Today marks the final day of NYC Fashion Career Week, which was hosted at Parsons. I attended two of the final panels, and while I am generally wary of these types of conversations hosted in front of large audiences I have to say that the advice given was both helpful and insightful.
The first panel that I attended was the most interesting. It was the Fashion Entrepreneurship panel. The members of the panel were Jacqueline Stone of Salt + Stone, menswear designer Marlon Gobel, Jamal Motlagh of Acustom Apparel, Joseph Singh and Erica Cerulo of Of A Kind. The panel was moderated by Caletha Crawford-a children's wear consultant and Parsons guest lecturer. I attended mostly out of curiosity. I have seen how hard even experienced designers working for establish companies have struggled when branching out to start their own lines. I was interested to hear their experiences and what they thought made those challenges worthwhile.
All the entrepreneurs agreed that starting their own business was incredibly difficult. Jacqueline cited 15 hours days and Jamal said it would take "twice the time and three times the money" more than you planned to get your business off the ground. However the general consensus with the group was that the work was worth it because of the creative freedom it allowed each one of them. There was barely any mention of financial successes of having your own business and while several among the group are turning large profits it was clear to me that each of these entrepreneurs see their businesses as a labor of love.
The entrepreneurs offered little tips that they had learned along the way like distributing lookbooks over the internet and making their clothes and products in their own size. They emphasized the importance of sales and had each taken jobs to learn different aspects of the business before going out on their own. Marlon made a great point when he said working as a designer for someone else's company is fantastic because you are learning on someone else's dime. I learned a lot at the panel and in the end it reinforced my opinion that having my own business is not out of the question one day, but that for now I need to enjoy the journey as I acquire experience and gain knowledge.
