I thought this was an excellent article on the challenges of setting up a emerging fashion business and the necessary fine balance between creativity and business.

http://www.inc.com/articles/2007/02/fashionweek.html

New York. London. Milan. Paris.

So the circus goes. For four weeks, twice a year, fashion journalists, buyers, photographers, models, bloggers , stylists and hangers-on do the circuit of fashion capitals. And every year it season it seems to get a bit crazier. There is so much noise that it is hard to sift through all the shows and separate the wheat from the chaff. With more than 200 shows during this year’s NY fashion week (which actually runs nine days), running virtually all day from 9am to 9pm, everyone is getting a bit of fashion fatigue.

Even WWD, the business bible of the industry led today’s paper with a plea for sanity going forward instead of other important goings-on, not least of which was the prospect of private equity investors talking to Peter Som, Jimmy Choo’s announcement of its move into fragrances and eyewear, and of course reviews of yesterday’s shows, including new collections from veterans like Michael Kors and industry darlings Proenza Schouler.

WWD’s challenge in covering all the goings on is mirrored by the choices that buyers and presss have to make every day during the shows. If there are 5 shows going on in one time slot, which one should they attend? Most likely, they will choose a designer they have been buying or covering for many seasons, as opposed to allocating their time to some unknown hopeful emerging designer.

So, if you’re a young designer, how do you stand out from the crowd? One answer is to bolt from the NY fashion week scene and show in a city that is less competitive. Milan doesn’t really seem to welcome emerging designers (there are all those Italian heavyweights and global brands to pay attention to) and Paris is a notoriously clubby place where getting a show slot from the Chambre Syndicale is notoriously difficult.

So that leaves London, the much maligned ugly stepsister of the other more important fashion capitals. For years now, London has seen its strongest London-based designers with the most commercial potential (Sophia Kokosalaki and Husein Chalayan to Paris, Alice Temperley, Matthew Williamson, ISSA and Luella Bartley to New York, etc),  flee Londontown for the commercial opportunities in NY or Paris (which has played its part in making New York fashion week the mayhem that it is).

However, of late, it seems that some of the more business savvy designers are choosing to stick to London Fashion Week. For example, Giles Deacon’s show is by far the hottest ticket during LFW and he gets the most attention from the worlds media and buyers, some of whom come for his show alone.  (Now, it is a fair point that not everyone comes to London, but more people are coming of late and the British Fashion Council is working – albeit slowly – on making LFW a more viable, commercial and efficient operation. Back to Giles, if he had gone to another city, he would not get the same attention that he does in London. He still sells the collection in Paris during Paris Fashion Week to ensure that sales follow on the great PR he gets in London. London is also part of Giles’ brand identity, so a London based show reinforces the quirky luxury positioning of his brand.

You don’t have to be Giles to get attention in London. Other lesser known designers also benefit from London’s knack in launching new names. Manish Arora, Christopher Kane and Marios Schwab all get signficant attention from their London shows. They would likely not get the time of day in New York or Paris — not because they lack talent, but because the compeition for attention abroad is so fierce,

It seems that some designers, of both the emerging and established type, are cottoning on to the benefits of showing in London. Nathan Jenden, the designer who works closely with Diane von Furstenburg in New York, is returning to London from New York this season to show his eopymous collection.  Last season, Armani got into the act and was the toast of fashion week as he threw an unprecendented extravaganza with almost 100 models to show his diffusion Emporio Armani collection in London to coincide with the re-opening of his Emporio Armani store. Marc Jacobs is taking a page from Mr. Armani’s book this season where he will close LFW with his Marc by Marc Jacobs collection to launch his new store in Mayfair.

These two shows were coups for the BFC because many editors and press are obliged to come to show their support for these legendary designers (and to ensure the continued flow of cash from their big advertising budgets!). But the BFC would be wise to use this strategy carefully as it is trying to position itself as a launchpad for the best young international talent. If too many big name commercial designers begin to show in London, it could detract from the core of what London is all about: nurturing the great talent that might go unnoticed elsewhere.

