American Fashion Podcast

Reshoring, an awkward word for an essential concept: bringing manufacturing back from overseas. Instrumental in this process are new agile factories, able to produce at low cost in smaller quantities. One company creating such factories, and making a major difference for a lot of emerging desingers and even established brands adapting to new market conditions, is Kathryn Hilderbrand's Good Clothng Company, on Cape Cod and in Fall River, Massachusetts. In the studio for this episode are Kathryn Hilderbrand and two of her advisers: a public policy expert who served in the Obama Administration, Mark Linton, and fashion industry veteran and Project Runway superstar, Tim Gunn. "Well, I think Kathryn is beautifully addressing our biggest challenge, which is to re-shore." - Tim Gunn What is different about these new more agile factories? What can a home sewer learn in 12 weeks that makes them ready to sew in a factory? Is the capacity for re-shoring to the United State ready, or will it be ready? Denovation - abandoning an idea or technology, which had formerly, perhaps wrongly, been seen as progressive.

Will Welch GQ Style's Editor-In-Chief, Will Welch, is the man at the helm of a brand new approach to a broad appeal fashion magazine for men, investing in multi-platform content with attention rivaling the printed pages. Seth Friedermann calls in from the far reaches of Eastern Pennsylvania to talk mens style, mens fashion business, and music culture. This episode is about... How do magazines work now? How should designers think about advertising? How do men shop? What defines the current moment of menswear? Who should you listen to about what matters in the industry and trend tracking? Yes, that last one was a trick question. References: * Male Fashion Advice section on Reddit

Save The Garment Center We've been hearing about Save The Garment Center for years, but it's a bit difficult to gauge the organization's progress as we see more hotels and condos replacing manufacturing and showroom buildings across the protected zone in midtown Manhattan. "Save the Garment Center was started in 2007 as a grassroots campaign by factory owners Samanta Cortes, Anthony Lilore, Paul Cavazza and Larry Geffner. This campaign was in response to City Hall’s plans to lift the 1987 zoning laws that had protected the leases of the Garment Center fashion tenants for the past 23 years. Save the Garment Center’s initial goal was to keep the manufacturers and suppliers in New York’s Garment Center from being pushed out of the district, or having to shut down all together." - savethegarmentcenter.org In this episode, Anthony Lilore, Samanta Cortes, Caroda Inc. garment factory owner Ida Leigh M. Law, and Create-a-Marker Inc. owner Paul Cavazza provide an update on the organization's progress. Also in the studio, Flying Solo Collective founder Elizabeth Solomeina, and Artbag owner Chris Moore, whose business not only manufactures high end leather accessories for his 1130 Madison Avenue store, they also recondition and restore vintage bags and other accessories. References: * CFDA Fashion Manufacturing Initiative (list of factories) * Maker's Row * The Garment District NYC Fashion Directory * DG Expo * Park Avenue International * Village Tannery

Clothed In Cool Charles Beckwith and Seth Friedermann chat over Skype about... * How important is content creation in selling fashion? * How to think about building an e-commerce website in a more holistic sense? * Charles tries out "mass customization" and hits a wall. * How do you know that the ad agency isn't just telling you what you want to hear? * Does trying to "stay relevant" keep you from being clothed in cool? * Who are the trendsetters today? Are they really just the same people they were yesterday? * How insane is aspiration luxury as a strategy for new and small brands? * Marketing vs. Branding... and yes, it's important. References: * King Content: Monster or Hero? (BoF / GQ Style)  

Patricia Mears is the Deputy Director of The Museum at FIT, and author of numerous Fashion Studies books. Fashion historian Patricia Mears is in the studio with us this week, talking about The Museum at FIT, and her historical perspective on the fashion business now vs. decades past. Topics: Who collects clothing and other bits of fashion and preserves it in private fashion history collections or donates it to museums? What is the dollar value of rarer pieces, and has that changed in the last couple years? What is the most active hot spot for original global street style? Is there a need for multiple smart curatorial voices in fashion studies? How is fashion being absorbed by consumers and the culture today? How do we identify names of fashion design and construction geniuses whose work has now been more or less forgotten? How does Patricia Mears, fashion historian, define the characteristics of the overall collection held by the Museum at FIT? Now vs. Then: "I think it's going to continue to be tough. If you read some of the quotes and interviews from designers from the 20s and 30s, you'd think they were talking about today. 'There are too many people,' 'there is not enough demand,' 'I'm trying to market my goods,' 'I can't get the money from wholesalers for fabric,' and 'the department stores are giving me a hard time.' I think the thing that has changed so much is access to The Internet, and that kind of aspect of social media, having a much larger voice." Now vs. Tomorrow "One of the things economists are saying about manufacturing around the world is that we're going to see a real drop in jobs. And while this election cycle is motivated by that in part here in the United States, one of the main reasons for that is automation, and that's going to be moving ever-forward.  I also think that we have to rethink how we train people coming up." References: * Fendi makes fashion history at the Trevi Fountain - video - (CNN)

