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Jun 11 2012
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About Me, Inspiration

The Power of Boredom

Boredom is a serious problem for me. I have always been energized by the beginning of a project, but once I get stuck into the actual work, my engagement drops to dangerously low levels. For a long time, I didn’t think this was a problem. Some people are detail people, some are big picture people. I believed that everyone should focus on their own strengths and not worry too much about things we’re not good at, because someone else who is good at that will pick up the slack

However, when I look around at all the big amazing projects I planned that have never been executed, I have to consider that maybe I can improve my performance in this particular area of my life.

First, I have started to look at my own mental habits and how they are affecting me. I have a tendency to live my life way out in the future; I have a strategic mind and that’s how I view the world. The Buddhist practice of mindfulness sees this tendency as leading to a lot of unhappiness. How can I function in this moment when I’m living my life in an imaginary future? Mindfulness is basically slowing down and putting one’s full attention into where one is and on what one is doing at this moment only. The idea is that if you really focus on everything that goes into a particular task, it is very difficult to be bored by anything.

The other thing that has sort of inspired me is this blurb from London’s School of Life sermon on Boredom with Will Alsop.

Without the kind of boredom that gives space for creativity and reflection, we risk the dullness of an uncreative life. The paint never dries and we make a muddy mire of things.

As often is the case with this sort of thing, maybe boredom says more about the bored person than the tasks or state of mind that is being labeled as “boring”. Ulltimately, boredom is an inescapable part of not just the creative process, but everything in life; it’s Seth Godin’s “dip” and the middle part between where the brilliant plan and the amazing reality meet by engaging in a lot of hard work. So it would probably be a good idea to figure out how to make being bored as fun as possible.

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May 12 2012
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Business Basics, Business Truths, Fashion Line Development, Inspiration

Rekindling the Creative Spark

I have had my head down developing some new freelance projects and haven’t had a lot of time to think about much else. Also, my sister is getting married in a few weeks so there’s that.

I have been thinking a lot about creativity, specifically my own creativity and how I seem to have misplaced that spark in the day to day work of keeping food on the table and a roof over my head. Even though I now work in a field that is supposedly more creative, the work I’m doing is just as administrative as ever. I think Thomas Edison meant this when he said,”Success is 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration.”

When I’m in a rut I go back and read Hugh MacLeod’s manifesto “How to be Creative”, which lays out the process very well. But at the beginning of any creative venture, there’s the terrifying moment of facing the empty dot paper. David Seah calls this “The Blankness” and I think everyone is intimidated by this.

The only strategy I have ever been able to successfully implement in this area is doing whatever I feel like doing to get warmed up. This usually takes the form of improv piecing, which I can do without thinking and is very relaxing. Breaking free of the pressure to do something of value helps clear my mind and find a little more direction.

An old friend of mine used to say “write drunk, edit sober”, which is a short way of saying “just get started”. Getting started is the most challenging part.

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Mar 23 2012
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Brand Analysis, Fashion Line Development, Inspiration, Trend Research

Spring 2013: Genteel Poverty

Another big retail trend we are seeing are people who used to buy high-end goods shopping at discount stores. Some of this is due to this group of shoppers being more conscious of their cash flow, but many of these are people who find themselves in reduced circumstances.

These shoppers are bringing a taste and sophistication to lower-end shopping.

 

Missoni and Liberty for Target

 

 

Vera Wang for Kohl’s

 

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Jan 17 2012
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Business Basics, Fashion Line Development, The Industry, Tools of the Trade, Trend Research

Style Evolution

 I have been fascinated by the book Simple Modern Sewing by Shufu To Seikatsu Sha. She takes 8 patterns and gives instructions on how to make 25 different styles from them.

 Here is an example from the book. She made one wrap dress (on the left), and modified the pattern to make two different styles by changing a few details and the fabrics. Most fashion companies do the same thing, for a variety of reasons:

  • Cost  Every time a brand new design is created, it has to be draped or drafted, fitted, altered, and fitted again. This requires the use of a patternmaker, a fit technician, and a fit model. This is expensive. If you just modify an existing pattern, you can eliminate a lot of these steps.
  • Time  When developing a brand new style, there i always the chance that it will just never come out the way you want it to. If you are working with a new pattern that has to be fitted and fitted again, you could run the risk of not having it in time for market. That would be a lot of time and effort wasted.
  • Bestsellers If you had a style that sold out for one season,, it would be silly to just put it on the sample rack and forget about it. By changing a few details and the fabric of a bestselling style for a new season (for example, making a bestselling coverup in a warm fabric and selling it as a winter wrap), you can extend your selling season.
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Jan 10 2012
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Business Basics, The Industry, Tools of the Trade

What’s Your Elevator Pitch?

It’s New York Spring Fashion Week, and this is a marathon run for anyone with a fashion business. When you’re trying to get the attention of the multitudeess of buyers and journalists at the events, you’d better be able to tak fast and be fascinating.
 

Jeffrey Hayzlett, a former chief marketing officer at Eastman Kodak, wrote an HBR blog post about how the 30 second pitch is now an 8 second pitch!

