Sometimes our companies spend a lot of time planning and developing ideas, then all our money and effort goes into the execution of it. But all the efforts could go to waste if we don't follow our procedures correctly, we have to be able to adjust our decisions as the procedures go, and we can only do that if we measure their performance.
There are financial indicators, production efficiency indicators, quality indicators and more. Fashion enterprises need to create indicators that measure the efficiency of their strategic desicions, ones that adapt to the particular and unique system of fashion.
Each indicator answers and objective and for any organization there are 4 main types of indicators:
Economic: Measure the efficiency of financial resources.
Effectiveness: Accomplishment of corporate goals.
Efficiency: Accomplishments using as less resources as possible.
For example, for the fashion industry in particular, consider the followings:
Sales of clothing line / Sales of Make up, perfumes, and accesories (Rate through time, to determine if there is a relation between the two)
% recognition of the image of the brand as it. (To measure media effectiveness)
Textiles durability - Other brand's textile's durability
Response of all units to trend variability
If the indicator says you are going the wrong way, don't be stubborn and don't change the way you're measuring it, change what you are doing. In other words don't change the 'how', change the 'what'.
I hope you can use this to know we're you are heading.
Friday everything looks better. Friday the sky is bluer. Friday night clothes are worn all day. Friday heels are taller. Friday music sounds better.
Friday I'm in love.
And also.. Friday is the day to post the favourite finds of the week. Friday is so good it even makes it look like the week wasn't so bad. Forget the troubles and enjoy the best O.T.W (Of the week).I wish you a happy weekend, it is not going to last forever.
Shoes O.T.W
Givenchy buckled leather sandals
Article O.T.W
A blast of the best (Vanity Fair)
The historic evolution of the annual International Best-Dressed List with photographies by Mario Testino.
While being Philippine's first lady she accumulated around 3.000 shoes. It wouldn't be such a sin if she hadn't buy them with public resources. She was later exiled along with her dictator husband.
Quote O.T.W
If she only new it is even harder to find.
Fabric O.T.W
MISSONI HOME ethnic fabirc
Smartie Pants O.T.W
Sira Perez de la Coba
C.E.O and creator of Shot & Shop
A new app to search, shop and match everything you see
I don't even have to say it, this capital letters do that for me
NYFW
Editorial Photo O.T.W
The hardest one to choose with the arrival
of all the September Issues, but this photograph in Vogue Paris September 2013 of model Kasia Struss by Lachlan Bailey is just like Dorian Gray's portrait to me.
VEVO newest revolution, comming into our houses, giving us images of a naked Miley Cirus but -or plus- singing an amazing song with a good voice, and all that while crying!! Just incredible.
Management tip O.T.W
Make sure to aligne all the areas of your company to your strategy, even if they are support units. Every part of your enterprise is a member of your team and needs to now how you are planning to play the game, just in case they need to be reminded of the right side of the field. Make periodic meetings and set information systems in your company that include every employee. Everyone can help reducing costs. Let them know it.
Place O.T.W
Fridays also include daydreaming with travelling. And there is no perfect daydreaming without Grece. Don't worry the Kardashian's vacations are over.
Mykonos Luxury Hotel
Dream O.T.W
More than a dream of the week, this is the dream of a lifetime. No more words, just that glass door with the letters on the wall.
"Why? Why on earth would you wear that?". It seems like there is finally an answer for everytime we asked this question, out loud, in our heads or in T.V, just like Joan. And believe me, if stars get it wrong in the red carpet, there is no cop that can save us from what happens in the streets.
There are things people just call 'tacky' or 'unstylish', and it is as far as the appreciation of value goes, but most of the times there is a logical -yet not valid- explanation for why that person wore that and why we can feel desguised by it. Understanding this reasons can help our statements be more substantial and less adrift. Here are the options:
The design or the symbolism was a trend at some point. Yes, believe it or not the whole world wanted to have a belly ring or use animal print boots. The item is not necessarily ugly, but is is automatically related to a cheap and unpleasant lifestyle. Chances are, the trend ran too fast, cool people wore it but when 'the unstylish crowd' started wearing it too in a massified way, no one wanted to be near close related to that. It started representing other groups and ideas. People with good eye for fashion have this perception of current trends and can avoid beign related to a lifestyle that doesn't represent who they are or who they want to be, and that makes the trend decline even faster. What most of popstars from the 80's and the 90's wore in their golden years is now consider a crime, and worst, a premeditated one. Nevertheless, sometimes we can rescue some of the trends and in a very sutil way, try to give it another shot, the most important thing here is timing... wounds need time to heal.
