Mio Fashion

Archive for January, 2011

Certain principles of life and business never change. Like with the law of gravity, for example, its just plain better to know how it works even if youre not sure why.

I was reminded of this last week when the mens fashion clothing trade magazine Daily News Record (DNR) ran a story (Retail Graveyard, October 29) about a guy named Peter Divietro in Sloatsburg, N.Y., who annually for Halloween decorates his front yard with tombstones to commemorate dead retail stores.

That in turn reminded me of a failed chain of hip-hop clothing stores in Chicago called The Lark. Do you remember The Lark?

The owner was Lenny Rothschild. I met him on a sales visit at his suburban Chicago office one summer day in 2003 while my company was still making Black Fives throwback jerseys for wholesale distribution to stores. The Lark was an important account because it commanded the urban fashion retail market in Chicago.

FLYING HIGH; WITH AN UPSCALE APPROACH TO MERCHANDISING AND CUSTOMER SERVICE, THE LARK SOARS IN CHICAGOS URBAN MARKET, read a headline in DNR earlier that year. As Lenny Rothschild pilots his silver Mercedes-Benz coupe around Chicago, his love for the city is obvious, is how that article began (DNR, February 10, 2003).

If you wanted your goods in Chicago, you had to sell Lenny. All the biggest streetwear brands loved him, and Lenny was the gatekeeper who could make or break small, upcoming apparel brands like Black Fives. And he knew it.

Lenny was smart, and he wanted people to know it. His Harvard diploma hung prominently on the wall. Lenny delighted in explaining how to introduce new merchandise to coincide with welfare check and tax refund arrival dates, to maximize sales to his most faithful customer base, low-income inner-city residents. His stores were concentrated in those areas.

I showed and pitched my unique, attractive, high-quality, economically priced jerseys and matching fitted hats. Lenny looked them over and shrugged, and asked me how I expected anyone to know about the history of these Black Fives teams and players. I showed him some big press clippings and also explained that each jersey comes with its own informative hang tag, reminiscent of a collectible vintage basketball card, with images on one side and history text on the other. I handed him one of the cards.

This wont matter because black kids dont read, said Lenny.

Today, when I think of the immutable principles that work in life and in business, I think of two of them that applied to Lenny that day. One is that how you do anything is how you do everything. The other is that what you focus on expands. The trick is that these principles work the same whether in the negative or in the positive realm.

Lenny gave me an $8,000 order that afternoon. I shipped it, but what he didnt realize is that his loyal customers had already begun a quiet revolt. Instead of buying $300 retro jerseys like the kind The Lark was selling, his clientele had flipped the script, now buying plain white tee shirts to make the same fashion statement at three for $10. It was the revenge of the lowly urban consumer. It happened across the country. It was swift and it was bloody. Many urban retailers didnt make it.

Within two weeks, Lenny returned his Black Fives order unopened.

Whenever I shopped at The Lark, customer service didnt exist. Young African American employees were distant and resentful, usually the sign of low wages, cheap thinking, and lack of appreciation by management.

Not to pick on Lenny, because he wasnt alone in this approach to the so-called loyal inner-city consumer, but didnt you have that experience too, nearly everywhere you shopped?

By 2005, The Lark lay buried in the retail graveyard. AFTER THE LARK: MORE HIP, NO HOP; CLOSING HIS HIP-HOP APPAREL CHAIN, RETAILER OPENS ESSEX5, DEVOTED TO PREMIUM DENIM, SPORTSWEAR, read the DNR headline this time. The Lark is grounded, the article began. Lenny Rothschild has closed all 10 of The Lark stores he owned and operated, making the once-high-flying hip-hop apparel specialty chain a thing of the past (DNR, December 19, 2005).

What Ill always remember about The Lark are Lenny Rothschilds famous (last) words: black kids dont read.

The principles of life and business always work the same. Beliefs do become reality. Thoughts lead to feelings lead to actions lead to results. This works both ways, in this case to the advantage of the consumer and to the dismay of the retailer. Lenny couldve avoided it all if there had been any books like T. Harv Ekers brilliant Secrets of the Millionaire Mind available for him to read at the time. But there werent. And he didnt.

Thus, the Larks tombstone might have the epitaph, Gee, I guess black kids read after all.

Was Lenny right? Or do all kids read less? Or is it only online reading they do? Or something else? Whats your opinion?

One of the First Fashion Design Schools Online: Milan Fashion Campus

Do you dream of making it big in the fashion world someday?

I have good news for you! Your dream is now just a click away – may it be to become a fashion designer, a web fashion designer, an image consultant, a fashion magazine stylist, a TV program stylist, an event stylist, a fashion journalist, or a personal shopper – with the Milan Fashion Campus Online Fashion Design Course.