London Fashion Week begins on Monday. Lets see what great talents emerge this time.

Last night, legendary Parisian concept store Colette feted London designer Giles Deacon’s latest collaboration with Mulberry — a link to Giles’ S/S 07 collection of ’subtle’ fetishism. The place was rammed with fashionistas (there were a couple of other events going on). The Parisians are into colour-blocking these days, there was a lot of red, purple and electric blue peaking out of black blazers, leather jackets and dresses. Even the cocktails of the night were electric blue.

Collaborations like this are good for emerging designers like Giles because they provide much needed cash to fund the business through working capital crunches, lend credibilty to designer’s stature, and raise the profile of the designer on the back of PR events like this. Who doesn’t like to have a party thrown in their honour? In return, the brands get cool products and street cred.

Who ever thought Mulberry could look like this?

The place was heaving.

The colour-blocking was raging.

How cool does this look? What a creative event.

Gentry de Paris is hosting a very special event at next weekend’s Salon de

la Lingerie.

In conjunction with the cult Parisian cabaret MurderSuicidePresents, Monsieur Poudre, our mysterious Master of Ceremonies, will be your guide into the curious and surreal dream of sleeping Joséphine de Beauharnais. Featuring Lady Bird in a silver cage and Miss Morte under a flurry of ostrich feather fans, Joséphine’s strange dream comes alive once an hour through a pink champagne haze provided by to our gracious sponsor Champagne Duval-Leroy

Elegant lines and opulent fabrics inspired by the Premier Empire feature heavily in the Winter 2007 collection. Our bra-panty-garter sets in luscious French silk satin jacquards come in pale, antique colors. Opulent silk satin solids make up our pyjamas and nightgown range.  Super soft viscose jersey wireless bras and boyshorts suit every budget.  And of course our Loro Piana featherweight cashmere comes in boxers, tanks panties and pyjamas.

Many emerging designers get their initial support from the myriad small boutiques around the world that are trying to give their customers something a bit different; something they won’t necessarily find in a department store. High-end boutiques also differ from their department store counterparts in that they really get involved in giving their customers advice and tips on the newest designers and styles. I took a walk through SoHo on Saturday with my friend Joan, a serious fashionista, who also spends a lot of her time scouring eBay for unique pieces that speak to her individuality.

This is Joan camping out in front of some SoHo graffiti, wearing her first ever eBay fashion purchase, a shaggy shearling jacket that helps keep her warm in the frigid temperatures that New Yorkers have been struggling with over the past few days.

We visited a couple of Joan’s favourite designer womenswear boutiques. The first one was Kirna Zabete

(96 Greene St., SoHo, New York 10012, near Spring St. +1 212-941-9656), which is a store selling the wares of young designers including Peter Som, Proenza Schouler, Tuleh and Derek Lam. The store is run by two very glamourous women who I have spotted at the shows in New York and Paris. You can’t miss them. They are some of the best-dressed women around, and they run a good business to boot, having been flogging designer clothes for over 6 years. Many boutiques don’t last even 6 months. I attribute their success to focusing carefully on their target customer and buying a tightly-edited collection that suits that customer perfectly. The store staff were helpful and smart (if not somewhat aloof), even though the security guard wouldn’t let me take a photo of the store-front from the outside. We took one anyway because it seemed ridiculous to prevent people from taking photos on the street. I can understand why they want to keep people from taking photos inside, but outside too? Sheeesh.

The next stop was Curve (83 Mercer Street, SoHo, New York), a new transplant from L.A. where Curve has been pleasing West coast fashionistas for several years now. The sales staff in Curve were extremely friendly and truly excited about the brands they are carrying, including their own house label "Curve" and Fenton jewelry, mixed in with Vivienne Westwood, and some serious vintage couture pieces from Dior and the like.

What’s great about New York is that it is always reflecting the zeitgeist of America, which right now is of course about the war in Iraq. Joan and I spotted an unforgettable scene of simple graffiti in a basketball court which speaks for itself. The chain-link of the fence seemed to be perfectly appropriate symbol for this.