Flying Solo is a new fashion store in the popular Soho designer shopping area of Manhattan, where there are many, but it is also a different store in the retail landscape. The clerks working the store in shifts are not hourly wage slaves, but the designers of the clothing on the racks and the accessories on the shelves. For someone with a large brand this would be impractical, but for an emerging designer it seems to fit like a glove. Designers Elizabeth Solomeina and Katie Lares stayed late in the store for this brief introduction to the store and "the movement," as they call it. Now open at 224 Mulberry Street in Soho, the Flying Solo retail concept brings designers closer to customers, and customers closer to satisfaction.

Ecocult founder Alden Wicker moderates a panel of fashion sustainability leaders, featuring jewelry designer Melissa Joy Manning, Zady.com founder Maxine Bedat, Maiyet co-founder Kristy Caylor, and womenswear designer Mara Hoffman. The panel covered a wide range of issues facing designers who are trying to manufacture using the most sustainable methods possible. More photos and a deeper outline of the discussion will be available on the Ecocult website. photos by Rachael Elana Photography

The story of a swimwear designer who came the long way round. "When she was 16, Tala Raassi went to a party. She talked to boys, and wore a mini-skirt. She was punished with 40 lashes and five days in jail." That is the beginning of her story, but what happened in the following years is a story far more familiar to our audience, that of a designer trying to figure out how to get into and stay in the business of fashion. Fashion Is Freedom Author Tala Raassi The book, Fashion Is Freedom: How a Girl from Tehran Broke the Rules to Change Her World, outlines some of the most common problems young designers face, from working with the wrong partners, to support behind aspirations to be an artist from one parent and not the other, to starting with a t-shirt line, to getting tied up with the lower tier entertainment industry bottom feeders who promise the world and deliver less than advertised (including a certain nightclub-dwelling New York con artist currently running for President of The United States), to hitting the infamous low minimums wall, to crazy international travels with strange people and that universal human connection that transcends spoken language. Directed at women, and especially young girls, the book shows a way through dark and difficult chapters, though an interesting story for just about anyone. It is a cautionary but inspiring tale, well worth the read. In The Studio In the studio with American Fashion, Tala goes into more detail about how she solved certain problems, how she started writing opinion pieces about fashion clashes between the Western and Muslim world, and how she finally turned a string of bad luck into dozens of wholesale accounts around the world. AFP Gets A New Website This is the first episode of American Fashion Podcast published on our new revamped website on our new domain name, americanfashionpodcast.com. Our new email address is now info@americanfashionpodcast.com.    

Ralph Rucci Goes Into Detail The preeminent American designer's designer, Ralph Rucci, is back with us (swing back to episode #50 to listen to the previous recording). In this episode, Mr. Rucci updates us on his RR331 venture, the couture work he has been doing for private clients, and his plans to return to show during Paris Haute Couture. There is also discussion of his take on the current retail environment, opinion on the exposure level of the Michael Kors brand, pre-show jitters, and Rucci's interest in working with classic American brands like Levis and Hanes on updating staple garments. The conversation turns to his thoughts on fast fashion, making high fashion accessible, the changing seasons and schedule changes for Fashion Week, and the shift he sees coming away from darkness and toward leadership in the industry again by "kind people." References * Ralph Rucci Teams Up With Moda Operandi for Made-to-order Initiative (WWD)

How To Fund A Fashion Business Attorney Lois F. Herzeca is the author of the preeminent fashion law survival guide, Fashion Law and Business: Brands and Retailers. In this episode she talks about how fashion brands get funded and gives tips and tricks for how to make that process run smoothly, both for investors and designers. References: * Nineteenth Amendment * Betabrand * Golden Seeds * Lawrence Lenihan on Fashion Is Your Business episode #115 * Resonance

Fashion Pop-Up Store Strategy   Lion'esque Group founder Melissa Gonzalez helps brands set up camp to sell and be known. The company provides fashion pop-up store strategy, deployment, and management for a wide range of clients both inside and outside the fashion sphere. The temporary pop-up shop trend seems to have been catching on as steadily as the decline of traditional brick and mortar retail establishment, and can be a smart response to a number of different needs, from simple brand awareness building to flash sales that clear out merchandise. How do you gauge the value of working with specific influencers, when most are not at all proven to drive conversions? How do you run analytics on a pop-up store? How do you do a pop-up in another city? How do you make informed decisions while running a pop-up store, rather than one-off conclusions? Is running a pop-up store a good way to prepare for opening a traditional brick and mortar store? What's the difference between a pop-up and a trunk show? Is this a good strategy for small brands? References: * author Paco Underhill's books on buying behavior (Amazon) * The Pop-Up Paradigm (Amazon)