The Creator

Angelo Russica, a seasoned fashion guru who has more or less 20 years of experience in the fashion world, created the course with his aim of not only coming up with an Internet-based fashion design school that will teach the history, aesthetics, and skills required of Italy’s fashion, but extending the Italian fashion sense to the world as well.  

With more than 15 years of collaborative experience as a creative assistant to different companies the world over, like Versace, Gruppo Max Mara, Marzotto, Miroglio Vestebene in Italy; Induyco and El Corte Ingles in Spain; and Fujii, Chori, King Company, and World Company in Japan, Russica was able to talk to numerous young students from an array of famous fashion design schools who complain about having spent lots of money on more or less three years of study, only to find out in the end, that it is hard to find a job and almost impossible to make a name. This is also one reason why Russica developed the first online fashion design school in Italy – he wants Milan Fashion Campus to give many aspiring fashion students a chance to learn about the wonders of Italian fashion without having to spend so much.

The Course

This one of a kind fashion design course provides students with the opportunity to be professionally in touch with Italy’s Fashion Design Learning Method. The intensive online fashion design course of Milan Fashion Campus also serves as a venue for the realization of dreams – may it be to become a professional figure or the famous designer of the future.

The lessons are sequenced in such a way that the students can easily follow them.  The course requires active student participation since lessons are geared toward teaching learners how to do market analysis, how to locate valuable sources of information, and how to discover inspiration. Students of Milan Fashion Course will also learn the tricks of the trade, just like what professional fashion designers do: examining the streets, examining fashion stories, examining the music world, and examining the opinion of fashion leaders.

The Milan Fashion Campus Online Fashion Design Course, which can be downloaded through www.fashioncampus.it, has seven sections, 27 chapters, almost 200 pages, and more than 170 exercises that will serve as guidance for students from their first sketch to their first fashion show. The course also gives a chance to students to specialize on different areas, like celebrity and men fashion design, handbag design, color and rendering technique, and fashion figure template.

One may buy the course chapter per chapter, too, especially if you just want to try out the course first.

The course is in English and downloadable once you have paid the amount stated in www.fashioncampus.it, may it be through Paypal or money transfer. This also means that you may start with the course anytime you want.

For more information regarding fees and FAQ’s, just visit www.fashioncampus.it.

You will not only improve your fashion taste and sensibility, but also open opportunities for a wonderful career in fashion.

Hannah Deacon | Stylist

Hannah Deacon | Stylist – BBC Biography

Fashion industry is an exciting industry and attracts many brilliant, ambitious, creative, talented, and committed designers and people. Success in this industry calls for definitive passion and enthusiasm if one wants to achieve the targets. An intense desire to create, visualize, explore and appreciate real beauty must be inherent in the person. It’s said to be a creative field and one must possess or acquire certain skills that are indispensable. This includes an ability to think creatively beyond the obvious and the capacity to carve a niche in almost all the projects one undertakes. This is made possible by making it different yet stunning than the previous work.

Opportunities and careers in the fashion and modelling industry revolve around beauty trends. If one wants to be successful in this field of fashion one should have the unquenchable thirst for perfection in all its relevant styles and forms. The ever-changing fashion statements and equations determine the change in fashion trends of clothing, ornamenting accessories, and the adoption of new ways of carrying oneself. It is simply the trendy style that brings along elegance with a difference in various kinds of designs. Style is an individual aspect; and no two people can have or possess exactly the same style statement. This is so because every person has got a unique style of his own. In fact, the concepts related to fashion and trends are also different. Some people are of the view that fashion is the craze of the slaves. They might also add that this is why they try to dress and carry themselves in a style or manner similar to that demonstrated by the fashion models walking the ramp. This thought is challenged by a different school of thought. People who go against these fashion trends are themselves the slaves of the so-called fashion trends or styles.

Even though different concepts abound in this world of glamour, fashion and modelling as a niche industry is never going to fade out. There are large numbers of opportunities in this field for the talented lot. One can opt for any of the following mentioned job prospects pertaining to one’s areas of interest. This ranges from modelling, catwalk choreography, fashion and modelling photography, designing, merchandising, styling, hair styling to accessory designing. Modelling offers a promising career and requires one to have a certain confidence level along with a pleasing appearance that needs to conform to the basic style standards of popular and trendy fashion designers. One needs to have a mental inclination towards the world of glitz and glamour, which is part and parcel of this particular industry.

The job of a fashion coordinator also is interesting. The fashion coordinator would be responsible for coordinating the various aspects related to attires, trimmings, overall quality and design. He will have to keep a constant track of the production schedules of the various product lines and must be updated about the status of buyers’ orders. In fact, there are several other career options that need to be explored by the aspirants.