American Fashion Podcast show

American Fashion Podcast

Summary: American Fashion Podcast is a fashion show for fashion people, diving deep into the designing, making, and selling of garments and accessories through long-form interviews with people at all levels and in all corners of the business, with an emphasis on sustainability and innovation. Hosted by Charles Beckwith and Cathy Schepis.

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Podcasts:

 166 – Conversations At 71 Greene Street | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 55:35

Recorded in front of a live audience in the O.N.S Clothing menswear store in Soho (71 Greene Street), a conversation first with Geo Hagan, content director at O.N.S Clothing, followed by O.N.S Creative Lab partner designers Abdul Abasi and Greg Rosborough of the Abasi Rosborough brand. Also joining the conversation, Sharifa Murdoch, co-founder of the Liberty Fairs trade show. photos by Andy Jackson

 165 – What Exactly Does WGSN Do? | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 49:48

Sidney Morgan-Petro is the Retail Editor at WGSN, a think tank with deep connections to the fashion and lifestyle businesses. Big on the horizon, purple for sure, but what is a scandi cowboy?

 164 – Retaining Customers To Increase Profitability | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 42:05

Richard R. Shapiro is the Founder and President of The Center For Client Retention. Richard has spent decades studying how to keep customers coming back to stores. This is rather important, considering how much it costs to get them in the door in the first place. "I'm a believer in technology, as long as it enhances the customer relationship." - Richard R. Shapiro Richard is the author of two books on the subject, The Welcomer Edge: Unlocking The Secrets To Repeat Business and The Endangered Customer: 8 Steps To Guarantee Repeat Business. "When you have a relationship, it's not a guarantee, but it is kind of that glue that helps retain that customer." - Richard R. Shapiro The conversation covers both brick and mortar and e-commerce strategies and brings up powerful insights about how to bridge those experiences well. Retaining Customers References: * The Endangered Customer (book) * The Welcomer Edge (book) * Hug Your Customers (book)

 163 – Fashion’s Voice In Washington, DC | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 41:41

Rick Helfenbein is the President and CEO of the American Apparel & Footwear Association, which is a trade association lobbying for the interests of roughly 350 companies and 1,000 brands in our nation's capital. This episode features a discussion about national trade policy as it relates to the fashion industry. photo by Martin Falbisoner, CC BY-SA 3.0

 162 – What Is A Fashion Community? | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 1:14:16

A roundtable discussion of the human components of the fashion industry. Panelists include Fashion Mingle founder Melissa Shea, Human B founder Boaz David, and Rachel Tobias from the Brooklyn Fashion + Design Accelerator. Fashion Mingle is a community platform that was started in Austin, Texas, helping independent designers find contractors and suppliers in cities across the United States. Human B is a consulting firm which facilitates production. The Brooklyn Fashion + Design Accelerator is a part of Pratt Institute which serves as an accelerator and community hub for fashion businesses in Brooklyn.

 161 – Norma Kamali | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 45:37

Norma Kamali has a long history of innovation and anticipating "the moment" again and again in fashion and the New York City community. In this interview recorded with a live audience at Spring Place in TriBeCa, the designer talks about her work and life and how they intersect. She describes key events in her career along with her personal transformation to a minimalist lifestyle. "I work with a lot of e-commerce accounts, and they're fun to work with. They're all doing well, and when people are doing well they experiment, they want to collaborate, they want to experiment with you, and there's conversation. When people are doing well it's friendly and it's happy and it's good. When people are not doing well, some really awful things happen. Deceit and dishonesty, and stuff that you just don't want in your life happen. But we're in a very good time now, because e-commerce is really emerging as a way to reach individuals and to give each and every one of us an opportunity to make a choice to have great service and to have a good experience." - Norma Kamali Additional parts of the interview delve into Norma Kamali's personal theories about how to improve relations between men and women, the thought and practice behind The Wellness Cafe, and her own podcast, Norma Kamali Life.

