Fashion Careers, The Business
Ten Investors Who Take Chances on Smaller Fashion Labels
By Lauren Sherman
Another question the Fashionista team is often asked, mostly by design students, is: “What does it take to launch my own label?”
Well, it takes a lot of hard work, talent, and yes…money.
The big problem: There aren’t a ton of investors willing to put down cash on a new designer. As one serial investor once explained to me, “Fashion is a risky business. But it’s not as sexy as film. Sometimes, people are lured by the glamor, but in general, the return on investment is so unlikely, most aren’t willing to take the risk.” In the movies, on the other hand, investors will still probably get to hang out with the star–even if the film doesn’t make any real bank.
So what’s a young designer to do? Working for a bigger label is always an option. Adam Lippes worked at Polo Ralph Lauren for years before launching his own label. Chris Benz worked at J.Crew. Richard Chai worked at Marc Jacobs and Donna Karan.
Loans from friends and family always help, but we understand that’s not viable for most.
Another way to do it? Get one of the few investors who do spend money on younger brands to notice you. Now, we’re not advocating knocking down these people’s doors. And you’re probably going to have to come up with your own money to establish the company initially. But doing good work and networking should get you closer to your goal. Here are 10 companies/people known for investing in younger brands.
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Caroline Brown is actually the new president of Carolina Herrera. She’s not with Chris Burch anymore.
Another viable option for emerging designers is crowdsourcing, which has been used successfully for other endeavors, such as start-up/completion funds for books or film. The best studied internet site for the crowdsourcing phenomena is Threadless, which creates t-shirts based on submitted designs from which the creator can earn funds as well. Newer sites have evolved which strictly solicit funds from its members for various projects, such as Kickstarter. Kickstarter doesn't cater to fashion specifically, but designers have been able to obtain funding through posting well-defined projects (“help me put together my fall collection” vs. general funds for business growth). FashionStake, which will launch in the US this fall, intends to harness crowdsourcing specifically for fashion designers, with a “monetary incentive” that includes clothing and cash — however, it remains to be seen how a crowdsourcing system could be set up to allow for the purchase of shares, which is what the big investors depend upon. WWD had a well-written article about the nascent use of crowdsourcing in the fashion industry (not sure if this article is free or subscriber only — Lauren, if it is subscriber, perhaps you'd like to do a part II on how to get funds as a new designer?):<http://www.wwd.com/markets-news/crowdsourcing-c...>
This place is great!http://wethepeoplenyc.com/I had the opportunity to meet the owner and she is extremely passionate about helping emerging designers.
Good one! I definitely will. There is a new site called Fashinvest http://www.fashinvest.com/pages.php?page=62 that has a similar goal. Stay tuned, and thanks, Foochy!
cool, thanks!
Adam Lippes worked for Oscar de la Renta.
Yeah, and Ralph Lauren.