. . . And to Those Still Trying to Break Through the ‘Noise’. There are no impossibilities.
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How Effective Is Social Media To Your Brand? EDGE Designers Tell All
The usage of social media with marketers ranks very high in the marketing efforts of connecting current and prospective consumers to their brands. As reported by statista.com, in the United States alone, social media marketing spending is expected to exceed 17 billion U.S. dollars in 2019 – almost ten billion increase, compared to 2014.
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Beyond The Academics | 6 EDGE Designers Share Business Advice
The EDGE network of emerging designers share business tips and advice on their journey as an up and coming brand in the fashion industry. This is part of the EDGE experience based [to complement academic] educational best practice series.
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Interested in Costume Design? Tips by Alex Jaeger, Awarded Costume Designer
Alex Jaeger is an awarded costume designer based in Los Angeles. His background spans multiple disciplines of the performing arts and film. We gained insight on the costume creation process and the role it plays in the performing arts from our talk with Alex.
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“Spotlight”: The Making of a Student Fashion Show
A student fashion show is not just “show and tell”, but a collaborative educational experience that showcases student’s marketing, design, and event production talents. It’s applying the academics to real life. I wanted to learn more about the “what, why, and how” of producing a show by the student body and in particular how it […]
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Branding and the Longevity of Branding | Mademoiselle Prive Exhibition
The Chanel brand epitomizes a fashion brand that has stood the test of time through longevity, integrity, and creativity. Chanel continues to remain culturally relevant with a spirit of surprise and newness, yet staying true to its heritage.
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The Business of Fashion | Do Fashion Institutes Really Prepare You?
Business and design go hand in hand, now, and without understanding how each part is important you can easily find yourself losing your power in major decision making moments. . . – Brendan M Combs, designer.
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5 questions With Jay Arbetman | Sourcing To Sustain Commercial Success
In today’s world, you need to understand what can be sourced at a level that will sustain commercial use. You need to understand that highly customized fabrics and trims will either have enormous minimums, enormous prices or both. – Jay Arbetman, The Sourcing District.
Read moreThread Counts {The Journey of a Garment}
6 EDGE Designers Share Business Advice | What School Doesn’t Teach
The EDGE network of emerging designers share business tips and advice on their journey as an up and coming brand in the fashion industry. These direct quotes are from the EDGE Radar designer interview series.
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Spec Packages | The Critical Product Development Tool
EDGE team contributor and technical designer, Melissa Lugo, shares her expertise on garment spec packages. We talked to Melissa, asking her pertinent questions regarding the importance of design specification packages. Melissa, what are spec [specification] packages and how important are they in the product development process? I use the word packages, because it is inclusive […]
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Emerging Designers, a Niche Market, and How to Get Noticed | EDGE Talks to Indie Retailer
Amara Bessa, owner of Kariella Clothing Shop, took the time to talk to EDGE about her start in the fashion industry, how often and where she shops the market, and what she does to differentiate Kariella from other independent retailers. In a live audio interview, Amara tells us about her vision to be unique, build […]
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Empowerment – Taking Charge | A Graduation Message
Artist Teresita Fernandez once said, You don’t need a lot of friends or curators or patrons or a huge following, just a few that really believe in you. Graduates of all vocations, yet particularly those of the arts, don’t wait for one or two years to truly own your life, empower yourselves now! Whether it is […]
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Rhonda’s Best Practices. . . Focus on The Consumer
Focus on the consumer, not sales, believe me, it’s a win, win. To do this you have to intimately know who your audience is. Who are you designing for? You design for the customer – the retailer/buyer – and you design for the consumer – the ultimate end user. Knowing the consumer will position you […]
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Rhonda’s Best Practices and Tips | Branding
As a veteran in the fashion business, this feature on business practices and tips are from my personal experience. Those of you that are recent graduates bear in mind that academia is a great foundation. Gaining complete knowledge of running a fashion business [designer, wholesaler, or retailer] is the combination of both academia and experience. […]
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Tom Ford Fashion Business Survival Guide
You have a voice that can influence contemporary culture as much or more than anything else. If you love what you do, there’s nothing like the rush of having a great idea and then seeing it created. – Tom Ford, keynote speaker at the 2013 annual CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund awards dinner. EDGE up and coming […]
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Stella McCartney’s Tips at CFDA and Vogue’s Annual Fashion Fund Dinner
Stella McCartney was the keynote speaker at the Council of Fashion Designers of America [CFDA] and Vogue’s annual Fashion Fund dinner. Her advice to the fashion class of 2014, as told by Marshall Heyman of wsj.com [and I share to the EDGE network]: • Go work in Paris. “It will serve you very well if […]
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Sustainable Fashion Never Goes Out of Style
IMAGINE A FUTURE LIKE THIS: Community Couture [Scenario 2] 1. The world is… struggling to cope with the impacts of climate change and resource shortages but community bonds are strong – many strive for self-sufficiency. 2. Fashion is… expensive new or cheap and second-hand… very high costs of raw materials and disrupted supply chains have […]
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Top Principles for Success – Professionalism and Preparation
The designers/brands that were truly professional would arrive a day or two in San Francisco [when I was a buyer for Macy’s] prior to our meeting. They arrived well in advance in order to shop the floor, shop the market, and understand the competition of both my department and their product competition. They wanted to […]
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Top Principles for Success – Relationships are essential
Another lesson I’ve learned is that it’s so important to create strong relationship and to develop a strong network of professionals you can turn to for advice or support and know that they truly have the best interest for you and your brand. Building those relationships are like partnerships that will help strengthen your business, […]
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Top Principles for Success – Exposure = the road to success
One of the most important challenges of your career as a successful fashion designer is to get and maintain retail and/or media exposure for your brand.
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Top Principles for Success – Maintain Your Focus
Commit yourself to your vision and goals, and understand clearly what will and will not help you along the way. Stay in your “lane” or on the road that will lead you to accomplish your goals. Sometimes designers/brands encounter situations that appear to be opportunities, but can take them off the road in directions that […]
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Top Principles for Success – Know Your Market
During my many years as a buyer and merchandising executive, I got to know and observe a variety of successful designers and brands from around the country. Many of these designers were emerging designers, others were well on to becoming established, yet all of them were fast on their way to making not only national […]
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