 160 – Inside The RiverBlue Ecofashion Documentary | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 36:26

Can Fashion Save The Planet, or At Least Make It Better? Lisa Mazzota , the producer of RiverBlue, an environmental documentary, is passionate about rivers. Hear Lisa, Tabitha St. Bernard-Jacobs, designer and co-founder of Tabii Just, Charles and Cathy talk about a documentary that is starting a lot of conversation. There are rivers around the world that have been declared biologically dead from toxic, chemical waste that is a result of clothing manufacturing. Consumers need to ask how their clothing is made, and then ask themselves if they are fulfilled by fast fashion, or can we as consumers change our value systems. The consumer holds a lot of power and can learn a lot from documentaries like RiverBlue. “The idea that we have to buy something all the time, what is that fulfilling for us?”-Lisa Mazzota We’ll talk about the progress that is already leading this movement, and how consumers can play a powerful role. “It’s a big task, but there is responsibility on the part of the consumer to say “I am not going to buy this anymore”- Tabitha St. Bernard-Jacobs RiverBlue References: * FashionHeros.eco * Fashionrevolution.org * Worldriversday.com * Fashiontakesaction.com * LAbeyondthelabel.com * Ecosessions.com * Riverkeepers.com * Waterkeeper.org

 159 – Navigating The Amazon… Marketplace | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 1:00:29

Elaine Kwon used to help run Amazon Fashion. Now she is the founder of Kwontified, an e-commerce management and SAS firm. She and her partner Jordan Taylor consult from the points of “what is the best business model for me to use on Amazon” and “how do I grow my business on Amazon?” Questions addressed in this episode include: What platform do you use to sell on Amazon? How do you get a “verified brand" on Amazon? How do you identify your products as eco-friendly for Amazon searches? What kind of qualities do you need to have on and to sell through Amazon? Are there minimums? Is Handmade at Amazon an Amazon version of ETSY? Will a customer forgo a discount on a product if they know they’re going to get free shipping? “Just like how pure play brick and mortar is seen as outdated today, pure play e-commerce will be seen as outdated tomorrow. And I think that the way to really thrive in what retail is becoming is to adopt what we call the new retail values, which essentially is when you stop dividing the channels that you play on, but you really start integrating what that means for the consumer across the board. So, you’re taking online offline. You’re making sure that the experiences that the customers see online are consistent and have parity with what they’re seeing offline, and that the two are not separated.” - Elaine Kwon

 158 – Factory 8 – The New Old Garment Factory | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 24:11

Anya Ferring is Factory8's Product Development and Local Supply Chain Specialist. Factory8 helps designers and brands large and small manage a streamlined developed and Made In USA production process. Factory8 References: China Snaps Up America’s Cheap Robot Labor * USAID * Create-A-Marker

 157 – Too Much Minimalism? | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 51:02

Eliza Brooke is a writer at Racked, who recently wrote an article, "Why Does Every Lifestyle Startup Look the Same?" In the studio, she speaks with Charles Beckwith and Cathy Schepis about how minimalist design is probably the hardest style in which to design well, not just in clothing but in architecture, graphic design, and user interfaces. "I just feel like we're at an oversaturation point, where it's kind of like if everything looks like this it doesn't mean anything anymore." - Eliza Brooke Eliza also wrote pieces titled "How to Sell a Billion-Dollar Myth Like a French Girl: The origins and consequences of everyone’s favorite Parisian fantasy" and "The Myth and Magic of California Style." The conversation gets into this a bit as well. Minimalism References: * Outdoor Voices * Sqirl

 156 – StartUp Fashion Brings A Fashion Posse | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 54:46

Nicole Giordano is the founder of the online designer community platform StartUp Fashion, where she helps designers figure out what's next and how to keep moving forward with their businesses and brands. She has brought along a group of designers from the community to talk about what they do and how they collaborate through the StartUp Fashion platform. Maggie Gillette is the founder of The Giving Bride, a specialty lingerie line for brides, which is making a big splash at bridal showers. Julia Ahrens is the founder of Miakoda, an ethical fashion label where she strives to get closer to the mark on making an impact with her clothing without making an impact with her clothing. Lisa Selwitz is an advertising world creative who started making a collection called Lily-Lark, which is all UV sun-protective parasols. The discussion gets into thoughts on wholesale versus direct sales, how the designers define success, and how one gets into lingerie. Fashion Posse References: Lily-Lark - https://www.lily-lark.com/ StartUp FASHION - https://startupfashion.com/ The Giving Bride - http://www.thegivingbride.com/shop Miakoda - https://www.miakodanewyork.com/ The Lingerie Selection - https://www.thelingerieselection.com/ (trade show)

