Bikinis & atom bombs: Be inspired by everything.

When we think about inspiration, what influences us most are ordinary people who have done extraordinary things. We appreciate when someone has the ability and willingness to be selfless, creative, innovative, or just dares to be different. Being ordinary and creating extra ordinary stuff.

It’s one of fashion’s great mysteries. Where do designers find their inspiration? The birth of a trend has long been a source of debate. Inspiration can literally come from anywhere, be it family, music, streets, a crack in the sidewalk etc . There are no restraints as to what someone can draw from to turn a mere thought into a reality. In fact, fashion design is all about great inspirations. Today’s designs are everything from elaborate drawings in a sketchbook to creative photo shopping.

Unexpected inspirations:

Miniskirt: Did you know the origin of the miniskirts by Mary Quant’s was actually named after her favourite car – The Mini. According to her, miniskirts meant young, fresh, colourful and fun.

The bikini: Louis Reard named his two-piece swimming costume after the Bikini Atoll, where the US military was testing bombs. He believed his revealing swimwear would create a shock similar to that of the atomic bomb. He sure did!!!!!!

Versace logo: Gianni Versace’s major influence was Greek mythology – the logo for his company is the head of Medusa – thought to symbolize the empowerment of women. Through his clothing, Versace wanted to give women confidence and power, and this was shown through his choice of flamboyant textiles, bold colors and flattering cuts.

Red-soled Louboutins: Christian Louboutin’s red soles were inspired by Andy Warhol and nail varnish. When designing a pair of shoes influenced by Warhol’s Flowers, Louboutin was dissatisfied with the outcome. While looking at the shoes, which had black soles, to try to figure out why they didn’t work, his assistant was painting her nails red. Seeing the polish, Louboutin grabbed the pot and lacquered the shoe’s sole, and an icon was born.

We at MyWear® would like to be the bridge that leads artists to becoming entrepreneurs. We can provide you with all the tools you need to successfully launch your own clothing line. Your own website, Custom sizes, your own choice of fabric, Social media integration, advance designing tools, ecommerce, on demand manufacturing and shipment. You name it we got it.

We have made sure that tools, technology and cost are no longer barriers. Just bring in your creativity, talent, drive and let’s get started.

Show the world what you can do,

Register now: www.launchmywear.com

How to build a successful e-commerce business

Is there a short cut to success? I’d love to give you a new and unique answer which would magically make all your problems disappear. But, unfortunately, there is none. So, I’m just going to go with the old fashioned epithets of ‘hard work ‘, perseverance, talent and a little bit of luck (although the law of attraction states luck itself is directly proportional to how hard you work!).

A lot of budding entrepreneurs think that they can get a website, open a shop and customers will beat a path to their store. The reality is far different. With a billion websites out there, getting discovered, building the trust that gets a sale take a lot of time. Most new e-commerce sites don’t net a single sale for the first 3 months.

You could do a simple google search to find hundreds of articles about hard work. I simply wish to give a more realistic perspective on the subject.

Case study 1:

In 1993, K. Anders Ericsson and colleagues asked musicians to estimate the amount of deliberate practice– full engagement in structured training activities designed to improve a particular aspect of performance– every week for each year of their careers. They found that on average, the most accomplished musicians estimated much higher amounts of deliberate practice than the less accomplished musicians. At age 20, the average estimated hours for the most accomplished violinists was more than 10,000 hours, whereas the average estimated hours for the least accomplished violinists was about 4,600 hours.

Case study 2:

Winston Churchill, one of the 20th century’s greatest orators, practiced his speeches compulsively. Vladimir Horowitz supposedly said, “If I don’t practice for a day, I know it. If I don’t practice for two days, my wife knows it. If I don’t practice for three days, the world knows it.”

 

The field of fashion is no different. Sure, talent is important, but consistency, hard work and dedication to the art are even more important. Opening an online store is easy, anyone can do it. But making it successful requires hardwork, perseverance and motivation. Maintaining its standards consistently with new, catchy designs, customer service, keeping up with trends, research etc are the tough parts. It’s even tougher doing all these knowing that you statistically won’t be getting even a single order for at least 3 months from starting your store. These are the parts which will determine if you will be a success story or a cautionary tale for others.

If you say, “I’ve tried all this, still no success”, here are few more case studies for you, Colonel Sander’s chicken recipe was rejected 1099 times before going mainstream, Henry ford failed in five businesses before starting ford motors, Walt Disney was fired from a newspaper early in his career because “he lacked imagination and creative ideas”.

So what is the secret sauce to building a new digital business?

1. Have something truly unique
2. Share your website with friends and family and ask them to share it with their friends
3. Provide excellent customer support. Give your customers a reason to buy from you
4. Be active on social media like Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and share your work.

In the end it takes talent, nurturing, motivation, persistence and hardwork to build a success story. There are no shortcuts here!

Launch your own clothing line at under $100,

Launch Your Own Clothing Line. Custom Made, On-demand!

MyWear^® is the only integrated platform to let you launch your own line of apparel or accessories, designed, produced and delivered to order, under your label, with no minimum order quantities. MyWear^® provides you with everything you need: design tools, e-commerce, social media integration, manufacturing & drop shipping!

If you are wondering, is talent alone enough?, you need to look at industry legends like Coco Chanel, who learnt the art of sewing while being raised in an orphanage or Georgio Armani, who started his career from a garments shop, where he assisted a photographer in arranging the window, or let’s take the example of Calvin Klein, who started his career as a complete loner, with no connections nor money, except for what he made helping his father at his grocery store.

