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Posts from the ‘Get Involved’ Category

Apr 27

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I’d Like To Know…

I know many other designers read this blog; they’ve mentioned it to me on a number of occasions at industry events and whatnot. So, if you’re in a sharing mood, here’s some stuff I’d like to know…

1. How the heck do you store patterns? Is there some sort of crazy filing system I’m supposed to implement? At any rate, they take up a LOT of space and by the time they’ve been graded into six possible sizes they take up even more space. Then there’s the slight variations you make to the patterns for another season, so two extremely similar patterns need to be stored and labelled in such a way they don’t get mixed up.

2. Fit models. Seriously, they’ve been nothing but disasters for me. I dropped two styles from Spring/Summer 11-12 and had to rework several others because I hadn’t tried the toiles on myself. Perhaps it’s just because I’m not formally trained in fashion so I don’t really know what I’m doing, but whilst it felt easier at the time to fit on someone else, it was more difficult down the track. Am I doing something wrong or am I not alone here?

3. Non-paying accounts. What do you do? Some of our ‘best’ and most supportive stockists just don’t pay their invoices. I didn’t start a bank here, I’m not offering them lines of credit. I expect timely payment. But how do you get it without ruining the relationship?

4. Whilst I’m on the subject of stockists… I’ve talked before about the fine line between having enough stockists to keep going but at the same time having the ‘right’ stockists on your books. What do you do when you get interest / an order from an unattractive source?

5. Lookbooks… they all seem to look rather samey. Have you ever tried not following the formula? How did that go? Whilst I’m on the subject, do you necessarily get better results using more expensive components and people? ie. Is a $1,000 a day model substantially worse than a $3,000 a day model? Or photographer? Or stylist, etc.?

Sure, I could work it all out myself, but why try to reinvent the wheel if there’s already a perfectly well trialled solution?

Mar 2

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Hanger The Expense…?

Early on in the Bento development process, I thought about the hangers the garments would be on. All too often I’ve witnessed friends being unwilling to try something on because they don’t like how it looks on the hanger (in the industry, this is known as hanger appeal). Whilst the design of the clothes plays a huge part in this, I couldn’t help but think perhaps the hanger itself has a role in this too.

So, I took a tour of boutiques to check out their hangers. Oh yes, I really did.

What became very quickly apparent is that designers seem to have very little to say in the matter when it comes to how their clothes will be displayed. That is, in the vast majority of cases, the garments were hung on the boutique’s hangers. When you think about it, this makes perfect sense. If you hung the clothes on the hangers they were delivered on, the store would tend to look rather uncoordinated.

What this meant is that I decided against having special hangers made for Bento items. Yes, having beautiful hangers to deliver the items on may have made a nice impression on our stockists, but if all they were going to do is remove them and put them on their own hangers then throw them out, would it have been worth it? In keeping with our philosophy of making locally, high-end hangers can be several dollars apiece.

Currently, Bento garments are delivered to stockists on the hangers provided by our manufacturers. They are plastic, and whilst we “recycle” them by returning as many as possible to the manufacturer, I deeply suspect they have a huge carbon footprint and are made overseas.

Last week, I discovered a company called Green Hanger (http://www.greenhanger.com.au/) – an Australian company that makes cardboard, fully recyclable hangers. I think these are pretty neat, but there’s a HUGE catch. They’re made in China. They work out at around 33c each – cheaper than the current plastic versions.

I have investigated having similar versions made in Melbourne. Wanna guess what they cost?

$2.12 each.

So, here’s the question. Is it worth spending the money to make this happen, knowing that we will inevitably have to pass the cost on to the stores who will undoubtedly pass the cost on to consumers?

Or do we use the China ones, ask lots of questions about their manufacturing environment and accept that recyclable ones made in China are a heck of a lot better than plastic ones made in China and work on finding a way to get them made cheaper in Australia?

Feb 11

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The People Project

Okay team, here’s the challenge. As you know, our online stockist, The Dreamery (www.the-dreamery.com) is currently taking preorders for our AW 2011 collection. Our other stockists will begin getting deliveries in the next week or two and some of them have waitlists.

Now Bento means the world to me, and my future largely depends on the success or failure of this season. After all, I threw in my job and the income that went along with it to pursue this crazy dream.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to tell three people about Bento.  Why? Because I want it to sell of course, but also because I want people to know about what Bento stands for.

Not sure what to tell those three people? Here are some ideas:

  • Every single Bento piece goes from concept to completion within 10km of our studio in Melbourne. Waddaya know? The ragtrade still exists in Australia.
  • I was reading a blog the other day about this girl who threw in her big wig job to chase her dream of staring a fashion label. It’s just going in to stores now.
  • Do you think it’s possible for fashion to be sustainable? The very notion of fashion means it changes all the time, but what if people focused on buying things that were really high quality and lasted, rather than just buying lots of stuff? There’s this label I heard about called Bento which does just that…
  • Bento is totally rad. What do you mean you haven’t heard of it?