It stands for something that is just wrong, means, not even making it trend can save it from a social phobia. The reason for our dislike is timeless, is constant and very hard to change. In this case it is important our appreciation makes a more accurate connection towards what is wrong with the outfit. For example: "She is overdoing sexyness, trying to scream sensuality instead of suggesting. It is so loud, the message gets lost". OR " There are too many things going on without a driver, is like 100 styles that lack of cohesion". OR "The piece looks poorly excecuted, you can see when the product wants to look bohemic or raw-ish, and when it was an accident. Even messy things need to show intention." In those cases there is always a reason, you just need to find the words.
It is not the what, is the how. Sometimes, the problem is just a combination of things that make it hard for the eye. This is for that kind of outfits that just look weird, and its hard to name exactly what is wrong with it. This happens because our eye, and our brain -the ones in charge of perceiving images- are used to forms, textures and colors, and when it sees something new or different, it compares it automatically. Depending on your own style and personality, you can be open towards this differences, or you can like 'safe' better and be more adverse to risk, even if you are not taking it yourself.
This was kind of serious, so here are a few ladies that have some explaining to do:
If searching for these images looks easy to do, trust me, it isn't.
We've all heard about the economic crisis, the European Union's great recession and the debts of countries like Grece and Spain getting out of charts. The big luxury brands that feed the fashion world got to worry too, specially the ones that where born in these countries. ¿Why? Simple, their usual client's adquisitive power was not the same and its of popular knowledge that high end fashion companies depend on it. But there was not less money in the world, someone looses money then someone somewhere else must have got it. The crisis, although it is true, can also be seen as a re-distribution of money and goods. Money changed hands, to the ones that the luxury industry now needs to hold.
In order to respond effectively, luxury brands need to invest large quantities in infrastructure, direct serious research in the new markets, and start campaining like they never did before in emerging economies without risking the status of the brand. For the political and economic models, China and India are the new rich, and they are going to be so for a while, and you can imagine the market size won't be an issue. While Latinamerican countries continue to grow, the United States is boucing back from a tough time. This doesn't mean companies should quit on the troubbled countries just try harder where true competition lays.
It is very important for fashion companies to play risk seriously and learn to adapt their market segmentation constantly. For example, LVMH has stated that their corporate strategy is directed by the chinese market, they know where their money is, and where it should be all the time. The key of succes is to enter this countries with outstanding consumer service and sale experience. Chinese people have also started to travel a lot and be a part of the lifestyle they want, so brands need to focus on China the mainland without forgetting the chinese segment that travels a lot. Chinese people have worked non stop to change the economy in their favour, and today working hard really pays off, specially if it comes in shape of a LV handbag.
Fashiolista is a great way to drool organizedly over clothes. You can search anything from wardrobe to accesories in the page or upload any online selling products from the original websites. It is great when you shop online and want to compare all shops at a time, instead of searching them individually. You can also make lists with the things you like, but even with all those tools there is something missing, I wish everytime I hearted something it went automatically into my closet... yeah, they have to work on that.
This platform is addictive - in a good way- I can spend hours satisfying my aspirational desire for clothes, and I even made some lists, each one inspired by a main city of fashion. Angela Carter once said "Cities have sexes: London is a man, Paris a Woman, and New York a well adjusted transsexual". So, I guessed if they had sexes they also had spirit, personality and a fashion sense that puts all that together. I also included Shanghai because it has a more modern approach than the others and brings something different to the table.
Speaking again about the style of the city, I can talk from experience about NY, Paris and Shanghai because I've been there but when it comes to London, that fine man, I just have to remember Bridget Jone's Diary, Closer and the brief parts of the muggle world in Harry Potter. The style of a city can be defined by the architecture, the historic memory of the streets, and the character of its people, but there is also the invisible spirit of a place, an inexplicable something but impossible to deny.
when in NEW
YORK
The concrete jungle where dreams are made of. This very well adjusted transsexual is the perfect combination between the desire of belonging and the ambition for standing out, just like the mix between Brooklyn's stifled air and Broadway's blinding lights.
when in _PARIS_
Hemingway called it a moveable feast, Oscar Wilde said it is where good americans go when the die, Eduardo Caballero said it was a mascarade party and to me is the only place is the world where everything is an excuse for dinner. Clothes for Paris remind me the elegance of simplicity with the melancholy of the golden age.
when in LONDON I may be full of prejudice but I see the rainy streets of London and imagine a wise man sitting in front of a chimney, smoking pipe, beign very curious about life while wearing Ralph. I love the bloody and misterious side to this city, although it seems to be very bright and heroic in the middle of its greyness. Is just an impression, is the kind of thing I want -and need- to see by myself.
when in SHANGHAI
It is the future, the optimistic one. This city manages to be historical without letting the nostalgy of the past be anywhere near the modernity of the future. This is the only place that knows its past so well so that it won't happen again. The skyline and the neon lights of the city inspires clever design, besides, it's just the perfect movie set.
Wherever you live don't look for acceptance, you will only make a home where you and the spirit of the city merges like one in total and absolut sense of identity.
