vision Archives | FASHION CROSS FUNCTIONAL

October 21, 2016

Elegance Is Elimination

Hi guys,
Here we are again, as announced. After a well-deserved short vacation in Barcelona, we took some time off and met the fashion business community there. It was a wonderful occasion to discover their vision of fashion and also find the common fashion denominator. It came down to one fact to which I think all fashioners will agree upon: fashion is about translating a unique vision into a business and for that, image is your key success factor. Image through your design and collection, image through the quality of your website, your pictures and video (as obvious as it seems, it’s always good to remind it) and the image you project while applying your business strategy.

Elegance is elimination

So in the end, it comes back to the Balenciaga fashion rule: “Elegance is elimination”. In order to stand out, a fashion brand needs to find its own voice and eliminate all that visually and strategically doesn’t fit with its vision. We are aware that in the loneliness of their creative moments, sometimes fashion designers twist fabric around their mannequin in search of a revelation…and stop there, maybe in the hope that nobody will notice and still find some beauty in the unfinished thinking process…

What is your core message to the world?

Since you are already designing, take the necessary time to investigate what is your true essence. What is it that you care enough about on this planet that your fashion business would be proud to share to the world?
Once you found what it is, make sure that each detail you add contributes to that purpose. Remember the judges’ faces on Project Runway when they complained there’s too much happening on the same look? That’s what we don’t want!

Project Runway – Michael Kors as a judge

Honor your vision

Honoring your vision means not only by following it but also by providing your brand with the quality website, pictures and videos they deserve…So unless amateur is a part of the spirit of your concept, remember that you are in a very competitive and overcrowded market. Today, any fashion designers need to be able to deliver professional HD material and the lack of budget is not an excuse.
Moreover, when you decide to work with someone who will be deeply involved in your design and strategy, take the time necessary to assess if they understand your creative vision. If they don’t, it doesn’t matter if their services are cheap. They won’t make the cut so move on.

Consistency in taste

Taste is not only being able to match a color with another one or being able to understand the beauty in a designer piece, however conceptual it is. It goes beyond that. It’s a philosophy of life. It’s also about the way you decorate your shop, your e-shop, address your customers and counterparts etc. You can’t say your brand is all about luxury lifestyle and have a cluttered website or make spelling mistakes in your communication. So make sure you remain consistently tasteful.
So for this week, let’s all embrace the wisdom of Balenciaga’s quote and address our fashion accordingly.

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Wondering how to find your core message to the world?

Find more tools to help you through your fashion business plan, with the number one FXF guide. “The Fashion Business Plan” by Bako Rambini is available on Amazon.

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July 4, 2016

Transform A Yellow Spot Into The Sun

Hi Guys,
Monday’s back, time to analyze last month’s sales.

So how did you do this time?
Have a look at your products…A nice cut, a delicate draping on the waist, the way the fabric flows, the excitement you feel when you unpack your leather bag, the atmosphere in a shop you like spending time into…Is it really what it’s about ?
What makes a customer pick you over another brand? What makes a customer come back?
Enchanted customers want an enchanting brand
The world needs you for your vision and your dream. You have to offer the access to a new universe, something distinctive that corresponds to your sole vision.

And the uniqueness of your voice is key. Your customers will not reward you for being an imitation of other brands. You have to cut out. You have to make a difference.
For that reason, you have to give us a taste of what makes you truly unique.
As a fashion designer, your job is to dream. Your job is to translate your inner world in a brand. Your job is to stir up desire, arouse curiosity, make people happy and create an obsession to reach maximum impact.

Show us the most accurate version of your vision
Pablo Picasso said “Some painters transform the sun into a yellow spot, others transform a yellow spot into the sun.”

So be that painter. Be that visionnaire.
Your job as a fashion designer is firstly to get the most accurate idea of your vision. Then you have to find the fullest way to translate your vision in terms of design and business strategy.
Maximum impact is reached through the alignment of vision, design and strategy.

So today, THINK BIG.

How do you want to enchant your Customer?

Happy successful week to all of you!
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How can I transform a yellow spot into the sun?

