The Cutting Room Floor

In 2020 Mara Hoffman celebrated her 20th year in business, no small feat for any independently owned NYC brand. Today we speak on the many reincarnations of Mara Hoffman, finding sustainability in your existence, and the importance of never being 'too cool'.

Today we talk about fashion licensing. Allison Zamora is a licensing executive who started her career at Calvin Klein and later went to LVMH. She walks us through the mechanism of licensing and how it's changed over the years.

Teri Agins covered fashion at The Wall Street Journal for 20 years. In 1999, she published her first book, The End of Fashion; How Marketing Changed the Clothing Business Forever. A friend lent me the book and it collected dust on my desk for months before I decided to pick it up; at which point I couldn't put it down. This book is fashion reporting unlike I've ever seen of the industry. As Vanity Fair declared, "The End of Fashion rips into the underbelly of a world where marketing is king and often the emperor has no clothes."

Recap of Season 1 & 2. Peak at Season 3.

Amy Smilovic, the founder of Tibi, took a lifelong passion and created a burgeoning fashion label. Listen in as she relates why she took the leap into creating fashion, why she later made a major pivot in her brand, and what it has taken to keep everything moving and evolving in the ever-changing world of fashion. Amy is completely transparent about what it took to create Tibi as well all the twists and turns she's navigated throughout the past 20 years since its creation. You won't want to miss this in-depth look at a paragon of the fashion industry.

TIME STAMPS

• (00:19) Welcome back to the last show of 2019 with the founder of Tibi, Amy Smilovic.
• (02:06) Learn about the competitors of Tibi before the rebrand.
• (03:00) Amy shares the meaning behind the name and her early inspiration.
• (04:45) The birth of Tibi, the first collection, and the gap the brand filled.
• (08:02) Why did Amy's designs turn in to a labor of hate?
• (10:30) When did Amy decide to make a change?
• (13:33) How did she get her staff on board with the new direction?
• (15:47) Amy chats about the birth of 4.collective and how it funded the new Tibi.
• (18:39) How was the original Tibi initially funded, built, and promoted?>
• (24:16) Hear how Amy's husband's opinion of Tibi has changed over the years.
• (27:43) Learn how Amy's marketing background helped propel Tibi into American stores.
• (31:14) After four years Amy and her husband relocated to the U.S.
• (33:21) Amy reminisces over the terrors of shipping guidelines and having her mom ship products.
• (35:49) Sustainability was important from the beginning as was keeping the local feel.
• (38:52) Amy's dad's advice led to the true establishment of Tibi in Soho.
• (43:54) Hear how that same advice helped her to let go of her need to be recognized by the establishment in fashion.
• (45:17) Learn how the lack of coverage on the Tibi brand in U.S. fashion publications speaks to the country's opinion of women as designers.
• (52:18) When should the leaders in the establishment pass the baton to the next generation?
• (53:53) Amy shares two of her proudest accomplishments with her business.
• (57:53) How social media has helped keep Tibi and Amy relevant in today's world.
• (1:01:30) Amy chats about the imposter syndrome she's dealt with for 20 years.
• (1:04:18) Connect with Amy.

Links & Resources:

OMONDI on Instagram

OMONDI on Twitter

OMONDI Newsletter

Tibi

Tibi on Instagram

Tibi on Facebook

Tibi on Pinterest

Tibi on Twitter

Amy on Instagram

What They Don't Teach You at Harvard Business School by Mark McCormack

Acquired Podcast

Jack Ma

Song: Hell N Back by Bakar

What happens to our clothes once we get rid of them? Sustainability encourages that we ask *how* our clothes are made but few ask where they go at the end of their life cycle. Recorded at the University of Cincinnati, we sit down with former DAAP educator Elizabeth Ricketts about the clothing waste crisis, the invisible world of the second-hand clothing economy as seen in Accra, Ghana.