Damn The Fashion Week, Full Speed Ahead Charles Beckwith an Richard Spiegel (The Fashion Tribune) are ranting about fashion week (damn the fashion week, full speed ahead). We sat down at the end of New York Fashion Week to talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly. This is rather raw and almost a behind the scenes conversation, of the kind that promoted the creation of this series. Also in this episode is a backstage interview with designer Tadashi Shoji at his Spring 2017 collection show (at the 20:50 mark), and a chat with designer Austin Scarlet about his new experiment with non-bridal ready to wear (at the 23:15 mark). Should emerging designers be doing fashion shows? Should Fashion Week even exist anymore? Where else should fashion shows be happening that they are not now going on? What happened to the party and the love and the spirit of fashion week? Is there a simple way to get it back? What would happen if fast fashion ceased to exist tomorrow? Why does the US Government tolerate cheap imports and trade deals that flood our market with fast fashion? References: * Monse * Tadashi Shoji * Reem Acra * threeASFOUR * Made Fashion Week * Kate Miles * Wanabees Have Ruined Fashion Week (NY Post) * Esteban Cortazar * Mathieu Mirano

Yeohlee Teng Interview Yeohlee Teng (bio) has been a fixture of the New York City fashion design, culture, and industry for decades. Her store at 12 West 29th Street is a destination for women seeking clothing of a rare quality, the product of an intelligence and thoughtfulness that is both the mark and mind of its creator. AFP hosts Charles, Seth, and Lisa attempt to interview Yeohlee about fashion then and now, disposable culture, her approach to design and technique, and a range of other topics, but she interviews them back, in this fascinating exchange about what is important in fashion and the life of highly conscious creative people. Highlights: You have to be careful who is telling you what the definitions are in this industry, because there's this [message], "well, this is what the consumer wants, and so we're just giving them what they want," without acknowledging that the consumer has been trained to want that. And therefore, they can probably be untrained. - Seth Friedermann (15:22) You would be surprised at how smart the women are who come into my store. I don't have to tell them anything, they know. They know what looks good on them. They know the value of what they're buying. They know how long it will last. They know how many places they can wear them to. They knwo it travels well. They know they can hand wash it. There are people that I could inform, but there are a lot more that could inform me. - Yeohlee Teng (25:04) I think compassion plays a role. A lot of women are forgotten in the fashion world. I dress everybody. I have no prejudice. - Yeohlee Teng (31:36) References: * Humans Who Design * Madeleine Vionnet * Claire McCardell * American Beauty: Aesthetics and Innovation in Fashion * Richard Martin * Made In Midtown

Fashion Week Pre-Game Show New York Fashion Week is next week, so we've gathered some great minds to help you get your head in the game. It's the New York Fashion Week Pre-Game Extravaganza! Guests in this episode include Fashion Unfiltered founder and editor Katharine Zarrella, Decoded Fashion founder Liz Bacelar, ace runway photographer Udor (Instagram), and guest host Cathy Schepis. Fashion Week show formats continue to evolve. A few seasons ago, many in the industry were shocked at the introduction of so many presentations replacing runway shows, and there have been experiments with social media-based shows, 3D effects, and fashion films. What's now, and what is next? Have bloggers disappeared from the front row? What is the role of individual social media influencers now? Where are we with See Now Buy Now? Is it getting big, or just buzz? Why aren't there more top customers at the shows? All this and more, in our New York Fashion Week Pre-Game Extravaganza! references: * With New Iconography at Play, Gucci is Banking on Legal Protection * NYC Casting Calls Facebook Group

Aubrie Pagano, Founder and CEO of Bow & Drape Mass customization has been a big buzz term in the fashiontech sphere for a couple of years, and a company spearheading the implementation of the idea is Bow and Drape. Aubrie Pagano (bio) founded the company in 2012 and has been making pathfinder decisions in the fashion future space ever since. Granted, it's a lot of kitsch, like sweatshirts bearing slogans such as "Namaste In Bed" and "Humble Like Kanye," but the course toward customers being able to make requests for changes to garments when shopping online is unmistakably part of fashion's new frontier. Guest host, photographer Stephen Eastwood references: * AFP Episode #79. with Cindy Gallop and Frank Spadafora