F. B. I. members Erin Wieczorek, Susan Brandt, Korena Ellis and I had the opportunity to attend Hong Kong’s Fashion Week and World Boutique this past January.  It was a huge and well-attended event.  Taking over most of the five floors of display space in the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center, there was truly something for everyone.  Susan Brandt was hoping to find one or more fabric suppliers for a new product she’s developing.  Korena Ellis and Erin Wieczorek were also looking to develop new products and find potential manufacturing and sales resources.  I was intent on enjoying this unique opportunity and hoping to gain a better understanding of the global markets for supply and demand.  

The World Boutique, Fashion Week and all of the activities, seminars and fashion shows related to these events were exceptionally well-executed.  A big round of applause goes to the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) for putting on such a well organized show.  An entire floor was dedicated to Mainland China sourcing with other floors and areas dedicated to a variety of merchandise and sourcing opportunities.  It truly was a global market place with attendees from all over the world.  Asia, to be expected as well as Australia, New Zealand and India were all well represented, as were buyers from the Americas and Europe.  

As has come to be expected, the fashion shows were the major highlights of Fashion Week, with the spotlight shining on Vivienne Westwood’s Thursday night show.  Other shows included Taipei In Style, William Tang/MARCCAIN by William Tang, La Mer by Ali Charisma (see photos above), Global Sphere by Ika, Hong Kong Young Fashion Designers, Moiselle, International Designers Show and an incredible Knitwear show.  

The Vivienne Westwood show was an invitation only event and the invitations were hard to come by.  Luck was not on our side, but from all of the press and photos, it looked to be a fantastic event.  Ms. Westwood’s husband, Andreas Kronthaler, Creative Director and Christopher di Pietro, Marketing & Merchandising Director  - both of Vivienne Westwood - presented a seminar on “Vivienne Westwood Kingdom Decoded” concentrating on how they’ve built their Asia business and are now expanding their retail sales in North America.  A special mention was made about the latest store opening in Los Angeles, the first retail shop for the iconic brand to open in 9 years.  

Of special note was the permanent HKTDC Design Gallery located next to the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center.  This retail store is devoted to Hong Kong designers and products manufactured within Hong Kong and the New Territories.  The store sells jewelry, accessories, toys, books, games and more, highlighting some of best and brightest of Hong Kong’s up and coming designers.  What a great thought!  Maybe we can do the same for California designers?

This show is definitely worth attending for anyone looking to find manufacturing resources in Asia as well as anyone looking to sell to global markets.  The HKTDC office in Los Angeles made it easy for our members to attend with special airfare, hotel and exhibitor rates.  Hopefully, this offer will be available again.  If you have the chance, don’t miss out.  

  Jill Mazur is an independent apparel business and technology consultant working with Fashion Business, Incorporated. Email: jill@fashionbizinc.org

Fashion Business, Inc. in conjunction with the California Market Center’s Winter FOCUS | Apparel & Accessories Show was delighted to present the “DESIGNER LAUNCH PAD” fashion show. The FOCUS show featured emerging designers alongside established brands in the loft-like setting of the California Market Center’s penthouse showrooms.

Frances Harder, Jacquelyn Umof and Erin Wieczorek of FBI along with stylist and producer Leila Baboi, former West Coast Market Editor of Women’s Wear Daily and the great team from California Market Center put on a fantastic show featuring seven promising new designers. The show took place Saturday, January 16, 2010 in the California Market Center’s penthouse location for the FOCUS show. It provided an exciting setting for a great show, with expansive views of Downtown Los Angeles’ twinkling city lights. The show sold out quickly and was standing room only.

Some of the designers were showing their lines for the first time. Others are already experiencing success at retail. Even more exciting, many of these designers are manufacturing their designs right here in California. We thank all of the designers, Leila Baboi, FOCUS Apparel & Accessory show and especially California Market Center for all of their hard work and effort in putting on a great show.

Featured designers included:

ALTHEA HARPER COLLECTION (www.altheaharper.com) – a collection of ready-to-wear styles in soft, drapey fabrics, gorgeous colors and body skimming silhouettes. Many people are familiar with Althea as one of the finalists from Project Runway, season 6. Her premier collection of designs did not disappoint her fans or those who have just discovered her.

ANAHI BLUE (www.anahiblue.com) – a swimwear collection by designer Michele Sparks. Michele’s designs are a welcome addition to the swimwear market. Elegant, classy, fashion-forward swimwear that provides coverage and even a bit of camouflage for those of us with less than swimsuit-model bodies. Her styles made a great SPLASH! on the runway.

CAMELIA SKIKOS COLLECTION (www.cameliaskiknos.com) – a collection of ready-to-wear styles in beautiful silks, some with leather accents. Her designs have a strong, geometric feeling to them, influenced by modern art and sculpture combined with the softness of silk and feminine curves. Camelia produces all of her designs in California.