Find more tools to help you through your fashion business plan, with the number one FXF guide.

Find more tools to help you through your fashion business plan, with the number one FXF guide. “The Fashion Business Plan” by Bako Rambini is available on Amazon.

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To receive more fashion quotes and fashion designer tools, follow us

June 7, 2016

MARKETING: How Can A Small Fashion Brand Best Define Its Marketing Strategy?

Hi Guys,
We know how being a small brand competing can feel challenging sometimes. You have the impression to compete against giants who have all the means to launch the campaign you can’t have to sell the clothes in the boutiques you don’t have. So you end up focusing on all the things you can’t or don’t have.

And what if you focused on what you actually have?
Because as an independant small brand, you have a voice and unlike many large brands that will be tied by policies and money at stake, you have the entire freedom to express it and translate it into something different and exclusive.
To help you think about your marketing strategy, here is an extract of an interview of Karan Khurana from The Fashion Business Plan by Bako Rambini.

What makes you unique?

In spite of the ever increasing share of fast fashion in the pyramid of segmentation I believe that there will always be space for small fashion brands which have very strong reason to sell. In the last decade we saw that brands with sustainability as a tagline got substantial share in the fashion market. The consumer began to buy more sustainable brands instead of fast fashion ones. This is an example which highlights a very old marketing strategy of developing a Unique Selling Preposition (USP) in terms of the 4P`s (Product, price, place, Promotion). For a small brand this could be a very competitive advantage as when the marketplace gets crowded with repetitive product there’s always a niche consumer market looking for variety, novelty and most essentially a meaning attached to a product. A USP immediately helps a brand to develop differentiating features then other and hence a brand identity. In many cases it’s observed that consumer gets attached to a small brand and even pays a premium price. To elaborate a little more here the luxury brands of today were the small ethnic brands of yesterday such as Hermes, France or Bvlgari, Italy started off with very small but products of very intricate design detailing which became their USP and are bestsellers as they have maintained it over generations.
Get inspiration from other consumer brands
In order to develop a winning market strategy small fashion brands should keep a very close watch at other consumer brands such as electronics or may be any range of fast moving consumer goods companies such as Unilever or P&G. These companies keep on trying and testing on various USP`s and you shall be surprised to know that many of such experiments fail miserably but at the end it keeps the brands moving in the market place and secures a place in the mind of the consumer which is also a big challenge in the huge market sphere for a small brand.

Source/Photo credit: Anja Rubik & Iselin Steiro, Hermes FW 2006 fervent-adepte-de-la-mode – Creative Commons

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How to define a proper marketing strategy to raise capital for your fashion brand?

Find more tools to help you through your fashion business plan, with the number one FXF guide. “The Fashion Business Plan” by Bako Rambini is available on Amazon.

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To receive more sales & marketing related articles as well as fashion designer tools, follow us

June 6, 2016

Fashion Designers: From A Dream To A Fundable Business

Hi Guys,
This weekend I remembered my grandfather. He was one of the best tailors of my country. My family used to earn a lot with their craft. And when they lost their main client, they lost everything.

They dedicated their entire lives to Beauty. I could still hear the sound of their breathing with the gentle sound of the needle stitching into the fabric. And I still can see the feeling of injustice in their look, as they showed their handmade pieces to the wrong client or ended up selling our property and transforming my grandfather’s once prestigious atelier into a little grocery shop to make both ends meet…
Once I started helping brands fund their projects, I was almost sad to see how easy it could be to raise the money, once the business plan was made.

Purify your creative vision. Align your collections and your strategy to your vision.
Can you imagine if you could make your inner world a reality? Be bold and mesmerize your customers. Create…

Because as I told Forbes Afrique Magazine in the edition of May 2016, a Fashion Designer who can’t create…It’s depriving the world from beauty and pure emotions.
So find out how you can go from a dream to a fundable business.
Happy productive week!
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From a dream to a fundable business

Find more tools to help you through your fashion business plan, with the number one FXF guide. “The Fashion Business Plan” by Bako Rambini is available on Amazon.

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To receive more fashion quotes and fashion designer tools, follow us