Archive for Fashion

9 Steps How to Get Your Fashions and Accessories Manufactured

Quotas, sample costs, materials, capital, first runs – don’t know where to start?

o A simple step-by-step guide to getting your product manufactured.
o How to decide which manufacturer to use
o Where to find the best manufacturer for YOUR design
- trade fairs, online sources, agents.
o The pros and cons of hiring and agent vs. going direct.
o The facts about quality control, commissions, quotas and more.
o What you’ll need including letters of credit, shipping options, brokers and codes.
All of the above assumes you have done your market research in terms of design, competitive research, distribution, etc.

Step I: What does manufacturing entail?

Getting your product made and to market can be up to 80% of a company’s revenue!
The scope of this supply chain includes more than you think:
o Organization and financing, selling, design, purchasing, sourcing raw materials/manufacturing/finished goods, shipping, distributing and final accounting to determine success of cycle.
Typical problems include:
o Late supply (= canceled orders), poor quality, financing troubles, packing that doesn’t fit standards, packing leading to breakage, design without consideration of cost.
If you know what to look for in advance, you can save yourself lots of trouble.

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Fleur De Lis Fashions and More – Your Fleur De Lis Superstore

The Fleur De Lis is more than just a symbol. It represents all of the people that were victims of Hurricane Katrina. The Fleur De Lis has become a popular symbol of faith and rebuilding of lives and homes of everyone affected by this terrible natural disaster.

Most of the time when a natural disaster strikes, the people involved don’t know how to deal with the outcome. The news and media outlets project an image of all out terror and panic of the people in the areas affected. I personally had the unfortunate luck of being in the middle of hurricane Katrina and feeling her almighty force. The calamity brought forth was unforseable as I watched trees snap like toothpicks, homes covered to the rooflines in water, and people unable to get out floating lifeless in the street.

There are many ways to express ones feeling about something like a hurricane or earthquake or flood. Mixed emotions still run through the city like some sort of bubonic plague. Everywhere you go, coffee shops, malls, etc. one still hears the words pre-Katrina or Post_Katrina. We don’t live in today’s time we live in Katrina time.

The days after the storm were very strange. There were animals running wild that were left behind by their masters, people wandering the streets with no cause, and buildings that were lifted from their foundations like someone very strong picked them up and dropped them next door. There were no utilities available such as electricity or running water for the uprooted trees broke the water mains. The city was a ghost town. What was even stranger was the fact that gunfire was still heard even though few people remained. I suppose the gunfire was law enforcement killing hungry animals that escaped their restraints. There are many details about life after the storm that most people didn’t experience because they weren’t there. They were holed up in some strange hotel paid by FEMA or with some relatives whom they haven’t seen in years.

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Surviving an Economic Downturn – Five Tips For Small Business in the Fashion and Retail Industry

Google and YouTube, the darlings of Wall Street, are lowering their revenue expectations this year according to the WSJ. When multi-billion dollar powerhouses start kvetching about the economy, wonderment at your own business’ slowdown feels validated.

The fashion industry as a whole is one of the first to feel the effect of an economic slowdown. Disposable income diminishes as necessities like food and fuel become more expensive. Early 2007 industry analysts like Markos Kaminis were anticipating a slow down in the industry, even though most major retailers were in deep denial. First quarter of 2007 Companies like Coach and Blue Nile were touting the strength of their sales, translating into increases in their stock prices. Fast forward to early 2008 and the picture has changed dramatically for both companies. First quarter of this year found both Coach (COH) and Blue Nile’s (NILE) stock down by half of their last year highs.

What do the woes of billion dollar companies have to do with your family owned boutique or independent clothing line? They feel economic downturns later than small businesses, and they have far more resources to stay afloat. However, many small business owners don’t realize (or are too modest to consider) that they too can apply within their own business many of the same tactics that the “big boys” use to mitigate losses and avoid bankruptcy.

1. Get lean and mean
Scrutinize your non-essential and convenience services that can be dumped, or done in a more cost effective way. Employees used to that water delivery? Time for them to embrace tap. Have you looked at your recent cellphone bills? Can you live with a smaller plan and still avoid overage charges? Have you compared your credit card merchant vendor with their competition lately? Using a shredding service? Convenient, but would an Office Depot shredder suffice? Can you refine your workforce to fewer employee hours without affecting service?

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