Intro

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Turning innovation or research into a profitable business model might not be the first goal. The first goal might be solving the problem. Moving away from Milton Friedman’s idea about companies’ sole purpose being money, to E. Freeman’s theory to focus on the stakeholder, because the stakeholder has a need and an expectation from your brand.

One of my favorite ad campaigns ran before Black Friday. Patagonia released a slogan, “You don’t need this jacket.” They think about the planet, the environment, and start to solve a problem that exists in the consumers’ world, but not necessarily in the product world. Releasing a statement to tell consumers to not buy their product resulted in the bottom line of profit. What it allowed them to do is focus on the things they needed instead of material items or to be different.

This goes back to the better piece. You’re going to experiment and innovate your product. Not everything will work. That’s part of accepting good instead of accepting defeat from trying to achieve perfection.
In the past, we used business models called the fashion life cycle. It was profitable and maintainable because businesses found the decline and the obsolescence and repeated the process. That isn’t feasible in today’s industry.

Today, we need to understand the consumer’s problem, solve the problem with both a strategic and business plan. To build a new business or even think of new ideas is about asking the right questions and gathering the right information, to connect to the right people and services. People don’t have to mean actual humans; it can be AI. It could be a part of our future we need to learn to adapt to.

We speak of technology that will help us to understand how to build new ideas to establish new businesses. You know, back in the day, we would say, I got a million-dollar idea or a billion-dollar idea, today, we have to say, I have a great idea and I’ve sourced it out, and I’ve done my homework. I know there is a consumer audience out there that this idea, this brand, this technology, this service, this product, whatever it might be, will work.

Many people spend vast amounts of their personal money and don’t realize how much they will need to pay because it’s tough to figure out when to step out of that process. While many businesses worldwide are started this way, there needs to be an understanding of how far you can go with that. It is also wise to line up another source of funding for your business, both for peace of mind and to allow your business and your personal life to have some separation.

Other people are much more savvy about finding funding very early through networking. So, find people, investors, and other founders willing to take on a young brand or project. Do thorough research. Network a lot. Figure out how that works, what the risks are, what the opportunities are, and then make sure that you understand how much of both your own money and external investors’ money you’re going to need to spend in order to get to the level of success that you aspire to.

That’s where having a business mind, a business mentor, and a business partner is critical from day one. Because you don’t want to be in a position where you’re either spending all of your savings to make your dream come true, or you hit success, and you don’t have the financial means to achieve it. In other words, that you can’t meet the demand. So it is highly critical that financing comes into the picture from the get-go and that you are able to scale your financing according to the brand’s success and goals.

Fashion and footwear collections typically begin with moods, and this is why we call it the “mood board.” A mood board is made by finding inspirational images that fit your mood or theme, cutting out pictures from magazines, newspapers, and physically putting them on a cork board or pinning images on Pinterest. The mood board creates the vision of the collection, whether it’s dramatic and dark or resembles a softer aesthetic.

It will depend on the season as well as who you’re targeting in the footwear business. Who’s the target audience? Creating your footwear collection requires both creativity but also practical online footwear education on seasonal trends, forecasting, and catering to your goal customer and retail stores.

You’ll want to know what’s happening in retail stores simultaneously. Visit stores, such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman, to observe and see which colors and details resonate for your own collection. What fabrics and embellishments strike a chord? You may see something at the back counter, or a small detail on a bag, or even the woman walking on the escalator captures your mood. Inspiration can be found at every turn.

The footwear education and design process is important for everyone to know, not just the designers. The process to get there needs to be, and is, touched by all different people throughout the shoe company. It includes the research of color, material, trends, design ideation, and the editing process to get to the best design.

Making shoes requires an extensive product development period where you’re not only working to resource your materials, prototype, and sample, but you’re getting the fit right. All of this needs to be done in a timely manner. This all happens before any pre-production or production and many people touch and influence the design process from marketing to customer, designer, and executives.