 

He says your pitch must:

 

•Grab the attention of your prospect 

•Convey who you are 
•Describe what your business offers 
•Explain the promises you will deliver on

Try writing out your pitch, then take  out 100 words. Do that over and over until you have just the most important facts. Your elevator pitch is an important marketing tool that will get better with each time you use it.

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Nov 26 2011
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Business Basics, The Industry, Trend Research

Product Development Roulette: Better Girlswear

Every season I draw some category out of a hat to design a collection for the current season in development, which is Fall 2012. This is a category I’ve never designed for so this should be fun. The steps involved are:

Brand analysis: What is the brand we’re developing for, and who are their competitors?

Trend analysis: What are the major trends for Fall 2012

Fabric and color story: What are the colors and fabrics on trend for Fall 2012 in this category, and which ones will we be using in our line

Line development: developing and choosing the designs for our line

Next week: figuring out our brand.

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Nov 22 2011
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About Me, Business Truths

What I do When I Lack Motivation

Dan Ariely says that people are more willing to work for free than to get paid a low wage. This has everything to do with the stories we tell ourselves.

I’m having some motivation issues right now. The short days of winter are sapping my energy, and my hectic holiday schedule is basically making me wish I could just stay in bed with my trend predictive magazines and a hot cup of Scarlet City coffee. I have a couple of client projects on my desk that are not shaping up as quickly as they usually do, and I’m feeling like I need a vacation.

Every time we decide to take on a task, we write a story around it. We ask ourselves, “Am I the kind of person who does this?” Say, for example, if we’re asked to do a low-paying job we think, “Am I the kind of person who works for peanuts?”, or if we’re asked to donate our time for charity we ask, “Am I the kind of person who helps people less fortunate than I am?”

So, who are you? Are you someone who makes excuses and lets things get in your way?

Right now, I’m asking myself “Am I the kind of person who lets a little evening gloom get in the way of doing fabulous work?” What I’m saying, is the answer is no!

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Nov 17 2011
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About Me, Business Truths, The Industry

Your Biggest Problems are the Ones you Don’t Care About Solving

The little issues you don’t really care about fixing are the ones that will hold you back, because they’re the ones you’re least likely to address until they become a big problem. This creates a negative situation that you could have avoided, which is a big waste of time and resources.

I hate to put my work away. I’m the kind of person who has to walk away from a project when it isn’t working out in order to solve it, but I’m also the kind of person who forgets about anything that isn’t right in front of me. The result is that my live work space is a complete cluttered mess. My sewing table is piled high with samples that I haven’t figured out yet, like the denim shorts with the waistband I can’t decide should be contoured or not – from Spring 2010. My coffee table is 3 layers deep with sweaters that should or maybe should not have knitted-on collars or three-quarter sleeves.

This doesn’t really bother me much. I do a pretty good job of keeping the place otherwise sanitary, and I have convinced myself the clutter is part of my creative process. However, in my heart, I know it is not. It is the result of not enjoying the feeling of being paralyzed by a design problem and choosing to ignore it rather than tucking in and doing the boring trial-and-error work of fixing design problems.

I read this blog post on the Harvard Business Review blogs by Michael Schrage about managers putting their most creative people on their most boring problems, and I realized that boring problems require the most creativity to solve if only for the fact that they’re so hard to get motivated to even think about. So maybe thinking of this kind of problem-solving as a chore is the wrong approach, and reframing it as an opportunity for creative thinking is a better way.

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Nov 09 2011
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Business Basics, The Industry

Business Basics: Famous Architect Frank Gehry’s Rules for Business

The Harvard Business Review published a short interview with Frank Gehry on his rules for running his successful architecture firm. Gehry has spent his career making hugely important, completely impossible-looking buildings like Disney Hall in Los Angeles and the Experience Music Project in Seattle. His designs go against everything most people know about making buildings, and he had to fight to get people to listen to his ideas. The fact that he has met with such success says a lot about him as a businessman. Here are his rules:

Don’t borrow money I met a venture capitalist in business school who told me that if you could fund your business start-up in any way besides using an investor or borrowing money, you should absolutely do that. Taking money from an investor or borrowing from a bank can, at best, put enormous pressure on your little startup to pay it back with interest, and at worst, can result in you losing your control of the direction of your new company. Banks and investors don’t loan or invest in businesses out of the goodness of their hearts; they expect to make money on their investments. Sometimes, that’s not going to be in your best interest. So, if you ever find yourself needing to take money from outside your company, be very careful about the terms you agree to.

Everyone gets paid Another way to “owe investors” is to allow your friends or family to work for you for free. In the beginning of your business, you will be tempted to do this, and having a friend to work with is a great way to build some fun into the work of starting up and to get some moral support. But they should always be compensated for their time, either through free products, store credit, or a small amount of money if you can swing it. I have personally worked for several business owners who have lost friendships with people who have worked for them without clear compensation plans. This prevents people from feeling exploited, and building resentment.

Don’t work for free, ever When you’re just starting out, the temptation to work for free in the hopes of getting more work is strong, but it hardly ever works out that way. Economists have found that people do not appreciate things they get for free as much as they do things they have paid for. Even if you only charge a token fee, always get paid for your work. Your business is not something you do for fun, it is something you worked hard to perfect and how you support yourself. You should be treated like a professional, and that means getting paid.

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