Growing Independent Fashion Brands
In our ‘Love Ethic’ edition of The Lissome, we consider how love exists, or could exist, within realms, structures and interactions where it is less commonly found, or at least, acknowledged. Growing Independent Fashion Brands, a fashion business book by consultancy and podcast platform Advance Copy, takes a similar approach, with an index of topics including ‘community’, ‘degrowth’ and ‘instinct’.
Advance Copy is founded by Berlin-based Natalia Corre – previously at Dries van Noten, Cecilie Bahsen and NEOUS – and focuses on helping brands build direct-to-consumer, wholesale and community strategies. Through discussion with pioneering names such as Après Ski, Baserange, Cristaseya, Extreme Cashmere, and Mouki Mou, Growing Independent Fashion Brands examines what prosperity and success mean in a time of climate breakdown when the bottom line isn’t so linear and business grows more personal.
Staying true to Advance Copy’s style, with more of a conversation than an interview, Natalia and I caught up on her experience making the book, and post-publication.
Words by Reeme Idris
Reeme: You’ve been putting out the podcast for a while, you’ve had interviews on the website, but was it always in your mind’s eye to create an Advance Copy book?
Natalia: It was like a dream that I never thought would become a reality because I had never done print before and English is not my first language; I haven’t got journalistic experience, so, writing a book, seems like a kind of crazy parallel activity without those skills. I put publishing on a pedestal; I collect fanzines, special editions and vintage books, it’s always been this higher art in my mind.
The decision to do it, I have to say, was like a lot of other things with Advance Copy, came from sitting on the idea for long enough. I don’t know if it’s just my character, but once I have an idea, I’ve learned not to jump on it, I’ve learned to digest it and let it take shape or form – or fall off my radar. It got to a point where I thought, I must do this [but] actually, I’m petrified. I don’t know how I’m going to do this however, egotistically speaking, I was afraid that someone else would put it out there before me.
I love reading, I love this physical connection to the matter, and I was also getting sick of reading things online, digitally, during Covid especially. I couldn’t believe no one had taken the time to speak to inspiring independent fashion brands and publish it. I kept looking for these things, I thought, it must exist, I just haven’t found it or maybe it does, but not like how I wanted it, not asking the questions I wanted. I kept thinking any day now, somewhere in the world, someone might be working on this idea, if it comes out, I’m going to be hurt – I would only have myself to blame if I was not the one.
I worked with the creative director of Advance Copy, Beth Wilkinson from Oak Park Studio, who is my partner on the project, she’s been responsible for the creative and physical side as well as advising me on the content. It took two years for the project to come together, with so many iterations, and so many midnight conversations (usually at 1 am because she’s in Australia, and I’m in Berlin) but I thought if I’m going to do this once in my life, I’m going to invest everything I have for it to feel how I want it to feel.
I knew the message would be strong if I could get together enough of these brand owners and boutique owners who have certain standards and values – a moral compass – in one book, instead of spread across lots of articles or podcast episodes.
These are all entrepreneurs or designers who don’t necessarily sit in the same categories, but here they are in this book, connected by a deeper respect for what they do, and a deeper respect for the outside world. I didn’t want to feature only those that sit in the same brand space (I come from wholesale and that’s literally one of the most important jobs – making sure that the right brands sit with each other) I wanted to do the opposite. This book is about how diverse fashion can be, and how open it can be: you don’t have to have a Scandi aesthetic or a sporty aesthetic, this is about something deeper that connects these people, and how they perceive their work.
I have to give myself a reason as to why I’m still in this industry – we must face it, there’s too much stuff, too much absolute garbage. We don’t need fashion, we don’t need that many clothes. But if I can learn from people who are more principled (than a lot of other corporations and companies), it makes me feel better about enjoying what I do, because it is very tempting to check out sometimes.
Reeme: For a book like this, your background in wholesale and strategy is less expected than say, someone specialising in marketing or creative direction. I value the plain-speaking about more pragmatic aspects. Do you agree you bring a certain freshness to the table?
Natalia: I don’t want to say fresh, that would be a bit too big of a statement because I don’t know everyone in the industry and what else exists out there. There are some incredible publications and authors right now, fantastic conversations that are finally out in the open, rather than on the sidelines; narratives around the industry are changing.
I couldn’t justify asking my interviewees basic questions, especially when it’s my self-financed project. It comes back to everything else happening in the world right now. I’m either part of the problem or part of an inquiry into what the future could be like – that’s the way I perceive it, we have to ask those tougher business questions.
There’s a lot of smoke and mirrors in fashion, a lot of brands look like they’re doing so well but you don’t know what’s really happening behind closed doors. You don’t know the figures, you don’t know the experience of working at this company, or their factories, and it would be terrible to shy away from [looking into] that. Since we published the book, it’s not like things have got easier; we must be honest about asking painful things, because like any relationship, whether personal, a friendship, or a partnership if you don’t have an honest conversation about a problem or an issue [the problem] will either grow, or the relationship will break down.
Maybe that’s what I felt was lacking, why I decided to write this book the way I did and ask those questions: because of my experience in the commercial, nitty-gritty, financial part of the industry. I think we’re missing creativity on that side, there’s an archaic approach and business models that are misaligned with today’s world.
