How to Set up a Fashion Business: James Long's Story | #BoFEducation Video Lecture | How to start your own Fashion Business: Fashion Business Basics - Entrepreneurship

I wanted to have a guy out of my own
band that was my goal being young and
finishing college and there wasn't a
Thea and there wasn't many young
designers showing on the catwalks it
wasn't really a lot of interesting
things happening at menswear there was
no London showrooms that we were showing
on the end of women's wire so when we
made our collections the buying had
finished in stores buying for the next
seize of menswear so we were completely
out of sync with the whole men's I can
endure it was quite hard to navigate
those first seasons
let alone crease in a commercial
collection which was ready for market
first piece of advice I would have done
I was doing my mi because that gave me
the chance to really indulge in my
thoughts my ideas benefit to the work I
was thinking about and also it's just a
really amazing time to learn two years
solidly to spend on creation is quite
intelligent really and again that was
where I met a lot of Industry people
that the world College bought in and
talk to us about different aspects to
start to achieve the commercial
viability of what I was trying to do was
to have lots of mentors constantly
taught them range bands or the default
type of editing of the collection how we
could translate certain things that were
quite like I say naive design ideas into
something commercial so that was all
kind of a new learning curve and luckily
there was amazing industry supporters
and commercial heads that were willing
to help my family the way the system
works is that you the designer has to
fund everything
so it's very difficult to manage that
always husband and I just as though the
fact that it always will be
since we went independently have private
investors we have a great buffer that
help us with our cash flow at our
finance so I'm very life and I still
work on collaborations I don't just do
James long there's a million other jobs
and make the band work and Charlotte
runs the full financial side of the
company which I have to know every pound
where it's going but Charlotte takes the
pressure of us because she knows that my
talent is to design not to count books
so we have a great understanding in that
way and I did all my consultants is
along the way in Milan and in Paris and
all of those really helped me grow in
terms of production because I was
working with international houses so I
kind of saw how it was all done and I
just come back and say alright this is
how we do it now all of those things
helps grow to make the really good
product the main thing I would say for a
new designer which just how likely
chauvinist is true as developers they
have a great team allowed to people that
you really trust and that really believe
what you're trying to achieve because
sometimes it's really difficult
sometimes it's long hours but if you've
got a great staff people around you by
not really my best friends honestly that
just sound quite cheesy but they are we
have a lot of fun and spending all that
time with them you know you created
together so it's a really inspiring
environment to be and so you've got to
have people to give a really quiet
around
when our commercial brands such as River
Isle and contact you it's a huge
compliment because they see potential in
your work that has an outreach for a lot
of people so it's kind of a milestone it
was a really exciting idea that they
thought that I could create something
that would beach to their customer
within that price range within their
aesthetic and I think we did that I
really enjoyed the whole place
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