Note from Shannon: This is a guest post by Savannah Fender who is currently a Master of Science candidate in the Department of Textile and Apparel, Technology and Management, College of Textiles, at North Carolina State University. When you think of fashion and apparel what are some of the top cities that come to mind? […]
Consider this scenario. You spend years dreaming up the perfect apparel product. You spend months meticulously creating it. You tweak and stitch and hem and haw over it until… It’s perfect. To you. But what about the lady on the other side of the country, who really wishes the zipper slid up and down a […]
Over two years ago, I got an email from an old “blogger friend.” My {r}evolution apparel co-founder and I had written a guest post for his blog during our 2011 Kickstarter and doing so had catapulted our campaign from around $40K to over $64K. His large and dedicated fanbase of readers had been the exact […]
So, I’ve laid it out before — new designers tend to have a bad reputation. Not to say it’s your fault, it’s just that some have, unfortunately, ruined it for others. Suppliers and manufacturers here in the U.S. have been in this game for a long time. And they’ve seen it all — from NAFTA to their […]
When I published this blog post two weeks ago it was met with an overwhelmingly positive response. I actually got teary eyed reading some of your replies. So thoughtful, so heartfelt and then this — “I think I am better off unsubscribing to your blog.” It was the only negative response I received, rolled up into […]
As a new business owner, it is vital that you know how to write an effective email that will earn a response. Depending on who you’re writing to, it can be easier said than done. When it comes to reaching out to fabric suppliers, especially, there are seven key rules to remember: 1.) Consider the […]
There are so many moving parts that go into launching a sustainable apparel company and one of the steps that can take the longest is fabric sourcing. As any seasoned designer knows, the moment you realize you have found the fabric can be a mixture of relief, hope and — apprehension. The first question that […]
This post was published in July 2016. Today I had originally planned to share the process behind creating a sustainable and zero-waste wedding. But in light of everything going on in the U.S. right now, the idea of talking about ethically-made wedding dresses and locally-sourced food is not something I could stomach. This place of […]
Last week, I was having celebratory drinks with a friend right around the time applications to Factory45 were closing. “So…” she asked. “How did it go?! Did you have a lot of awesome people apply?” When I told her yes, that I doubled the applicant pool and grew by 156%, her next question was: “What’s […]
Ever since I graduated in 2008, I have been some sort of entrepreneur. Ironically, my worst grade in four years of college was in my “Entrepreneurship 101” class (heyo, Professor Rossi). What I realized later on — that they don’t teach you in an academic setting — is that entrepreneurship has very little to do […]
