Transcript - Creating Your Fashion Brand

 Maggie and Susanna

[00:00:00] Joshua Williams: Retail Revolution, a unique podcast that features in-depth conversations with guest experts in omni-channel retailing with myriad perspectives, technology, consumer engagement, data analytics, merchandising, and more. We pay special attention to current sociopolitical issues and challenges and their implications on fashion retail as well as opportunities to innovate and rethink retail's future. Visit RetailRevolutionpodcast.com for more information, including full transcripts and follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn @RetailRevolutionPodcast.

Retail Revolution is produced by Joshua Williams and hosted by Christopher Lacy. Both are assistant professors in the Fashion Management graduate program at Parsons School of Design. 

[00:00:47] Maggie Kanan: Hi, my name is Maggie Kanan and I'm an intern for the Retail Revolution podcast. And this is a special edition episode today.

We'll be having a conversation with Susanna Moyer.

Hi Susanna.

[00:01:11] Susanna Moyer: Hi. 

[00:01:14] Maggie Kanan: How are you doing today? 

[00:01:16] Susanna Moyer: Fine. How are you? 

[00:01:17] Maggie Kanan: Doing well. I'm excited to have this conversation with you. To start, would you like to tell our listeners a little bit about your experience? 

[00:01:25] Susanna Moyer: So, my fashion designer experience is going back to an education at Parsons School of Design in New York City. Then working in Paris for five years worked at Dior. Olivier Le Reduce and started my own brand. Then came back to the states and lived in California, started up another business and continued that for a good 10 years, coming back to New York, selling to Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom's about 200, 250 specialty stores. And really, doing it all myself as an entrepreneur. And then once production went overseas, I decided along with my studio partner, Tracy Reese, we decided we can't produce in Asia. We don't have a big enough business. So we ended up both shutting down. She actually went ahead and she started with a company and they were manufacturing in India and then she evolved it to her own namesake brand again, which was fantastic.

And I ended up working for different companies in New York City as Hickey Freeman, Liz Clayborne and Liz Lange and Xcel brands. So, it's been really a great breadth of experience for me in, in different categories. And now I've been consulting actually with Fashion Consort.

[00:02:46] Maggie Kanan: Amazing. 

It sounds like you've definitely been in different parts of the industry and had a look at how every part functions. 

[00:02:52] Susanna Moyer: Yes. And the way it's evolved in terms of technology and sustainability and inclusion. It's been fantastic to see this change happen within my time working in fashion.

[00:03:04] Maggie Kanan: So over the past 10 years, how would you describe the impact fast fashion has made on the fashion cycle? 

[00:03:11] Susanna Moyer: So the cycle itself has sped up. And the speed to market has been a focus for many companies. We tried to do that at Xcel brands. And, quickly find out what the consumer wanted. Have it go through the supply chain and really get new fashion to the consumer as fast as possible.

And I think that has done a lot of damage in a sense to the consumer who wants something new. And, and they don't really curate their closet. They don't curate their look. They're just looking for something new. So I think that it's changed the, landscape of fashion and production tremendously. And I think that now that we're, we're coming out of COVID, I think we're looking at how we wear clothes and what we need and quality again. At least I am. And I know this has been a discussion with many of my friends in the fashion industry, and we're kind of thinking about how things are going to change going forward with the consumer and how they are going to be shopping fast fashion, if at all. The other thing is I think Zara, you know, it is the best fast fashion retailer, and they really understand the supply chain and they're trying to do new things with sustainability and it'll be interesting to see what happens with them and what they end up doing. 

[00:04:33] Maggie Kanan: I love that you pointed out Zara as an example, because for my age range, the early twenties, where maybe you don't have as much money to invest in pieces, a lot of my friends have really loved that brand. So I can see as someone who's a student of the fashion industry, you know, fast fashion is not ideal for the environment. And maybe it's a little detrimental to the sustainability mission. I do feel like Zara has taken the initiative and my age range has loved their brand and they aren't, you know, the worst off in terms of sustainability. Definitely interesting to see where that goes. 

Do you think that customers will ever go back to investing in their pieces rather than purchasing fast fashion items? 

[00:05:15] Susanna Moyer: I think there may be a slow fashion movement happening now. And the interesting thing is I was starting to see students of mine, of Parsons in FIT who could buy anything they wanted to, looking at vintage, looking at Goodwill and really coming back and showing me pieces that they had purchased and looking at the details, looking at how well the fabrics were created with the design details. And I think that, there is an undercurrent of this happening, where your generation is conscious of the fact that they should be looking elsewhere, other than feeding that fast fashion chain of production and also kind of understanding, wow, this is really good quality. And I like the look of it because the quality. It's the vintage aspect that's the cool factor that they're finding when they're searching out certain pieces. So that trend has been going on for a good four or five years now. 

[00:06:17] Maggie Kanan: Along with that, even if it's not true vintage, I feel like resale has definitely skyrocketed with things like the real, real Poshmark and trading items instead of buying new has become a big trend. And as we have these conversations about sustainability and inclusivity in the industry, what do you think are the most important qualities a brand should have from a consulting perspective? 

