Fashion Slow Lane!

Most of us don't connect the state of Ohio with handbags.   When we think of handbags and fashion we tend to think of Milan, New York City or maybe Los Angeles.   As a handbag designer for almost 15 years I would like to point out that Ohio has something to offer.  For those of you aspiring handbag designers who don't want to travel to Milan or Asia for production, look no farther than Ohio. Ohio Travel Bag company has been in business for about 100 years.  They supply handbag metal fittings and accessories to start up and established brands nation wide.    They also have all types of accessories and tools related to leather work.   You might pay a little bit more to get your metal fittings stateside but its cheaper than a flight to China and there is no red eye involved.  The great thing about Ohio Travel Bag company is that they have an awesome customer service team that has been there for years and years and can help you find exactly wh...

I found this in an old textbook and I don't know the author... Risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing. The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing.  He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but hs simply cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love..live.  Chained by his certitudes, he is a slave, he has forfeited freedom.  Only a person who risks is free. Wow. Well said. What do you have to risk? Photo by Tara, Bologna, Italy

There has been a lot of articles online recently about whether being a night owl or a morning lark is better?   There are apparently two types of people.   I am obviously a night owl.  I went to bed at 11:30 pm, read TMZ.com, Quora.com and the DailyMail, (a garbage newspaper out of the U.K.)  None of the above was very interesting except the article about Kim Kardashian and how she got her photo cut out of a Jewish newspaper because she is a female, so by 1:00 am I started reading a novel written by a famous chef.   It was interesting for about an hour, then I turned the lights off.  Sleep still eludes me. Sometimes I like to sketch handbags in the middle of the night but only if I am getting paid for it.   The benefit of being a night owl is that sometimes that is when I am the most creative.   The downside is that I miss out on morning meetings.  I don't take any meetings before 10:00 am.  Unless like this morning I had to take th...

A Great Personal Brand is Vital to Your Career Success!  A strong personal brand will bring you new opportunities.   What is a personal brand?  A personal brand is a strong image of what you stand for and what you communicate to the outside world.   A great personal brand increases your ability to make things happen for yourself and your business. For your personal brand there are 5 Important Things You Need: 1.   Social Media:  Make sure you have a Linkedin.com profile.  After that make sure you are on social media that is important to your type of business.   Facebook and Twitter are super for entrepreneurs in specific categories.  For creative types like Fashion, Pinterest and Instagram are vital.   You don't need to be on every type of social media.  Research what social media outlets are the most important for your field and then be active on those sites.  Choose a professional photo, not an avatar and use th...

Millennials, also referred to as Generation Y are the largest generation in the USA and will out pace baby boomers in spending $200 Billion by 2017.   As a fashion brand how do you cater and target this group?  You must first know who they are and what is important to them.   What is a Millennial?       80 million in the USA       Born between 1980-2000 (approximate)       Largest generation in the USA       What are some of their Traits?          They Love Technology:   They adopt technology quickly and expect it to work.   They grew up with technology and digital devices on a daily basis and most of them sleep with their phone! Overall the millennial don’t watch too much TV and they like to text.   They all have cell phones and almost half of them do not own a land line phone. They use a mobile device to research for shopping and check ...

This past two weeks I have gotten several requests for help with apparel design or referrals for pattern makers.    I have worked in apparel but it is not my specialty.  However, the awesome news is I work closely with an amazing designer and apparel business consultant based out the the Garment District in New York City.    His name is Boaz David and he runs Human B. He can help a new designer start their design from first sketch through to pattern making and production.   For more details check out his website at www.humanb.com   Boaz and his team help emerging designers to start and grow their fashion brand, as well as design, develop and produce their product. If you have any questions please feel free to contact him and I am sure he can lead you in the right direction for your apparel startup!

La Jolla Sunset 2015 When I first started looking at apartments in San Diego in 2013  I was excited about the move from rainy Seattle to San Diego.   I looked at over 20 apartments and applied to like 10 of them.  All of the applications were turned down. I felt hopeless.  No one wanted us.  No one wanted to rent to a family with terrible credit, two small dogs and a kid.  It did not matter than I had a copy of my husbands new salary as proof of income and that it was well above the national average.  Our credit sucked. I was almost in tears when I realized I had been in San Diego for a week and a half and had still not found a place to live.  My kid was 3 states away with my parents, my dogs were at some random dog hotel in Seattle, my husband had already been gone a month working in downtown San Diego fullime while living out of a seedy hotel in Mira Mesa.   I was paying $1800 a month a rental in downtown Seattle.   I had ...