How to explain what is driving me and moves me for Fall 2012?
It's a love story and an adventure story. More specifically it is the spirit of the woman at the heart of the story that inspires me...
I saw Blondie the other nite- and I'm thinking about that song... and here I want to...I am dreaming of creating a couple jobs - no, scratch that- more than a couple. I want to build a high end manufacturing company, here- in the USA- in NYC to be specific. I want to employ skilled labor, and even more importantly TRAIN skilled labor. That is my dream. I am not interested in competing with China - why even go there? There are much, much better places to go.
Having (mis)placed our hopes (and too many eggs) into the Financial industries, what has come of it? What has been produced? What goods? What Productive jobs? Practical services? Any actual ability? (Besides pushing numbers around?) Can they build this? Or anyhing?
Yesterday I spent most of the day at the Fashion140 conference, which is one of a series of conferences spearheaded by Jeff Pulver (look him up) and Lilly Berelovitch of Fashion Snoops.
It is a conference about using social media in marketing fashion- and the ways social media has changed the whole ballgame.
I missed a few of the earlier panels, but was there for most of the day and found most of it to be very interesting. Myself, I am a very inconsistent, low level user of SM to get my work out there. And like a lot of people; I am not sure my clientele uses Twitter, Facebook and the like to make their choices about purchasing. I don’t know what I could possibly talk about and I don’t believe that many people would be that interested in what I have to say. I am hardly a great writer and I am a very private person so all the “sharing” does not come naturally to me. Not by a long shot.
I am uncomfortable on twitter, though yesterday I learned the app I use maybe making things much harder and much more confusing. (Can anybody tell me who actually can sit at their computer and get anything done with the constantly beeping updates in the corner that Tweetdeck overrides your screen with? It’s insanely crazy making and took me forever to figure out how to shut it up!)
Anyhow the conference was over all very good for me, if in places lacking focus; Robert Verdi rambled - is that the way he is? Amanda Greene, who I expect was very, very nervous, got way too caught up in all the swag she’s scored as a result of her “Brand Ambassadorship” when her ultimate message was so much more important; How she has successfully used that platform to promote awareness of Lupus, which she is very, very passionate about, having lived with it for 28 years. She brought a tear to many eyes once she got to the point.
The Miss USA Panel I think was an excuse for an early lunch break. Kudos to the moderator on this panel- it was a tricky one.
Much more on point were Joe Zee, excellent! The Beekman Boys, who I was pretty much unaware of before this. Carol Brodie was amazing as was Yuli Ziv (again- no awareness of her before this) Andy Dunn- co founder of Bonobos. Seeing Marc Ecko’s master showmanship. The menswear Investment and Luxury Panels were all very good.
Especially eye opening- (or eye-popping) was the gaming and tweens panels! There was an audible gasp from the when the two 14 year olds said they had their own credit cards! (When I was 14, I had a $10.00 a week “clothing” allowance & a close to full-time after school/weekend job at a local fabric store! )
There were tons of other great speakers - the dial was set to 11 for speed. I do hope the next Fashion140 will allow a little more time for the panels & it got rushed especially towards the end.
It was a lot - I had nightmares last night about maxing out credit-cards I do not own!
The woman sitting next to me was very encouraging about getting into the whole social network thing but said did not feel she learned much new from the panels. When I got home and looked at her website - it was Gorgeous!! Obviously she has a real flair for marketing- social and otherwise. She is promoting herself as a complete personality, styling, selling closet makeovers and a small assortment of vintage on Esty.
I really admire this ability to market & I am completely in awe of it. There is a real brilliance in it. I really wish I had that talent, but my talent lies in another direction completely. And I hope that my body-of-work speaks for itself until such time comes…
