American Fashion Podcast

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Episode 141: 141 – Mizzen and Main – Performance Fabric Menswear May 30, 2017

Show notes

Mizzen and Main

Kevin Lavelle is CEO of Mizzen and Main, a menswear line that prioritizes function over tradition in its fabric selection. In this interview, the conversation covers…

running a clothing business from Dallas
competitive AdWords strategy for e-commerce
YachtCaptcha and the coming of SkyNet
making menswear that doesn’t have your customers asking “what was I thinking?” in ten years
running a designer-less brand

“All the blood in the water that’s happening from the broader retail world… it’s a really exciting time to be an apparel company. Just, with the changing nature of people’s buying habits, and Amazon is just changing the way people think about what it means to buy things online, even more than they already have, pop-ups and retail partnerships… all of those things… there is no shortage of opportunity out there. For all the fear that’s happening, some of the old guards might go away, and that’s sad from a legacy perspective, and it’s going to require some pretty significant changes, but I can’t wait to see what’s next.” – Kevin Lavelle

Episode 140: Edun CEO Julien Labat May 19, 2017

Show notes

Julien Labat On Edun’s Sustainable Choices

There is fairly little true long term thinking in the fashion industry, but it’s not surprising to see it come from an LVMH brand. Edun is a very special company, with a very special mission. It was started by Ali Hewson and her husband Bono, with the intention of making sustainable high end fashion in Africa. It has been a long road with a lot of learning and building, and rebuilding, as revealed in this interview with a new New Yorker, CEO Julien Labat.

“I think you can tell that we’re going through this moment, and it’s about every brand needs to increase this conviction about who they are and the value they stand for, and being sure they offer to the customer something that is relevant but also so they cure a need. I think that the whole thing is about identifying who is the customer at the moment with all this changing, and this political and economic and social change: what the customer really looks for. And I think the answer is that the most of the customers don’t know themselves. And I think it’s where the brand’s work is really to recreate this and definitely also bringing the customer to be comfortable with their purchase.”- Julien Labat

“I think we’re going to something which is maybe a little less seasonal, but you need to still refresh your offer, and bring more consistency.” – Julien Labat

Episode 139: 139 – Miss Marvel Returns May 17, 2017

Show notes

Stephanie Maslansky Brings Marvel’s Stories To Life On Netflix

Stephanie Maslansky is the costume designer behind several Netflix series based on the Marvel comic book universe: Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and now Iron Fist. She was previously on American Fashion Podcast episode #94, and is now back to deep dive into her work on Iron Fist. In this interview she discusses how she created updated filmable versions of the character looks from the comic books, her appreciation of the cosplay movement, and how her team creates business suits compatible with kung fu.

“I don’t know if you guys know about cosplay. Cosplay is a wonderful thing that I just learned about a couple years ago myself. People dress up as their favorite characters, in superheroes, television shows; it’s really evolved. Just as comicons have evolved. It’s not just about comic book nerds anymore. It’s all the television shows, animated characters, characters you create from your brain.”

“These people who create these costumes, the work is often extraordinary. Just as good, if not better, than what we do. I’ve seen some things that can be compared to visual effects, and yet these people create them in their basements or their garages. It’s quite extraordinary.”

Episode 138: Nick Graham – Emotional Revenue May 06, 2017

Show notes

Designer Nick Graham (website) refers to his menswear line’s customers as the perennial millennials, and from his rapid retail expansion, he seems to be tapping into something very interesting. The recent New York Fashion Week Men’s show for Nick Graham featured Buzz Aldrin, Bill Nye The Science Guy, and the planet Mars. In this interview he discusses how he built a brand now found in hundreds of retail stores in under three years, and teases the over the top concept for the next fashion week show. His insights on how to start a fashion business both confirm and confound the common wisdom.

“The first three years of a business are critical. The first year you figure out exactly what you are, you take your hits. The second year it starts to gel in your mind and the market’s mind of what you represent, and then you get your sourcing and your production ready. And the third year is really when you launch. The first year is not a lunch year, the third year is always a launch year, I think.” – Nick Graham

References:

Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction (book)
John Elliott (designer)
John Varvatos (designer)
Paul Smith (designer)

Episode 137: Independent and Emerging: The State of The Business May 02, 2017

Show notes

Almost ten years ago, with the 2008 financial collapse and other market forces in the fashion industry, we saw the rug pulled out from under a massive number of both new and established brands. It has been a rough decade, and now with the retail collapse accelerating things continue to look bleak for traditional fashion companies. But is this the real picture?

Independent and Emerging: The State of The Business

Seth, Lisa, Cathy, and Charles are live on stage together for this first live audience podcast, which circles back to the heart of where the show began: wanting to help independent and emerging designers with ecological, social, and financial sustainability.

Guests for this episode are three of the most knowledgeable women in the entire industry when it comes to the wants and needs to independent and emerging designers: Nicole Giordano of StartUp FASHION, and Debera Johnson and Deborah Alden of the Brooklyn Fashion + Design Accelerator (Pratt/BF+DA).