My hope is that with the power of the interweb and good ol’ fashioned word of mouth, we can get Bento to be known. And more importantly, spread the word about quality over quantity and that ethical production doesn’t mean compromising on style.

Feb 2

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I’ve Been Wondering…

I can’t say I’m entirely sure why people read this blog. Don’t get me wrong, I would have loved it back in the day. I was – and am – so obsessed with the world of fashion I’d have adored knowing what went on behind the scenes trying to get a new label off the ground.

That said, I think we probably have a fair mix of readers here – those interested from a fashion perspective, a journalistic one, other designers often contact me or tell me at events how much they enjoy that “someone is telling it like it really is”. Others are probably intrigued from a business perspective.

At any rate, here’s your chance – tell me what you want to know! What would you like to read about or understand about this process?

Use the comments section below to outline what you’re interested in and I’ll address each and every comment / question / criticism in a future post.

Jan 20

Do Brands Play A Role In Your Education?

It’s been slowly coming to my attention that the vast majority of consumers can’t tell the difference between something that’s well made and poorly made. So many people believe that price is indicative of quality, too. Worse yet, they feel it’s reasonable to consider two garments made from the same basic fibre as comparable.

For that matter, many consumers will tell their friends a garment is ‘cotton’ or ‘silk’ but rarely will you hear them say ‘oh, it was made in Australia!’ versus ‘made in China!’.

The fact is, not all clothes, fabrics, factories and so forth are created equal. In an ideal world, consumers would bother to do their own research, and in some cases they definitely do. Few people would buy a new car or a house without at least making a cursory effort to understand the differences between the available options.

In all fairness, car manufacturers and house developers go out of their way to point out the differences. Their industries are awash with awards for ‘car of the year’ and ‘most economical’ ‘best fuel efficiency’ and scoring systems like ‘six star green ratings’ and so forth.

But fashion? Not so much. The vast majority of our awards are judged based on artistic merit rather than ethical manufacturing environments or durability.

Perhaps it’s a case of these things not actually being important to consumers. It’s quite possible that the vast majority of the population simply doesn’t care that it’s often a false economy to purchase a cheap wool knit made in an offshore factory when a locally produced one made from high-grade wool may cost more, but will last ten years. Or perhaps they just get caught up in the excitement of the store or simply focus on the price and forget about the working environment of the person that made the item they’re holding.

Whilst I’m on my soapbox, lots of consumers think that (for example), rayon is made from plastic. That bamboo fabrics are somehow better than cupro or viscose. It’s never occured to them to consider how silk is produced or the environmental impact of cotton production.

I like to believe it’s a case of lack of information and education rather than simply not caring.

But is it? Do such subjects matter?

And what role to brands play in informing the public about these things? Would you actually believe them if they did?

Dec 29

Do You Know This Person?

The photos of our second collection, Two’s Company, for Spring/Summer 2011 are in!

As exciting and nerve-wracking as this is, we all know what comes after photos… SELLING.

We haven’t yet decided if we’ll sign a sales agent for next season, but regardless as to whether it’s me doing the selling again or an agent, I’d like to ensure that the seller is equipped with the tools to be as successful as possible.

What I’d like to try is using reviews from industry journalists like they do with movies or books in the approach to boutique buyers.

I’ve approached the journalists I know well enough… but I thought perhaps some of you might know someone appropriate. All they need to do is have a look at the images and provide a ‘review’ of no more than about 12 words.

If you are a journalist or you know someone who is, please get in touch!

Dec 9

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The Price Is Right

As we get serious about our second season, I’ve been looking at what the retail prices of the collection are likely to be. As it turns out, Spring/Summer 2011 – 2012 is likely to be cheaper to produce than the Autumn/Winter collection. This is mostly because happily enough I fell in love with fabrics that were less expensive.

Initially I was thinking that it was simple – we’d have a higher markup on the warmer collections than the cooler ones but that they’d even each other out in the long run.

Now though, I’m starting to wonder… is there a huge market gap in Australia for garments that are locally made, of great quality and from ethically sourced fabrics – at a really reasonable price point?

Bento of course is all about amazing quality paired with simple and timeless styles that you don’t mind spending a little extra on because they’re going to last. But what if we could do both?

Logically I’d say that there are some compromises somewhere along the line that need to be made in order to achieve this. But what if the compromise is just time? Time taken to really hunt out the fabrics to make this happen? For example, as a small label, we have the “luxury” of small volumes allowing us to get fabric bargains by purchasing the last of stock.

