American Fashion Podcast

They’re riding high with the boho chic trend, but that look was in the Bob Marley song-inspired Johnny Was brand’s main playbook for a long time before it was popping up everywhere. As executive vice president, Catherine Nation says, “We’ve been doing this for 30 years, these signature embroideries, and it’s fantastic that we’re in-trend right now. That’s very helpful, but this is just what we do, what we’ve always done: signature prints and embroideries.”

In this interview, Catherine Nation and CEO Rob Trauber discuss the classic California brand’s legacy and future, and how they manage e-commerce, their own stores, and selling wholesale for the brand. Johnny Was is opening a lot of stores, uses interesting marketing strategies, and is using big data to keep up with their customers, so Trauber and Nation have a lot of insights in this discussion about how to best approach those things. Johnny Was has recently opened a New York City store on Columbus Avenue in Manhattan.

https://www.johnnywas.com/

Continuing our look at the Los Angeles fashion scene, in this interview Charles speaks with designer Jemma Swatek, whose popular Lykke Wullf brand is all about the Scandinavian cowgirl.

“I moved here and I tried to get a design job, and I interviewed with some really big companies, and I would be like ‘So where’s your knitting department? Where are your machines? Where are your swatches?’ And they were all like, “Oh, we don’t do that. You just go in the swatch closet and you pick something out and you decide on a yarn and you’re basically making tech packs all day for China. And it’s not like I was completely naive, but I was like ‘Woah, this is like… not what I want to do at all.’ You know, because I’m a creative person, and sitting around doing tech packs, I have nothing against the people who do them, but that’s not really designing to me. Ultimately, that’s why I started my own brand.” – Jemma Swatek, Lykke Wullf

https://lykkewullf.myshopify.com/

California Apparel News covers the global fashion industry from a West Coast perspective. In this interview, Apparel News Executive Editor Alison Nieder speaks with American Fashion Podcast host Charles Beckwith at the California Market Center in downtown Los Angeles. The discussion covers the Downtown Los Angeles fashion scene, L.A. Fashion Week, denim abroad, West Coast textile manufacturing, and several other topics.

https://www.apparelnews.net/

If you’re on Instagram at all, Lisa Brezinski (@lkbphotography) is one of those photographers whose sexy sexy fashion photography work you’ve seen. Lisa provides insight on the Los Angeles fashion scene‘s constant need for edgy images, how video has become a more important part of fashion shoots, and the massive gap between the marketing budgets of large and small brands.

 

Jason Sweet from Salesfloor

Salesfloor is helping bridge the gap between online and brick and mortar shopping. Their omnichannel clientelling mobile app gives unparalleled new agency and business intelligence to store associates on the traditional salesfloor. Jason Sweet is Vice President of Sales for North America, and in this interview speaks with Cathy and Charles at the Nation Retail Federation’s Big Show in New York.

ABOUT THE HOSTS:

Cathy Schepis advises luxury brands on strategy. She was most recently the President at the vertically integrated direct selling company Doncaster. Prior to that she was a Vice President of Design and Merchandising at Kate Spade & Company, Director of Design and Merchandising at Anne Klein Collection, and managed research and product for Federated Department Stores. She joined the show as co-host in 2016.

Charles Beckwith is an expert in the intersection between fashion, media, and technology. He created American Fashion Podcast as a way of promoting local sustainable fashion while Executive Director of the Fashion Media Center. Prior to that, he was the editor and publisher of the online fashion magazine modaCYCLE. He currently serves as Director of Communication for the non-profit Save The Garment Center, and a Founder and the Director of Innovation at MouthMedia Network.

This is a special preview of a new podcast from How Stuff Works called Dressed: The History of Fashion.

Links:

• • dressedpodcast.com
  • Apple Podcasts
  • Spotify
  • Stitcher

Trevor Sumner, CEO of Perch Interactive, talks about how the use of their smart displays can result in a “30-80% sales lift while driving 5-10X customer engagement.” Perch uses sensors in their display units to provide customers with product information and an interactive experience. The company was part of an early class at the New York Fashion Tech Lab. Their in-store technology helps hybridize the brick and mortar and online customer experience, moving us closer to that seamless experience everyone seems to want to move toward.

flag photo via user HARRIS.news on Wikipedia, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

Charlie Cole is the Chief Digital Officer at Tumi and recently became the Chief Global Officer at parent company Samsonite Holdings. So… this episode is about accessories, specifically luggage, and how these giant companies approach selling it.

This is also a crossover episode with our sister show Fashion Is Your Business, so you’ll hear hosts from both series asking questions in this episode.

“We’re a product company first. And now we have to create innovative ways to push that product into the medium that we manage, and that’s what I think a lot of digital leaders fall down, is they think they are the dog instead of the tail.” – Charlie Cole

Recorded in front of a live audience in the O.N.S Clothing menswear store in Soho (71 Greene Street), a conversation first with Geo Hagan, content director at O.N.S Clothing, followed by O.N.S Creative Lab partner designers Abdul Abasi and Greg Rosborough of the Abasi Rosborough brand. Also joining the conversation, Sharifa Murdoch, co-founder of the Liberty Fairs trade show.

photos by Andy Jackson

Sidney Morgan-Petro is the Retail Editor at WGSN, a think tank with deep connections to the fashion and lifestyle businesses. Big on the horizon, purple for sure, but what is a scandi cowboy?