[00:06:42] Susanna Moyer: So the creation of a new brand, you need to have a unique proposition. What ever that is; a unique idea to fill white space that is lacking in the industry that has a place for a new brand because we are inundated by new brands. And the thing is the consumer is not loyal to brands right now. So how do you get that consumer to be loyal to you as a brand? And, for example, when I started my first collection, when I was working on my collections, I kind of instinctively knew that I had to find that white space, that part of what I could do. And there really wasn't the competition that exists today nor the internet and online shopping. So, so I looked at my illustration skills. I illustrated things that I would create for textiles. I also looked for unique fabrics that were quality from Italy and France, knowing that it would last a long time, because I always wanted to design things that were going to be collectors pieces for the consumer. And I still have friends that have my garments. I still wear them and, and pull them out of the closet and you know, style them with what I have. So I think you have to really find whatever that unique part, whether it's a sustainable focus, color, textile, whatever it is that you're, trying to achieve with your design sensibility, you really have to find that unique idea and focus that is going to be brand strong, so people will know what this about your brand, want to see what you're doing, new and, follow you.

And, If you can get them to really be like they can't wait to see what you you're going to be doing for the next collection, and I think about Alexander McQueen because he was so focused on what he did. And everybody couldn't wait because he was so focused on his sense of brand and his sense of style and storytelling.

So, he comes to mind as somebody that people just couldn't wait to see what he was going to do next in his collections. 

[00:09:01] Maggie Kanan: I've always loved Alexander McQueen. And he's one of the designers I looked up to the most. 

If you were to start a clothing brand today, what do you think would be the key elements to standing out in a saturated, social media driven market?

[00:09:15] Susanna Moyer: So, again, finding what that unique purpose is to fill in the marketplace. What is new that I can create? How, for me, it would be, I just think this trend of sustainability and the ethical approach to making clothes is going to be a trend that we will have for a very long time, if not for ever going into the future, because we have so much waste and so much pollution from the production of clothing. So, I think that, it's all about storytelling. It's all about figuring out. What the consumer wants. And I definitely would go back to, who I am and what I believe in, in terms of my own personal style and, what people, what my consumer, what my friends, whoever I would be creating this collection for, how they would want to kind of end up being that, that perfect consumer for me. So it would be a lot of research. It would be looking at personally the textile side, the production side, the artisan part of creating textiles, possibly, and again, sustainability and the ethical approach of making the clothes. 

[00:10:31] Maggie Kanan: I feel like as an aspiring designer myself, I always find myself asking whoever I'm around, whether it's my friends or people in visiting with what they look for, what they don't like about what they're currently wearing. Just kind of gathering that data and putting it in my back pocket. So I can be able to meet that in a unique way and also get that storytelling of, you don't have this in the market, and everyone has this problem with this garment. Really does come back to the people at the end of the day.

So any advice for aspiring fashion designers and entrepreneurs? 

[00:11:03] Susanna Moyer: I think the best advice would be do your research, find out who you are first. What makes you happy as a creative person? How you want to move that forward? Who is that consumer you want to touch? What do you want to do for them? You know, the other thing is inclusivity in the marketplace. There's so many people that, I like wearing men's wear like wearing women's wear like wearing sexy clothes, I like wearing baggy clothes. You know, where are you going to fit in and focus at first on what inspires you and makes you excited about being a fashion designer.

And it doesn't have to be a collection. It can be one garment, one idea, one piece that can start something and you can grow from that as you move forward in your design work. 

[00:11:56] Maggie Kanan: Well, thank you. And that's all the time we have for today, but I'm so glad that we got to have this conversation and definitely will take your advice as an aspiring entrepreneur and designer myself. And I really thank you for your time today. And for our listeners, so that they can stay up to date with you. Do you have, any social media or projects that you want to talk about real fast? 

[00:12:19] Susanna Moyer: So I do, I do have a company that I started where I saw that the need for helping young designers, mostly high school fashion students that are really looking to put their portfolios together and, and don't really know how. And I didn't make it into Parsons the first time cause I was in Eden Prairie in Minnesota and I didn't know what to do. And I just had to do it on my own. So, so I help kids that really can't pay me that can't afford to to hire somebody as there are students that do have the ability to hire somebody to help them, or go to a person's program during the summer.

But some of these kids can't afford it and I love to help them. I love to have them reach out and say, "Hey, I really learned from you and I'm accepted." And also, you know, with Fashion Consort we are helping a lot of companies in terms of what their needs are with the experts that we have.

So, so yeah, that's pretty much what I'm working on right now. 

[00:13:20] Maggie Kanan: As someone growing up in the Midwest too, I always dreamed of going to Parsons. I definitely appreciate that mission. Thank you again for your time today and thank you to our listeners. 

[00:13:30] Joshua Williams: Thank you for listening to this episode of Retail Revolution. A very special thank you to everyone who has helped make this podcast possible. If you'd like to support the work we're doing, please visit our show page at RetailRevolutionPodcast.com and click on the donate link. Our theme music was composed by Spencer Powell. Be well and stay tuned for our next episode.

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