Fashion rule #243: Being polite, gets you places, being a bitch doesn’t

By |May 5th, 2015|

8 months ago I quit my job at a fashion Startup with an idea to create a series of eLearning workshops, based on my book, and focusing on the product development process. 
After 20+ years in the fashion industry I felt it my duty (oh, how noble of me) to […]

In an overcrowded market, are ‘direct’ and ‘custom’ the way to go?

By |January 21st, 2015|

Making your brand and your product known in an over crowded market is challenging, and with buyers tough to reach and web traffic to your website hard to build, maybe you should be thinking differently with your approach?

Direct sales and mass customization are two channels that have been heavily utilized […]

Causing a Bottleneck? 3 Tips to Ease the Information Flow.

By |November 12th, 2014|

Whether you are delivering, once, twice or three times a season, the way you plan and execute the development and production of your collection needs to be both documented and shared internally, ideally from the start.

Here’s why:

I recently worked with an accessory company who had grown quickly and organically over […]

3 tips to keep your collection planning on track!

By |October 28th, 2014|

If you are working on a new collection right now you should have, or should be, building out your ‘Key Dates’ or ‘Time & Action’ plan for the new season.

The key dates is the backbone to your collection and is an important set of deadlines from the start of development […]

The Devil is In The Detail: 5 simple questions which lead to success

By |October 13th, 2014|

Over the past 10 years I have found myself shoe horned into a niche area of the Fashion Industry that works with small brands, new divisions of existing brands or Startups. Not that i’m complaining as this for me is by far the most exciting area to be in: Starting […]

Inside the industry tips #1: The fashion concept

By |October 10th, 2014|

Originally published a year ago, the concept for any fashion collection is the creative starting point. Here’s a reminder on my top tips:

What is a concept?

A concept is the design direction for the colour, shape, mood and fabric for any fashion collection, and is created at the beginning of the […]

Inside the industry tips #4: Factories

By |November 14th, 2013|

Factories:

Without factories the world would have no ‘stuff’, it really is a simple as that; we would have no clothes, no toys, no cars and no books. Referring to themselves as factories, manufacturers, vendors or sources, they are all technically the same entity: they all produce items that are sold […]

Inside the Industry tips # 3: Information Flow

By |October 31st, 2013|

What do you mean by Information flow?

The creation, design, development and production of a collection involve the generation, sharing and distribution of a huge amount of information. The information flow from the start of the development process to the end of production is a crucial element for the successful internal […]

Inside the industry tips #2: Fabric

By |October 19th, 2013|

Fabric: What’s the big deal?

Without fabric there would be no garment. You could have the best design in the world, but without fabric it can’t be realized. Making a judgment call on which fabrics to use and for which garment is a skill, and it is one that can be […]

Happiness is a clear structure and so says Raf.

By |November 3rd, 2011|

 

 

“What I’ve learned about working with a big company like Jil Sander is how important the structure is. You can have ideas and you can have money, but if the structure isn’t right, if everybody at design and management and marketing and sales isn’t in the same key, it’s not […]