I have started receiving invitations to fashion shows, showrooms  and exhibitions for upcoming fashion weeks in Paris, London and New York. I’ll keep posting them up here as I receive them.

Invitations are a bi-annual way of reinforcing designer’s brand identity. It is amazing what some designers are able to do with a small piece of paper to make their creative vision for the season sing out from the page. In this digital era, invitations have taken a new dimension as people play around with digital elements to make the invitations come alive.

Rajesh Pratap Singh, New Delhi and Paris
I met Pratap and his sister-in-law Sapna at Delhi Fashion Week in April last year. His is one of the most talked-about collections on the Indian Fashion Scene. Beautiful minimalist lines and a muted colour palette make Pratap a stand-out in the colourful frenzy that is Indian fashion. What’s more, on the business side, Sapna is the driving force behind managing this rapidly growing business. With an MBA from INSEAD and a good understanding of how to get things done in India, the business is much stronger as a result.

This is a label to watch. Check out www.pratap.ws.

VPL, New York
Victoria Bartlett designs for VPL New York and the business is managed by my friend Kikka Hanazawa that I met at business school. Kikka has years of experience in the fashion industry including a stint at Theory where she headed up strategy.

Check out www.vplnyc.com

Wendy and Jim, Vienna and Paris

The wonderful Anina introduced me to Wendy and Jim in the Autumn. I have not seen their collections in person yet, but hope to check it out this season. Not sure if I will be in Paris that night or not, but the invitation looks cool.

More images are on the fun website at www.wujsympathisant.com

Speaking of the new trends I mentioned in a previous post, style.com just posted a summary of trends (well, its 221 photos, so not a summary in actuality) for women’s S/S 07. My favourites, as I mentioned, were the eighties revival and futurism.

I couldn’t help but take note of the pinup girls trend. It made me think right back to the launch of Madonna’s Confessions on  Dancefloor album in the Autumn of 2005, where she pranced around in a purple leotard in Hung Up video. Some people (and countries) were scandalised by it at the time (see this article about her purple-leotarded performance being banned in Malaysia ). Let’s just say not everyone could appreciate this latest Madonna avatar. But given the looks shown in this part of the trend watch on style.com, many designers loved  the look (maybe unconsciously?) and channeled it in their S/S 07 collections. Though they might not admit it, Madonna is their pinup girl. Now, too bad she couldn’t get a royalty stream from that as well.

[photo from madonna.com, Confessions on a Dancefloor]

Diesel subsidiary Staff International announced today its investment in the emerging label of much-lauded London-based Greek designer Sophia Kokosalaki. With only £350k in annual revenue, Kokosalaki’s business is not huge, but Renzo Rosso, CEO of Diesel, has clearly seen potential in her work and has stepped up to help take the brand to the next level.

This is excellent news for Kokosalaki in what should be a banner year for the young designer whose debut collection for the House of Vionnet will bow in Paris this season. The much-vaunted comeback for Vionnet is expected to  be gracefully executed by Kokosalaki whose trademark draping dovetail’s nicely with Vionnet’s heritage and her famous bias-cut.

More young designers should look for partnerships like the one that Kokosalaki has concluded with Mr Rosso. Through Diesel’s subsidiary, Staff International, which also works with other emerging brands like DSquared2 and Maison Martin Margiela , Kokosalaki has found not only the investment capital to grow her business, but more importantly, a skilled partner who can add value to the business through connections, experience and expertise. Furthermore, due to Mr. Rosso’s experience with working with other young designers and his clear appreciation for creativity, Kokosalaki is likely to maintain the creative freedom and autonomy that she needs to continue to develop her  unique signature.

It will be interesting to see how successfully Kokosalaki will split her time and her creative energy between her eponymous collection and the Vionnet collection. Will she be able to carve out a unique identity and aesthetic for both collections? That remains to be seen.

Up until now, Kokosalaki, like many young designers, has relied on one-off consultancies and brand building activities. She did a small capsule collection for Nine West in the USA – you can learn more about it in this video.

[photo from Sophia Kokosalaki S/S 2007, from WWD]