Subfusco fashion show – Brisbane based designer

Nice shots from the Subfusco fashion show – Joshua Roberto Scacheri is a great Brisbane designer with a store in Fortitude Valley.

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/photogallery/entertainment/your-brisbane/subfusco-collective-species-runway-show/20090925-g5ja.html

Check out his website at www.subfusco.com

Opportunity for emerging designers in Sydney

Chic Petite Events is running a fashion show in Sydney for White Ribbon Day and wants emerging designers to showcase their work. The show will take place on 25th Nov 2009 at a fantastic venue in Sydney CBD.

The charity (White Ribbon Day) is well established and so designers will get some decent publicity. But you need to express your interest within the next two weeks. Visit the Chic Petite Events facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=18759583220&ref=ts
or email Sharon at captaingarrard@hotmail.com for more details.

Link to fashion intellectual property podcast

I found this on the Australian Anthill website (great resource for entrepreneurs) and thought it could be useful.

It is a podcast interview with Sally Nicolson, Special Counsel at Griffith Hack, following recent allegations in the Australian fashion industry of copyright infringement. It discusses how to protect your intellectual property as a fashion designer.

Click here to listen to the podcast:  http://www.brr.com.au/event/59274?popup=true

To see more stuff at Australian Anthill, click here: http://anthillonline.com/

Intellectual property for fashion designers

A really good site that outlines the basics in intellectual property protection for fashion designers is www.ipfashionrules.gov.au

This site explains what types of IP protection are available in Australia, and helps you work out which is best for your label. It’s important to remember that with fashion, quite often its not the actual clothes you are designing that need protection – its your label. A trademark is very important to ensure no one else can use your label and pass your hard work off as their own.

While the site I mentioned is a great place to start, you may also want to speak to an IP attorney. I know one I am happy to recommend, so if you want contact details just shoot me an email and let me know. (info@veux.com.au)

Awesome article about successful aussie fashion designers…

I have just read this article, found on brisbanetimes.com.

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/small-business/managing/ahead-of-the-fashion-pack-20090619-cnip.html

It’s great to get an insight into how these ‘overnight’ success stories are actually not overnight at all – their success is a mixture of really hard work, stress, creativity and a clear vision. Truly inspirational.

Creating a website

As a fashion designer, it’s a good idea to have a web page for your label. It shows you are professional, serious and makes your contact details available for potential stockists who may hear of your label and search for you on line.  A simple website with your contact details, some information about your label and some good quality pictures of your previous work is all you need to get started.

There is a whole world of information on this topic, and I won’t try and pretend I’m an expert. But I can tell you about my website, and the process I went through getting it up and running, so perhaps that will be of some use to those of you trying to start your own!

The first thing I did was grab a piece of paper and sketch out what I wanted the website to have. What pages it needed, what linked where, what I needed on the menu bar. That was my site map.

Then I did a heap of research – mainly just visiting other sites and noting what I liked and didn’t like. I realised that ease of navigation and fast loading speeds were so important – more important to me than flashy graphics and interactive thingamajigs. But that’s just me. The point of doing this research is to sort out what you like, and get inspiration.

I adjusted my site map to reflect what I had learnt from my research, and then came the hard part – finding a web site designer.

Googling ‘web site designer’ was the obvious place to start. I also looked at the sites I liked and down the bottom there was usually a link to their site designer. I requested a bunch of quotes and went from there.

In the end, I chose a web site designer called ‘Have A Look’ web design. I chose them for two reasons – one being that they weren’t too expensive, and also they were very patient with all my enquiries and happy to help with anything I needed. Good service goes a very long way in my books.

It’s always hard when you have such a clear idea of how you want something to look and you have to hand it over to someone else. But Have A Look were great (I’m really happy with my site) and the best part was they had the site done in a week.  Since then I have needed tech support a couple of times and every time they have been very accommodating and happy to help.

Things to note

• Make sure your site is self-updatable. This means you can make changes to the content whenever you like. If you don’t have this ability, then every time you want to make an update you’ll have to pay the web designer to do it.
• Make sure to communicate with your web design agency and tell them what you want for your site - for example you might really want quick page loading, a particular colour background and contact details on every page.  They won’t know what you consider important unless you tell them.
• That being said… they do need a bit of creative license. So find someone you can trust, tell them what you want and then let them do what they do best.
• Do register your domain name as soon as possible. Those things go fast! And get as many versions as you can afford… the .com, the .com.au, the .net.au, etc. They’re not too expensive. If you don’t secure these, you run the risk of someone else taking them and stealing your audience.

If you have any tips for first timers getting a website designed, please share them with us and post a comment!

www.havealook.com.au

The net worth of a network

You know what I hate? That old quote, “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know”. Because it insinuates that you don’t need talent or knowledge or hard work to get anywhere in life, all you need are friends in high places.  It’s just not true – ask any successful entrepreneur and they will tell you the main ingredient to their success is hard work.