TIME STAMPS

• (00:24) Learn more about The Indx
• (00:57) Intro: Liz's Back Ground
• (02:02) Today's Topic: The Afterlife of Clothing
• (02:51) What is sustainability and what it's not
• (05:08) We are past the point of conferences
• (05:37) Extracting finite resources
• (06:57) Start with Waste
• (07:47) Dissonance: Clothing as Waste
• (08:33) Waste: Assumed Part of the Business
• (09:19) Abundance vs Excess (Grocery Store)
• (11:42) Recycling New Savior
• (13:15) Deficit Myth
• (14:20) Not "Goodwill" Deficit Statistics
• (16:30) Research in Ghana: Landfill or Donate?
• (19:35) Went to Ghana with 3 Questions
• (21:17) Kantamanto and Ghana's independence
• (24:40) The Value of Clothing Bails
• (26:04) The Importers and the Retailers
• (27:24) What are Selections?
• (29:00) Waste-Streams in Ghana
• (30:29) Asana's story
• (34:29) Why Katamanto represents the future of fashion.
• (36:03) How do we get people to care?
• (38:32) The future is local
• (41:52) Knowledge is Experience - and how this applies to fashion
• (45:03) Age and dissonance
• (46:23) What you can do today to understand the waste crisis.
• (50:12) Why single-use t-shirts are killing the industry.
• (52:54) Connect with Liz: @theorispresent, @SFI_cincinnati, Dead White Man's Clothes

Links & Resources:

The Indx

The University of Cincinnati - DAAP School of Design

Burberry Clothing Fire

Cradle to Cradle by William McDonough

Live at the Brooklyn design studio A/D/O we listen in as Nesli Danisman, founder of Angora Group, shares how she became an expert in sourcing materials around the world. Starting in as an assistant to Ralph Lauren and sourcing for nearly a decade for Marc Jacobs, Nesli describes her mission with Angora Group to help companies develop the best products with the best factories around the world. We close it out with some heavy-hitting questions from the audience that you won't want to miss.

TIME STAMPS

(00:15) Welcome back! We are live from Greenpoint Brooklyn at A/D/O

(01:12) Live introduction to the group at A/D/O.

(03:44) Special shout out to our sponsor, Indx.

(06:44) Intro: Nesli Danisman found of Angora Group.

(08:25) What does Angora Group do?

(10:11) … and what they don't do.

(11:57) Is it true that more designers come to Angora Group versus just people with money?

(13:38) Nesli breaks down the 30/30/30 model.

(15:27) The vision behind Kanye's pieces… that never came to

fruition.

(16:40) Nesli shares some of the brands Angora Group has worked with.

(17:36) Learn about the movement that was Charivari?

(20:58) What it was like to work in Ralph Lauren's home and then in his company.

(22:16) Lab dips: what are they?

(23:33) FIT and Marc by Marc Jacobs.

(25:57) Why did Nesli leave MBMJ and how did she know she was ready to go out on her own?

(27:39) MBMJ was Nesli's first client and the Apple collaboration.

(29:02) How does Nesli know so many people around the world?

(30:11) What is a factory rat and why Nesli identifies with them?

(31:15) Why is going to the factories so important and what do you learn?

(33:59) Discovering new factories for the best products and materials.

(36:31) Why teaching the client to fish is more economical and ethical than catching the fish.

(39:11) The difference between development and production.

(41:03) How PLMs help create efficiency in business and reduce waste.

(42:43) Trends: what's reoccurring?

(44:24) Audience Q&A: superpower and where does Africa stand in the future of business.

(46:51) Characteristics that successful people tend to have? Blindspots?

(49:38) Does skillset and traditional schooling still matter?

(52:08) Is it possible to teach the big players how to be more responsible and sustainable?

(53:45) When did Nesli realize what she wanted to do?

(54:56) Final thank you's and acknowledgments.

(57:57) Learn more about A/D/O.

(58:52) Shout out to Mr. Omondi

A/D/O

Indx

Angora Group

Nesli Danisman

Liz Claiborne

Christopher Bailey

Burberry

Marc Jacobs

Rebecca Minkoff

UNTUCKit

Outdoor Voices

Charivari

Tom Ford

Bergdorf Goodman

Armani

Yohji

Comme

The Antwerp Six

Ralph Lauren

Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT)

LVMH

Hermes

Vuitton

Yunique PLM

Flex

Backbone

Hill House Home

A denim specialist with over twenty years of experience tells us why the best studied at the house of Levi's.

Live in London at The Hoxton Hotel Martine shares her thoughts on "hype"; working for Demna Gvasalia of Balenciaga and the influences of her youth.