Building your design portfolio requires employing a selective, targeted appeal. As design specialist Caletha Crawford explains: “Your first inclination might be to create a portfolio that has really wide appeal, because your goal is to get a job.”
When someone is just starting out, their goal may be to get any job, just to get their foot in the door. While that’s a good attitude—an attitude of being willing to do whatever it takes to get to where you want to go, Crawford advises selectivity.
“Maybe you are a rock star with draping, or you found a passion and a skill that you didn’t know you had in photography,” Crawford says. “Remember that you really want this portfolio to reflect you, and you want to showcase how you would be a great fit for your potential employer.” In order to do that, your portfolio really needs to clearly display your unique personality and talent.
In selecting what to showcase, Crawford advises going back and reviewing your own design history—whether it’s your history with this course, with other classwork, or something outside the scope of school entirely. Review all those things you’ve created, even those things that might reflect your preparation for getting you where you want to go.
The first thing that you want to do is go through all of your past creations, as well as those things that you’ve done with us in this course. You will want to begin selecting from all of those experiences for your portfolio. “Pull out your best pieces,” says Crawford, “because your portfolio should represent the best of your abilities.”
Crawford also cautions to look at each piece beyond merely whether it’s good or not. Look at them in terms of what each piece is going to accomplish. “Think about it,” says Crawford. “If you’re in an interview situation, or you’re sending your portfolio to a potential employer, they only have so much time to go through the material. Unfortunately, you can’t put in all of your amazing work.” So make sure each piece included in your portfolio serves a purpose.
For instance, if you’re a writer and you’re applying for a job at a publication, you would want to go through and look for those pieces that showcase, for example: your long form writing ability, your interviewing skills, or your ability to work really quickly under a tight deadline. Then pull one example of each for your writing portfolio. That’s typically sufficient to briefly show your range and abilities.
You might also want to think about those things that help provide you a story. Part of that story could very well be the process of how you get to your finished product. Your personal story is important.
Why? Because when you think about it, there are likely a lot of people who are applying for the same jobs as you. They may have a similar background in terms of schooling. They might have a very similar degree as that which you have. Thus the great differentiator, says Crawford, “is really going to be you, and how much the employer can see in you.” The question is: What makes you stand out?
To showcase your unique gifts, you may want to show your process. This is similar to when you were in elementary school and your math teacher would say, ‘Show your work.’ This will allow the potential hiring manager to see how you think, how you get from point A to point B, and ultimately how good of a fit you will be.
This deciding factor is critically important, because every company works differently. In some, you might be working within a huge team, doing one task over and over again. In others, you might have a wide variety of responsibilities, so they may want to gain an understanding of your problem solving skills. All of these factors are extremely valuable for your potential employer to know.
If you’re a writer, showing your work may require you showing how a particular assignment was received from your editor, and then how it was fleshed out. This lets you showcase your creativity, or your ability to go out and get the interviews that were necessary. Perhaps you added a fun sidebar to the story. Or were able to turn the article around in a short time-frame.
For fashion designers, this personal narrative may include showing how you took one particular photo—say, of a texture or a color—and how that then inspired you to hand dye your own fabric to create a specific effect. You will then take that same narrative all the way through to the end by styling your final photo shoot in a way that further displays whatever vibe or effect you set out to achieve.
When going through your examples of past work, this is your chance to evaluate. Here, you must decide whether you want to go through and rework some of the pieces. Perhaps there were some pieces that you did earlier in the course that need a more polished finish. Do not feel bad about that.
“It takes time to really refine and produce a portfolio-worthy piece,” says Crawford. At this point in the course, you obviously have a bit more experience. This means you will likely have a bit more confidence in everything that you’re doing, which in turn means that in reworking pieces, you’re going to be able to do it that much better.
Perfection and mastery take time. So take the time to polish off and refine your masterpieces in order to create an irresistible portfolio that truly showcases your talent. “All that time that you put in is definitely going to be worth it when you land that dream job,” assures Crawford.

Angela Gao walks us through the importance of correctly fitting clothes with pins to get the look you are trying to achieve in fashion and the fashion business.
“Here we have a new ensemble of samples that just came back from the factory on our beautiful model Agnes,” says Angela Gao. “This is a jersey top, it’s very loose on her. This is the importance of fitting. To fit the garment is basically to make it fit your customer size, or the model, or the person who’s wearing your garment. The tools that we need are these little pins.”

You should be very careful never to pin the model that you’re depending on. There are specific rules as to where the pins should be pointing and how each seam or placement should be pinned. The reason I’m pinning at the shoulder is the shoulder seam is too low. I’m going to move it up a little bit so it’s actually on the high point of her shoulder.