In season one a 100% wool knit of the highest grade yarn available will retail around the $300 mark. Personally, I don’t think that’s unreasonable for what you get. In season two, the same style of knit in a featherweight organic cotton should come in substantially under that price. The yarn is actually more expensive, but you need less to make the knit because it’s lighter.

The other interesting part of the equation is that the more garments we make, the less each one costs. So, a knit that retails around the $300 mark when we make 50 might get to the $250 mark when we make 200.

Anyway… here’s where you come in. If this is something I’m really going to pursue, I’d like to know what I’m aiming for. After all, there’s not much value in spending a lot of time and energy in getting the price of an item down $50 if no one is going to particularly care.

So – cast your votes!

If you have any other thoughts, I’d love to hear them – head for the comments section!

Please note – I actually don’t know that it’s possible to make the items cheaper. We don’t enjoy a large markup. I’m just wondering whether it’d be worth trying.

Nov 29

7 Comments

Can You Help?

Today we are two weeks out from the SS 2011 – 2012 lookbook shoot. I have just looked at my to-do list that was mostly constructed in my head whilst trying to fall asleep last night and have realised I have a lot to get through.

So – I’m turning to you to see if I can quickly find solutions to some of my outstanding problems.

Here are the two biggest issues on the list… can you help?

  1. Screens – the studio we’re using for the shoot doesn’t have a room that the models can change in. I don’t want to buy and transport room dividers and have already investigated hiring (with delivery) options, but they’re not cheap. How can I provide a small screened area for the models for little to no cost that can be transported easily?
  2. Shoes – we’re still on the lookout for shoes for the shoot! The ‘stylist’ thing to do is actually buy the shoes, tape them (so they don’t get scratched up) and then return them to the store. I’ll do this if I need to, but I’d prefer to have a local label loan them to us (I’ll credit them and whatnot, of course). Is there a local shoe label out there that’s interested in lending us some shoes for a few days? You get copies of the photos when we’re done, credit in the lookbook and our eternal gratitude :)

Whilst you’re thinking of clever solutions to these problems, I have to make a lot of phone calls, go pick up those denim samples and get them washed, make it to several meetings, do some website updates and generally run around like a hairy git.

Thanks in advance for your help. Go Team!

    ?

Nov 16

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Competition Announcement

If you’re an illustrator, photographer, graphic designer, artist or other such creative type… heads up.

We’re officially announcing a competition to design the cover of our Spring/Summer 2011 – 2012 lookbook.

The lookbook appears in digital and print form (in print, it’s A6 in size). It is distributed widely to stockists, media and customers.

The Brief

The name of our Spring/Summer 2011 – 2012 collection is “Two’s Company”.

There are no design ‘requirements’ of this competition. That said, the image should reflect Bento’s style philosophies of simple, understated and chic.

Your submission should be signed, autographed or ‘marked’ as yours in some way.

The image can be anything – photo, drawing, painting, etc. as long as it can be printed and used digitally.

What You Get

The winner will be credited in the lookbook, profiled on our blog and credited in all publicity. There are also other opportunities that may be available, which will be discussed with the winner.

Key Dates

Submissions close midnight (AEST), 31 December 2010.

Finalists announced week of 3 January 2011.

Winner announced 10 January 2011.

Legal Type Stuff

By submitting an entry you grant Bento Group exclusive usage of the image, worldwide, indefinitely. Bento Group will not reimburse any entrant for time or costs incurred in submitting an entry or for usage of any entry.

But Wait, There’s More

Questions welcome! To ensure everyone has the same information, please use the comments section below. We will publish questions and respond accordingly.

Good luck!

Nov 5

The Book Of Ideas

I was lamenting to my friend (and stockist) Cecylia recently that I have an issue declaring collections ‘finished’. I tend to spy new fabrics, come up with new ideas and want to make adjustments to existing styles. My patternmaker has told me not to second guess myself… Cecylia’s rather ingenious solution was to start a book of ideas.

I mentioned yesterday that the Bento team are currently taking five in regional Asia. With me, I have brought a silver leather-bound blank page notebook that ties up with a silver leather cord adorned with a heart. Yesterday I started jotting… it was ideas for prints. Today, it’s uses for wool jersey (possibly my favourite fabric…).

Surprisingly, this has been a wonderfully liberating experience. In a way, it allows me to brainstorm and forget. It doesn’t matter where or when I think of something, I can just start a list, a doodle or a mind map.

Time will tell if it actually helps or hinders the collection composition process, but right now it feels really good.

I’d love to hear (and try!) other people’s ways of keeping track of their ideas and thoughts. Whether it’s part of a creative process or simply an organisational one, everyone has lightbulb moments – what do you do with yours?

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