short-term fixes, and its staff are aware of the fashion world at all levels.
But
nobody can support a career indefinitely if it stubbornly refuses to move forward. Initially, get a PR agent who will work with you – and you must do your share with ideas, contacts, etc. And once you have built your name together, stick with the people who helped you. You are unlikely to have the same relationship with a big PR company, until you are also big.
GETTING OUT THERE
Everybody wants to be in the big department stores because, not being exclusively devoted to fashion, they have a greater and wider-based footfall. But the really cool outlets are often much smaller: Jeffery New York; Colette and Maria Luisa in Paris; 10 Corso Como in Milan; Browns Focus, Dover Street Market in London, and Pollyanna in Barnsley. Buyers from these stores are the people who must be made aware of what you are doing. It is a part of a PR Company and Sales Agent’s job to bring you to the notice of the stores and the press but they know that timewasters are not wanted. So, don’t be too disappointed if they don’t rush your collection into Vogue, Elle, Harrods or Browns straightaway. Let them find your level. It is their job to get you noticed as soon as possible because, until they do, they won’t begin to make any money from you. And remember, they are not the descendents of Saint Teresa: if they can’t do anything with you, they’ll drop you.
But that’s not the end of the world. There is a lot you can do to help yourself. Everybody knows the story of Calvin Klein and his business partner, Barry Schwartz, pushing a rack full of clothes through the chaos and confusion of the garment district in New York to show them to Bonwit Teller’s fashion director, Mildred Custin in 1968, at the outset of his career. Why not in a taxi? “If there was one crease in any of those clothes, it would have killed me” Klein explained afterwards. No wonder Custin bought the lot.
Don’t imagine that you have to do the same in Oxford Street or Knightsbridge – the lightning of publicity never strikes in the same place twice – but you must try everything you know to get to the decision makers. Matthew Williamson for example, gave Sienna Miller a skirt then boldly took his samples into Vogue. Almost immediately, he was taking orders from the Vogue girls and the rest of the story we all know. So, the moral of the story? You must believe in yourself if you hope to make others believe in you.
FUNDING
There are increasing numbers of groups and individuals ready to help young graduates set up in business – often in return for a worryingly high proportion of the profit from future sales. You must be very careful who you sign with, what for and for how long. But, of course, you cannot move forward without money, in fashion as in any other commercial field. So, where do you get it? And can you do it without borrowing so that you and your company could be in debt for many years?
www.fashionfringe.co.uk
FASHION FRINGE AT COVENT GARDEN 13
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