Now let’s turn her around: the armhole is way too big, says Angela. We’re going to fix it by pinning the side seam a little bit closer together.

“One thing you should be careful to not force the fabric,” says Angela. “It’s a very important skill. Fabric wants to move in a certain direction in a certain way. The pinning should only adjust the size without forcing it.”

After I’ve indicated where the armhole should end, I’m going to start pinning the side seam. I still want the side seam to slant in the a-line shape, so I’m going to pin down the side seam at an angle.

You will finish this process by pinning to the bottom of the hemline. Now, the left side is a much better-fitted vest than the right side, which is still baggy and droopy.

If you’re happy with your fit, then it’s time to use a marker or tailor’s chalk. You’re going to redraw these lines, trace them, trace the pin line in the back, take pictures, and then send the sample garment back to the sample room or a factory.

After that, you would just wait for them to send you a new sample, recheck it, refit to make sure that everything is fitting properly, until to you it’s perfect. Then you can put it into production and have them sent to your customers and your buyers.

Your ideas begin with your story. That’s one of the hardest parts of developing your themes and grooves, especially as you develop all of this into a portfolio. That’s really where you want to capture it all. But where do we begin?

Being creative is an elusive idea. You want to explore it, but you don’t want to overthink it. Start with things that you see in your everyday life. Then think about your past. It all truly comes back to what your story is about.

Let’s talk about some examples. You may be wondering if a cow skull could inspire you. You’re intrigued by its texture. It reminds you of the American southwest that you love. It also begins to build a bridge to the work of artist Georgia O’Keeffe.

That gets you thinking about O’Keefe. She was an amazing, independent woman. She began an incredible art movement filled with simplified shapes. She took objects that we perhaps wouldn’t notice and presented them on a bold scale.

You can see that it’s not always the object itself that’s going to inspire you. It’s the ideas and connections it represents.

I took an incredible trip to India. It’s a country that I feel everybody in fashion should visit to experience the textures, the colors, the fabrics, and the atmosphere. I found some wooden blocks there that took me on a journey of inspiration.

What I loved about the blocks was that they reminded me of an incredible visit I took to a mill. It was really hot and all the windows and doors were open. The simplicity of taking cotton fabric, placing it on a very long table, and having a group of people going down the row and printing this pattern was fascinating.

For years I had seen incredible Indian prints. And I always wondered how they were made. I was so excited to see how the prints were developed—the pressure and the ink that was never perfect. That’s what really got me excited.

So it isn’t just the Indian wood block itself. It’s the trip, the colors, the feeling, the mood that it represents. That’s what I want to share with you. How an idea can develop.

In fashion, we love to thrift shop. We all agree that we own too much. On a trip to LA, I found a coat in a thrift store. I loved the wonderful vintage quality of it and its distressed look. The whole feel of it was cool.

That coat reminded me of my childhood growing up in the ’70s and got me thinking of the era. That led me to actors and films that I loved and just where I was in my life at that time. I began to really look at the coat and noticed amazing buckles and heavy stitching. All of these wonderful details informed my ideas.

I also love to take pictures and capture images that I see every day. I encourage all of you to do it, too. Sometimes you may not want to, but you’ll be glad when you capture something that caught your eye and starts your mind rolling.

Working with images from a trip you took or an experience you had will remind you of every aspect of those experiences. Then you begin to think about them differently and they become part of your creative process.

So as you begin this journey, as you begin to think about developing your concepts and themes, begin with your story. Begin from your point of view. That’s what you want to convey as you develop your work. Your experiences and your story are what you want to reflect in your portfolio.

SKU is a standard-keeping unit that’s associated with the barcode on your product. An SKU differentiates between styles, sizes, colors, and other technical features. It’s usually a number and a letter combination, which translates easily between languages and makes it simple to track without confusing people.

It’s also associated with the barcode you use when telling items in a store or online. It allows you to keep track of which colors, styles, and sizes sell better. You can use this data to determine which types of products you need to make more or less of in the future. Pay attention to the data associated with each SKU so that you can make sound financial decisions.
The challenge with footwear is that there are so many SKUs to create for just one style. Decide whether you want a range from a size 5 to a size 13 or if you want a narrower size selection. It’s better to have a wider range of shoe sizes because shoe sizes vary so much. This means that shoes will always need to have many SKUs. Then you have to consider whether you want to make them wide, narrow, or with half-sizes.
Variety is good for customers because they want an extensive selection. But when there are so many SKUs and you have to create different tech packs for each, it often causes confusion in manufacturing.