 155 – Is It Fit To Wear? | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 32:34

A conversation with two designers whose businesses are very much about the fit of clothing. Melissa Mendez of Melissa Mendez Design Studio is a freelance technical designer who spends a lot of time working with clients who "just have an idea" and don't know much about the engineering of clothing, helping them bring visions into reality. Kristen Allen's label Exclusively Kristen is designed for women with ample bosoms who tend to look a little too provocative when putting on normal clothing items. She sought out to solve her own #bustygirlproblems and created a product line with a fiercely loyal following. Also in the discussion: email marketing advice and plus-size lingerie insights. Fit To Wear References: * Create-A-Marker - https://www.facebook.com/createamarkernyc/ * AWeber email marketing tech - https://www.aweber.com/ * Exclusively Kristen - https://www.exclusivelykristen.com/ * Melissa Mendez Design Studio - http://www.melissamendezdesignstudio.com/

 154 – Van Cleef & Arpels CEO With Artist Robert Wilson | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 56:33

Jewelry brand Van Cleef & Arpels, part of the Richemont group of companies, has an exhibition of new one of a kind jewelry pieces in a special experience space created by renowned American artist Robert Wilson. The "Noah's Ark Inspires Van Cleef Arpels" exhibition is at the Cedar Lake event space on West 26th Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues in Manhattan. As Ruth La Ferla in The New York Times says, "From Nov. 3 to 19, visitors will be treated to a display of the jeweler’s menagerie of exotic animals, designed as brooches and showcased in a series of recessed glass enclosures cresting and dipping rhythmically along the walls." For tickets to see the installation, go to ARKVCA.com. This episode has two parts. First is an interview conducted by Filmmaker Katharina Otto-Bernstein, with the artist Robert Wilson and Van Cleef & Arpels CEO Nicholas Bos. Second is an interview conducted by Charles Beckwith and Cathy Schepis, with the same two gentlemen, Mr. Wilson and Mr. Bos. Among other things, Charles asks Mr. Wison to talk about light, and Cathy wants to know more about fashion collaborating with the art world.   https://www.arkvca.com/ American Fashion Podcast is a fashion show for fashion people, diving deep into the designing, making, and selling of garments and accessories through long-form interviews with people at all levels and in all corners of the business. Past guests have included Ralph Rucci, Naeem Khan, Reem Acra, Teri Agins, Tim Gunn, Lauren Sherman, Nick Graham, Simon Collins, Mickey Boardman, Deb Johnson, Jeff Staple, threeASFOUR, Anita Dongre, Yeohlee Teng, and many others.

 153 – True Gault’s Footwear Fashiontech | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 35:15

Sandra Gault is the CEO of True Gault, a fashion technology start-up company which uses a mobile app to measure your feet and build custom-fitted high heels at a far lower price point than the average for bespoke footwear. In this interview, she talks about the measurement, fabrication, the thought behind the product, and Nikola Tesla. https://www.truegault.com/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla

 152 – Ecofashion Knitwear NIA Clothing | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 22:07

Merica Kahn is the designer of NIA Clothing (link), a Brooklyn-based knitwear label that is using technology to push a sustainability agenda. She's been using the resources of the Brooklyn Fashion + Design Accelerator to learn about full-garment knitwear printing and currently has her first three products available for sale. An early stage conversation to be sure, but a recent one, so perhaps a valuable look into how things are changing (or not changing) for emerging designers in terms of access to resources in the New York City area. References: * The True Cost (film) * Shima Seiki (equipment manufacturer) * Factory45 (sourcing and production resource) https://shopniaclothing.com/

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