needs are.  Ask for referrals or recommendations.
  

• Surround yourself with cheerleaders.  It doesn't hurt to have a few people rooting for you, telling you how great you are, reminding you there is nothing to fear.  If it helps you get the job done, do it.
  

If anyone out there has words of wisdom for me, I'm all ears!

Noone said it would be easy.

Why is running a fashion line so hard???  Is every business this labrynthine?  I guess if was easy, everybody would do it.  Read The Dip, study the law of 80/20, make a vision map, sell your soul.  Then you will have a clothing line.

I learned a while back, through experience, and one amazing woman, Kathleen Fasanella, and her book The Entrepreneur's Guide to Sewn Product Manufacturing, that one should identify oneself as a manufacturer.  (I get no goodies from linking to her, just social sweetness.)  I own her book, dog-eared, high-lighted, yada yada.  Sure, I could sit and doodle pretty dresses all day and some fairy godmother will get them all sold, made and shipped for me, depositing my handsome profit in the IRA, but that is not a reality! 

I just rewatched "Seamless", the documentary following 3 of 10 finalists on the road to winning the CFDA's New Garde award of mentorship and $200,000.  Here is a great review.   In my mind, you win GenArt, then Ecco and then, shoot for CFDA.  I would personally prefer this over the instant fame of Project Runway.  The industry leaders note that it took Donna Karan, Ralph Lauren 20 years to turn a profit.   How can you not, then, love Plokhov's existential query, "When do I get to enjoy my f-ing brioche?!"

In Detroit, there are no jobs for me.   Nothing in fashion, unless you want to work at the mall.  It causes one to hustle.  I have sewn a little bit of everything, glad to put my assets to use.  Might hit up the strip joints on Michigan Ave. (a 5 minute walk!) and hand out biz cards.  Nice mark-up on those skimpy frillies!   I do believe you can run a clothing business out of any city if you have the ambition and brains.  The internet is your friend.

Ultimately, a business partner would be divine.  Someone to slap your hand when you're over-purchasing over-priced goods.  Someone to calculate your costs and mark-up.  Someone who can be your friend, someone who cares....

Contract Sewing gig: 12' x 200' curtain sewn for artists industrial studio space to keep out the cold!

Claim Your Birthright!

Not a resolution, but a proclamation.

I never did anything with my degree. Nothing typical, standardized, or regulated at least. So here I am, 10 years later, with a half-functioning clothing line and a lot of experience waiting tables!

I got fired my last table waiting job, it's a long story. I suppose I should start this blog with honesty and carry that theme on through. I now get money from Uncle Sam. I call it my government grant (GG). Disclaimer: I have put out a resume or two, cast some lines. I'm being upright and stuff.

I just showed my collection, followed by a trunk sale. I have 6 months of GG. As of now this is the plan:  Set up photoshoot with the darling Nicola, and model boys Dom and Jeffrey; wait for confirmation from shy and blue-eyed Matthew; Turn photos into lookbook, complete with technical drawings and order forms; Identify local-ish shops that I have a relationship with AND create new relationships; Hit the road to sell, sell, sell; Line up my fabric and trim.

Then, guess what?!? I manufacture in the "D"! Don't believe me? 3 years ago, my former partner and I, out of frustration and determination, opened a contract sewing facility. We christened it Motor City Sewing. What a headache. (I will save this story for later...) My partner quite MCS 3 months later and Wound 3 months after that, in what was to be a half year of stomachaches.

I still have the space, the equipment and renewed vigor! Watch out 2010!!!!