DUSTIEDOLL (www.dustiedoll.com) – a collection of contemporary fashion presented in knits and jerseys, adorned with studs, chains and other hardware. Dustie is a local Southern California designer and is manufacturing her products locally.

LI CARI (www.shoplicari.com ) – a collection of ready-to-wear designs from Jazmin Whitley. The Li Cari collection was filled with fantastic styles and inspired silhouettes. Jazmin is a young designer with a huge celebrity following and is well known from her MTV reality TV show “MTV’s House of Jazmin.” She produces her products in the U. S. and Italy in order to ensure all labor law compliance.

RISSA BY MARISSA ERSKINE (www.lovelyrissa.com) – a contemporary collection from Marissa Erskine. The RisSa collection was filled with beautiful dresses and knitwear in exotic, colorful silhouettes.

ZA ZA ZSU (www.zazazsu.net) – Sahar Hersel describes her collection as “Sunday Sexy” and that it was! Luxurious fabrics combined with elegant, effortless styling created a cohesive collection of pieces. Sahar produces all of her products domestically.

We welcome these designers to FBI and look forward to many more great collections!

Well, not really, but when implemented properly, software should certainly simplify a business, not complicate it. The idea behind software is to do just that, simplify processes. Especially repetitive processes such as data entry, report generation, purchase order creation, bookkeeping and more. When a business starts getting weighed down by their systems, whether they’re bypassing the system to export their data into a spreadsheet or database, they have to jump through too many hoops (screens) to get the data they need, or more likely, the systems don’t have all of the features or functions the business requires, that’s the time to re-evaluate business processes, systems and required functionality.

Recently I found myself trying to explain ERP software (Enterprise Resource Planning) to a client and why it might not be the right investment for her business at the moment. I’m not saying ERP software isn’t a good investment for many businesses, because it definitely is. What I was trying to convey to her is that it wasn’t necessarily right for her business at this point in time. She’s a small apparel manufacturer, with 5 million in sales last year, who needs to track sales orders, purchase orders, raw materials, finished goods and have some sort of integration to a general ledger. She and two other people in her office are handling everything manually right now, with the exception of her bookkeeping, which is on Quickbooks. Finding a solution for her will not be a problem. There are many affordable options for her to choose from which will allow her business to keep growing.

Software is an ever-changing commodity, or at least it should be. Much like the automobile industry, software is constantly being updated. New features are added all the time. New cars arrive every year and even your old favorite cars (Honda Accord, Toyota Camry, Ford Explorer) are re-designed every few years. System updates, or patches to fix bugs or problems, are constantly being released. Once you buy or lease software, you should expect to stay current with your support contracts in order to receive new updates and system support. You don’t buy a car and never have it serviced, do you? The same can be said for your software. At some point your business may change or outgrow your existing systems and it’s time to buy something new. Remember those carefree days driving a two seat convertible? Now you’re driving along in a seven passenger SUV or minivan. Times change, so should your software, or it should have the ability to change with you (not as easily done with a car!)

As businesses grow, so do their requirements. As it grows, the owners and employees will need a more fully integrated suite of software solutions – Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Warehouse Management (WMS), possibly pattern making and grading software, maybe Customer Relationship Management (CRM) or ecommerce and point of sale retail management, forecasting and planning, and most definitely integrated accounting. The thing is, a growing business needs tools to help manage all of the existing pieces, and if done properly, allow the business to keep growing by integrating additional software or migrate to more robust solutions. Without the people-power to enter data, run reports, analyze information, etc. however, the systems create more work than can be handled by the business, leading to frustration and complications.

Different types of businesses may have different system requirements as well. Privately held businesses have different needs than publicly held businesses reporting to shareholders, board of directors and the ever-present Sarbanes-Oxley accounting and reporting requirements. Transparency and accountability are the cornerstones of any publicly held company and, as such, have much more stringent accounting requirements. ERP solutions are designed to meet Sarbanes-Oxley guidelines and truly do simplify business processes, at least from an accountant’s standpoint. Business owners may not like having such stringent reporting and accounting requirements, but the government demands it and these systems provide the tools to manage it.

The key to simplifying business software is to understand the business – customers, services, products, reporting and accounting needs, then finding the right solution to support it. There’s no one single solution that’s right for all businesses, which is why there are so many software companies out there. It’s the same with automobiles. There are so many different types of cars out there to meet so many different needs. Figuring out the right solutions for a business takes time. Understanding what the business looks like today and what it may look like three years from now is an important exercise when trying to plan out the system architecture and how it will support the needs of the business now and into the future.

Jill Mazur is an independent apparel business and technology consultant working with Fashion Business, Incorporated. Email: jill@fashionbizinc.org