However, there is a grain of truth hiding in those words. Business contacts are useful – one of the best things you can do as a designer is get out there and meet people.  It is important to surround yourself with people off whom you can bounce ideas, and with whom you can discuss new concepts, tools and trends.  Many times a chat with someone I have just met at a function has sparked an idea or train of thought that I might not have reached on my own. 

So make it a goal today to join a good networking group in your area. Don’t limit yourself to industry specific events, try general business and networking events as well. You need to make a commitment to attend at least one networking event a month.  And make it your mission to find one person at each event that you can help. It might be by sharing advice, by introducing them to someone you know, or by referring them to a useful product or service – just make sure you are out to help, not focused on your own agenda. It’s funny, but it’s likely you’ll get more out of it that way.

Two good groups that I know of are:

Business Chicks – awesome breakfast events and ‘musical chairs’ speed networking nights. A really great group that is Australia wide. Visit their site at www.businesschicks.com.au

Networx – networking group that holds regular events with a marketing theme. Join their facebook page to get info about upcoming events: http://en-gb.facebook.com/pages/Networx-Marketers-Meetings/73531949357

There are literally hundreds of networking groups around Australia, and plenty of events that will be of interest to fashion designers and those working within the fashion industry. Do you know of any good ones that you’d like to recommend? Post a comment and let us know!

Procrastinating

I read a really great post by Seth Godin today. He says:

“…meetings are the pressure relief valve. Meetings give us the ability to stall and to point fingers, to obfuscate and confuse. If a problem arises, if a difficulty needs to be overcome, it’s much easier to bury it at a meeting than it is to deal with it.”

It made me think about all the procrastinating that we disguise as planning. I’m not saying that planning is a bad thing. But there is such a thing as too much preparation, especially when it gets in the way of actually doing things.  Meetings are a great example, and I guess I feel this way because of my background in working for large corporations. Meetings are an excuse to whinge, bitch and moan, and rarely do any actionable solutions come from the hour or two wasted in a boardroom. Brainstorming sessions, on the other hand, can be great. Same for short, tightly scheduled updates or debriefs. It’s all about being outcomes focused, rather than getting caught up in the process.

I feel the same way about university, sometimes. A lot of people decide they want to change their career path – start a business perhaps – and so they enroll in a three year degree. Well, I hate to say it, but nothing you learn in that degree is going to teach you more about starting a business than actually starting one. But it’s risky, it’s scary… and so people squirrel themselves safely away at uni for three years so they can put off biting the bullet and just doing it. (Note – this may not work if you decide you want to be an accountant or a doctor. Some career choices actually do require a degree… )

I’m a big believer in lifelong education. I read all the business books I can get my hands on; I go to business seminars and events; I talk to business gurus. And I am also currently studying a business degree part time. But I didn’t wait until I was finished before starting Veux. Because I think if you do that, if you hang around and wait for the perfect time or if you get caught up in the restrictions and the barriers to your success, you will never get it done.

If you have been thinking about starting your own business or fashion label for awhile, and you’ve done your basic preparation, don’t fluff about any more – just jump in and start making it happen. Do this, and you will never lose. If you fail, or if it’s not as successful as you hoped, I guarantee you will learn so much from the process that you can just chalk it up to education. And hey, the cost of starting a business in many industries is probably roughly equivalant to the cost of a business degree. Think of it as a degree in real life.

What do you think about this? Post a comment and let me know!

Staying motivated

The thought of launching your label and running your own business is always appealing when you think about doing what you want, when you want, exactly the way you want to do it. The problem is that taking away the restrictions of working hours and supervisors opens up a whole world of opportunity – you can literally do anything – and it can be a little overwhelming. It can be hard to stay focused when so many things clamour for your attention.  You need to develop techniques and methods that help you to keep your actions in line with your plan for your label.

The good news is that there are so many resources out there for business owners. Quite a few successful business owners are very generous with their time and knowledge, and most of it is free to access. I have listed a few of my favourites below. I subscribe to their emails or blogs, follow them on twitter, or regularly visit their websites. By doing this, I am able to read snippets of information and thought provoking quotes that remind me why I’m doing what I’m doing. If you take the time to think about it, many of the articles provide advice that you can use to avoid making costly mistakes.

So many people have started their own businesses that it seems silly not to learn from their mistakes and successes. When the information is out there, why not use it?

My favourites

Mike O’Hagan (Mini Movers) – check out his awesome businesses tips, this guy really knows what he is on about.
http://www.ohagan.com.au/

Kirsty Dunphey (real estate) – Kirsty is kind of a real estate celebrity, and her weekly emails are really great. Sign up!
http://www.kirstydunphey.com/

Seth Godin (marketing) – a marketing guru and author, Seth’s daily blog feeds are always insightful and often really relevant to marketing a small business.
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/

Scouting for talent in Sydney

Last weekend (16th – 17th) I spent wandering around Sydney checking out emerging fashion design talent. The Finders Keepers design markets were on at the Carrigeworks in Eveleigh, the Rocks Markets were small but nice as always, and Sydney Fashion weekend was on at Fox Studios in Moore Park – FUN!

I met a lot of very talented, very friendly people… its always fascinating chatting to people who are so immersed in what they love.