The conversation starts with Seth summarizing the state of the industry ten years back, and goes into where we are now, with detail about direct and wholesale sales, the availability of sustainable materials, and how independent and emerging designers can approach functioning in the chaotic state of the industry today.

This is the first of several planned American Fashion Podcast: LIVE shows, and listeners are encouraged to use the Live Show form to sign up for free tickets to similar upcoming events.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BW-uUpGB10X/?taken-by=americanfashionshow

https://www.instagram.com/p/BW-vyQkBJF9/?taken-by=americanfashionshow

Episode 136: 136 – Temporary Retail May 01, 2017

Show notes

Pop-up stores, experience spaces, temporary showrooms, events, photoshoot locations, and other temporary space needs are the domain of a web and mobile app called Peerspace. They’ve helped us gather a group of experts to talk about the relatively new but certainly growing trend of temporary retail.

In the studio for this episode are Gemma Sole, co-founder of Nineteenth Amendment; Parisa Wang, founder of fashion accessories brand Parisa Wang; Aliana Galan, Senior Project Manager at The Lionesque Group; real estate investor Fred Piumelli; Jason Levine, General Manager at Peerspace; and Rony Chammas, CEO at Peerspace.

Some of the topics on the table include retail fatigue, legal issues around temporary leases, and how landlords are adapting to the new paradigm.

FIYB listeners get a 10% site-wide discount up to $100 through 9/30/17 at www.peerspace.com/p/fashion

Episode 135: 135 – Some Model Tycoons And Fashion Immigration Issues Apr 11, 2017

Show notes

Some Model Tycoons

Shivani Honwad is a lawyer helping imported fashion folk with green card issues, while Jessica Perez is using her new Tycoon App (iOS) (Android) to help freelancers keep up with the dollar bills, and Aine Campbell is helping models prepare for life Beyond The Runway.

This episode touches on a broad spectrum of issues affecting legal immigrants who work in fashion. We also discuss how Tycoon App is getting freelancers paid on time. Jessica and Aine talk about their experiences working with modeling agencies in relation to immigration, what models do when they stop modeling and have no other resume, and their advocation for the passage of the new Freelance Isn’t Free Act.

References:

Episode 134: 134 – John Nicolopoulos Surveys The Retail Landscape Apr 03, 2017

Show notes

John Nicolopoulos

John Nicolopoulos is a partner and the retail & restaurant leader at RSM, a leading tax, audit and consulting firm. John has more than 35 years of combined retail and accounting experience, and is on the show to talk about his company’s recent Retailer Omnichannel Survey, and what was learned about industry retail trends in their research.

References:

Episode 133: 133 – Nicole Giordano – StartUp Fashion Mar 20, 2017

Show notes

“It’s okay if your answer to ‘do you have another job right now’ is ‘yes.'” – Nicole Giordano

There are a lot of sites that promise to help emerging and independent designers, but few have the depth of Nicole Giordano’s StartUp Fashion portal. What started as a blog has grown into a global community, where designers share knowledge and resources online.

In this interview, Nicole talks about her community and the two biggest problems independent designers face: financing and manufacturing.

“I hope that I’m never making them think that the more traditional approach is something they shouldn’t do. All I’m trying to do is remind them that it’s not the only option, and there’s a lot that they can be thinking about that is just as great.” – Nicole Giordano

References:

Chetna Singh

Episode 132: 132 – Fashion Branding and Marketing Mar 03, 2017

Show notes

A consultant on fashion branding and marketing with several decades of experience in the field, Bill D’Arienzo, PhD, is in the studio talking about right and wrong approaches to marketing and sales in the fashion industry. His company, WDA Brand Marketing, advises some of the biggest players in the business. Whether they listen is an interesting story.

“You have to characterize the differential nature of your customers. Who is spending? For what? And if you just have the names, you don’t have a database.” – Bill D’Arienzo

“We’ve got to get some of the words out of our heads. You hear retail, wholesale, those are traps. Because the realities are no longer what those old definitions are about.” – Bill D’Arienzo

Fashion Branding and Marketing references:

Brand Management Strategies: Luxury and Mass Markets (book)
The Hatred of Poetry (book)

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“I think we’re going to something which is maybe a little less seasonal, but you need to still refresh your offer, and bring more consistency.” – Julien Labat

“It’s okay if your answer to ‘do you have another job right now’ is ‘yes.'” – Nicole Giordano

“I hope that I’m never making them think that the more traditional approach is something they shouldn’t do. All I’m trying to do is remind them that it’s not the only option, and there’s a lot that they can be thinking about that is just as great.” – Nicole Giordano

“You have to characterize the differential nature of your customers. Who is spending? For what? And if you just have the names, you don’t have a database.” – Bill D’Arienzo

“We’ve got to get some of the words out of our heads. You hear retail, wholesale, those are traps. Because the realities are no longer what those old definitions are about.” – Bill D’Arienzo

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