Costing your fashion product usually involves a few components. As a merchandiser, you may have 10 styles and want to have a certain markup. If you’re selling within your own stores, you usually want at least a 75 to 85 percent internal markup. If you want to retail a jacket for $695, you need to then back it up and already know that your landed cost needs to be 20 percent of that to get your 80 percent markup.

If the coat designer wants beautiful satin made in Italy, your cost of goods will increase. Generally, when you’re looking at cost of goods and cost on the item, around 70 percent is the raw materials. In your fashion business, you must think about the actual materials – the thread, the trim, the buttons.

If you are going to get your desired 75 or 80 percent margin, this coat is going to be $1,500 versus the $695 you wanted. You’ll then have to go back to the design team since the market and your brand can’t retail this high. The cost value is not there, so you’re going to see where you can cut costs using fashion education and sourcing. Can you counter source a material in another country that looks and feels the same? Can you take a few pockets off to lower the cost?

The second component of costing is having a loss leader. A loss leader is the one item that’s the showstopper, the most fashionable piece. You need this piece to draw interest to the collection, although you’re getting a lower margin, possibly a 40 to 50 percent margin. You’re going to make fewer units, but the other styles have higher margins. Many fashion brands use this blended costing because ultimately it’s the blended total that makes a difference.

Costing a product is a full-time job and usually takes many people. You can look at costing in a couple of different ways. As a merchandiser, let’s say you had 10 styles, and we wanted to have a certain markup. If you’re selling within your own stores, you usually want at least a 75% to 85% internal markup. If you want to retail a jacket for $695, and you already know that your landed cost needs to be 20% of that to get your 80% markup.
A designer wants this beautiful satin made in Italy. When you’re looking at the cost of goods, around 70% is the raw materials, like the thread, the trim, and the zipper or button. A designer goes to Premiere Vision and finds the most beautiful Italian satin they want to use. If you are going to get the 75% or 80% margin you want, the jacket is going to be $1500 compared to the $695 or the $595 you wanted.
You go back to the design team and tell them that if the market can’t retail nor our brand can retail a jacket this high, there’s no the cost value is not there. Start taking things out of it. Can we counter source material in another country that looks and feels the same but not the higher quality? Can we take a few pockets off of it to lower the cost?
Let’s say a loss leader is the one item that is the showstopper—the most fashionable piece. You need it to draw everyone in to look at the collection, but you already know you’re going to get a lower margin on it. It might be 40% or 50%. You’re going to do a few units, but the other nine styles are going to have higher margins. That’s a trick that all fashion brands use. It’s called blended costing. They look at key items, but they also look at it as blended because ultimately, it’s the blended total that really makes a difference.

Branding is a unique opportunity for entrepreneurs.

In today’s world, there are so many ways an entrepreneur can use branding to strengthen their business. For little to no cost, entrepreneurs can post branded content across social media platforms to sell product and grow their business.

The Branding Challenge

The challenge with branding, however, is that it can be difficult for entrepreneurs to be creative and come out with unique and differentiated content. As a low-cost strategy, many entrepreneurs are using branded content, and this is saturating the market and creating more competition. Entrepreneurs will publish great content on social only to find that they are only gaining a few likes and not generating the attention and engagement they need to sell product and successfully run their business. To be successful, entrepreneurs need a couple hundred thousand, or millions, of likes to achieve significant business growth.

TikTok is the Latest Dream Machine for Marketers

With global popularity, TikTok is gaining traction as one of the most popular platforms for advertisers. With 15 seconds to capture consumers’ attention, advertisers are leveraging music and parading to something fashionable to develop memorable branded content.

It’s a common human trait that we can receive information faster that we can send it, so in 15 seconds brands have enough time to tell their whole story, brand it, and repeat it umpteen million times. And the best part? It cost literally nothing.

The catch, however, is that to be successful on TikTok, you need to be more creative than the next guy. With so many brands fighting for consumer attention, your content must be differentiated and unique to be successful. So, for all the entrepreneurs looking at low-cost solutions to share their brand message, TikTok is a great option. But you must be that much more creative to succeed.