When I was picking individuals to interview for the book, I was looking specifically for people who were open to new ways of working. Before I reached out to people to interview them, I suspected they were more future thinking internally, and not just on paper. So, I tried my best and I’m very pleased; I don’t think there’s anyone in the book who doesn’t meet my criteria of doing business differently.
Reeme: What have you learned from your interviewees?
Natalia: What have been the biggest takeaways? My God! There’s been so many.
What stayed with me is that if you have a vision that’s a little bit different, in terms of how you want to run the business, and you are not driven by ‘ego fashion’ (which is more about craving recognition) but if you run with your own idea of what success is, you can still – in this day and age – establish an independent brand which actually does feed people and pays the bills. Which can feel impossible when there’s so much debt in the industry.
I’ve learned that if the company owner has their head screwed on right and is unafraid to go against the grain, to be more rational than the standard industry practice, you can still establish and possibly grow, an independent fashion brand. However, it’s just so tempting to follow industry practice, but if you can say ‘no’ to some of the bigger contracts that will likely get you into terrible financial situations later, you will grow slower, but you can sleep at night because you’re still paying your staff, you’re paying the factories. It’s just not going to be an astronomical or an overnight success, but I think that’s beautiful.
There’s something quite interesting going on nowadays, where some brands and designers are playing with what it means to put out a product. I love, from a creative perspective, not solely putting fashion out there, or a whole collection every six months, but perhaps collaborating with others to do a ceramic, or putting things out in drops. To me, that is who a creative is – artistic, rather than a commercial designer. A lot of us (as customers, or just as people) are craving things that you discover, one-offs that have some soul. I think we’re all a bit fatigued by the churn of collections.
Reeme: Do you think that the strength required to make bold and non-conformist decisions comes from having experience, or are new operators doing it?
Natalia: Very good question, so, I’ve seen different examples. There’s definitely a big advantage to having no industry experience, and just building something that makes intuitive sense to you.
The beauty of this book is that I interview people from Kenya to Peru to New Zealand; it’s not limited to designers or brands that are part of the ecosystem in Paris or Milan, which I think is important. That’s where I think a lot of the problem-solving is coming from because people from outside of key industry hubs are open to change. I’ve seen founders who are fresh out of university, who are just building their foundations on rational thinking, not on outdated industry practice.
It’s not just designers, anyone in the industry (me included) has been brainwashed so much; it took me years to unlearn doing things ‘as they’re meant to be done’. I wish I could have touched on it a bit more in the book. What I found is the brand-owners who have that hardcore, pragmatic approach to business, have a different relationship with their teams. It’s not as hierarchical; they are honest with their team, instead of trying to be some big, impressive boss. Yes, they set a big vision, like Saskia from Extreme Cashmere, who I use as an example quite often, but what I found is they are willing to also step back and listen to their team members.
The ones that have somehow managed to give employees a big say in the company, seem to have created something quite interesting. Also, I do think this non-hierarchical approach takes a little bit of the pressure off the founders’ shoulders, which is healthy because this idea of a superstar founder-designer is completely unhealthy.
It comes down to the founder having a really strong vision, which filters the kind of staff that join the company because when it’s radical, it’s not for everyone. And when the founder’s vision is clear from the outset, the people that come to them for employment opportunities are a little bit more fitting, because they’re being completely honest about what it is that you’re creating, instead of beating around the bush with seductive marketing jargon. It’s about honesty and then creating a space where you listen, you let people experiment, and they will support you in return. We have to build independent brands as a team effort.
Reeme: It’s about shedding an inherited industrial-age mindset and a vision that might include multiple homes, shoulder pads and sports cars, or world domination. Just because we can get bigger, it doesn’t mean we should, but what is success then?
Natalia: This is obviously personal, and that, I think, is one of the questions in the book that I posed to everyone; we know what success on paper was for us ‘before’, but we’re also aware of the pressure of global warming. I think everyone I spoke to is worried and is reassessing their relationship with success.
I’m very lucky to work with like-minded people. It has been like a phoenix moment for me. Remaining in the industry that I love, respect and enjoy, but finding people who are similar to me, and who I would be very happy to call friends (not just colleagues) whose advice I would trust in life and not just in Monday-morning meetings.
I think it exists out there. If you feel like you don’t quite fit in, and you have anxiety, you’re being judged, or can’t quite be yourself, there are enough people in the world of fashion or other creative industries, where you can carve out your own little niche without leaving something that you love doing. It’s been a huge success throughout making the book and the podcast to think, ‘Oh, my gosh! I can be myself, and say things that other people in the industry, wouldn’t quite get, it’s something that has given me a lot of happiness and content. This already feels like success.
A lot of independent brand owners and freelancers, I’m sure, are working just to pay the rent every month. There are great months, and then there are not-so-great months, especially nowadays, with the economy being so terrible, that it’s affected everyone. There’s nothing to be ashamed of, to simply want to be able to pay your bills and your rent. But how do you do something without compromising your belief system by walking over someone else or taking something from someone else? That is, still, I guess an equation that many of us are trying to solve.
Reeme: What some might call treading water (paying rent, suppliers and other bills on time) being reinterpreted as success, means a lot. But we can still have shoulder pads, let’s keep those.
Natalia: I love that.