“It’s all about the relationships you make with other people,” said Steven Kolb, President and CEO of CFDA.
Last week, the CFDA, in partnership with Reebok, hosted two panels for the 53 2018 Fashion Future Graduate Showcase participants, featuring Aurora James and Brandon Maxwell, and Keanan Duffty and Kerby Jean-Raymond. Each addressed the challenges of starting in business, and how the fashion industry can do better.
James and Maxwell kicked their conversation off by revealing something they don’t necessarily teach you at fashion school: “You’re going to be the HR person, the shipping person, and the person scheduling the window cleaning at your store,” said James. “My boyfriend at the time helped me ship packages. I didn’t have an assistant for the first two years.”
“Also, emotions,” added Maxwell. “Getting up and going to the bodega in the morning and getting the paper and seeing something bad written about you.”
Both designers recalled their start in business. “I sold my shoes to all of my friends,” said James. “Once all of my friends had shoes, I brought a table at a flea market for $15 dollars and sold my shoes from there. This woman who at the time was my biggest costumer – she owned four pairs of my shoes – told me that I needed a website. So I asked my friend to create one for me and paid him in pizza.”
As Lady Gaga’s former stylist, a statement Maxwell made about wishing to start a fashion line made news before he was even ready to take the plunge, but he went with it. “I feel like sometimes you need that push to do what you want to do,” he said. ”That was my push.”
The two also offered tips on investors and stylists. “The longer you can go without taking money from people, the better you will be,” said James. And as someone who used to pull from graduate thesis collections in his days as a stylist, Maxwell reminded the designers that it’s fine to be picky when it comes to stylists even though they’re young.
Maxwell concluded the talk with words of wisdom: “Don’t get totally derailed on the opportunity.”
Following lunch, the second panel featured Duffty and Jean-Raymond. “Can I have the entrepreneurs sit on one side of the room and the ladders sit on the other side of the room? Jean-Raymond requested. “Then can I have the entrepreneurs separate by service base and creators to be able to really help everyone and understand where they are coming from?”
When Duffty asked Jean-Raymond about how he came to the fashion industry, the Pyer Moss designer provided a look into his past. The setting: the High School of Fashion Industries in New York’s Garment District. “I threw something at a kid and pled to not get suspension and instead got an internship to pay for suspension,” he recalled. With that in mind, he offered the audience some tips on building their brands around sustainability:
- Don’t make too much product
- Craft your product around yourself
- Shrink your volume sizes
- Think about pollution problems
- Think about what you wear
“The fashion business has changed dramatically over the last five years,” Duffty said. “What has not changed however is the level of passion, dedication, original design ideas, fundamental business acumen and a willingness to challenge the status quo. These remain the basic ingredients that are needed to succeed.”
Both have collaborated with Reebok, which made this year’s Fashion Future Graduate Showcase possible. “How can designers stay true to themselves while collaborating?” asked Marc Leonardo from Reebok.
“Ask for creative control and be kind to their objectives,” replied Jean-Raymond. “Be humble and be respectful to the brand,” Duffty added.
Duffty and Jean-Raymond stressed the importance of protecting your brand. “Step one: call information. Step two: ask for exchange of commerce,” Jean-Raymond advised. “Step three: get an EIN number. Next, start making samples and marketing them either on social media – Facebook ads aren’t corny – or renting out a showroom in NYC or Paris and inviting buyers.”
Meet our 2018 Fashion Future Graduate Showcase participants here.