The simple truth is, in addition to being exceptional fashion designers, these greats were also exceptional business men and women, scouting the market like a hawk, searching for opportunity, flaws, chinks in the armor where they could step in and offer their solutions.

For instance, Rene’ Lacoste designed a game changing shirt with a buttoned neckline and short sleeves in a time when tennis players were accustomed to rolling up their sleeves to get a little relief. Lacoste saw opportunity, stepped in and offered his solution. A simple formula.

These extraordinary people loved their art enough to learn and develop a new line of business. Now, we have made the barriers much lower for an enterprising designer to get started on their own.

Choose from our wide range of product silhouettes across customer segments – Tees, Tops, Dresses, Backpacks, Messenger bags and Raglans across Kids, Men, Women and Extended Sizes in Synthetic, Cotton, Polyester, Silk or Blends. Just design on our 3D tool and publish to your store and the product is ready for purchase! No inventory, no pre-orders, no minimums – we will custom make and drop ship every single order, under your label, within 2 weeks.

Need your own custom product or special fabric? We will design, pattern-make and set up manufacturing just for you, for a small fee.

Don’t be restricted to designing inside a box! MyWear® is the only platform that supports full-bleed prints with custom sizes and choice of fabric. Go ahead and unleash your creative skills without any technology limitation.

Promote your products on Facebook, sell on Facebook in-app store, promote on Twitter, Instagram & Pinterest with a single click from our social dashboard. When your customers order on any of your channels, we will manufacture and drop ship it!

Launch your line, under your own label.

We have simplified supply chains, built design tools and brought on-demand
manufacturing so any budding designer with talent and entrepreneurial skills can get started. We have made sure tools, technology or cost are no longer a barrier. You just need to add your talent and creativity to the mix!

Register now: https://www.launchmywear.com/design-make-sell.html

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MyWear® 101: Create Clothing & Accessories On-Demand

For those of you not in the loop yet, MyWear® is a new on-demand eCommerce and manufacturing platform for artists and designers that gives you the ability to launch your own line of clothing and accessories for free.

The integrated platform provides you with everything you need to start selling your own merchandise: design tools, a branded e-store, pattern generation, supply chain, production, and free shipping & delivery to over 10 countries. We’re also the only platform to move beyond the heat-pressed T-shirt, offering apparel in a variety of knits and woven fabrics and advanced silhouettes, like custom dresses, jackets, and even chinos.

So, how do you get started?

1. Register for your free account at LaunchMyWear.com
2. Create and customize your own branded e-storefront: (your brand name).mywearstore.com
3. Upload your art and design products without restrictions on MyWear®’s 3D model.
4. Publish to make your design immediately available for purchase.
5. After your first sale, link your Stripe account.
6. You relax while we take care of manufacturing, shipping, and customer service!

Now, we’ll do a quick crash course on our 3D model:

1. To design on the 3D model, first, you’ll want to upload your artwork. Art can for this can be created in a number of ways including Photoshop, Microsoft Paint, Adobe Illustrator, a photograph, or a picture of something you’ve drawn/painted. We recommend uploading 300 pixel/inch resolution, so your artwork is large and high-res enough to cover your design in full.

2. Hover your mouse over the art you uploaded and select “Design your own”. This will take you to a menu of products to choose from.

3. Now, we get to the fun stuff! When your design first appears on your product, in some cases it will show as a rectangle, one that most likely doesn’t fit the entire piece. There’s an Auto Fit button which will automatically fill the entire product.

4. Or, in order to get your print to cover your product entirely, you’ll want to use the plus sign to scale the art to the whole piece. To make the print smaller, use the minus option. Use the arrows to align it further to the left or right, or higher or lower. The small center button will make your arrows move in smaller increments.  If you’re planning on using more than one artwork on your piece, you can use the additional artwork tabs to do so.

5. To apply color, select the area of your product you’d like to fill and turn artwork off in the color tab, if needed. Choose the color you’d like to apply to the selected section.

6. When finished, double check to make sure art is covering the entire piece and save design in bottom right corner.

Now your design is up and available for purchase on your MyWear® store! Share your newly designed piece with family, friends, and your social media audience! When an order is placed, we’ll manufacture and ship it, and credit your dues to your account.

Happy designing!

MyWearStore.com: Custom Fashion at Affordable Prices

Have you heard the news? We’re very proud to announce the launch of our new marketplace, MyWearStore.com!

MyWearStore is the world’s first and only collection of completely customizable apparel and accessories, designed by a talented community of independent LaunchMyWear artists and designers. Our marketplace allows customers to discover new, emerging artists, designers, and trends – all at affordable prices. Customers have the option of personalizing every aspect of their order, from size and fabric, all the way down to the actual design itself. In turn, independent artists and designers are able to sell their own lines of apparel and accessories, under their own labels and with no minimum order quantities. We believe this is the future of art and fashion: an ecosystem of innovation, on-demand production, and full customization.

Once upon a time, having an up and coming designer make you a one-of-a-kind piece in your measurements and choice of fabric meant you were insanely wealthy. Now, with MyWearStore, you can have exactly that, at less than department store prices. We live in the future, guys!

I thought we’d use this as an opportunity to showcase some of our artists’ work, so, without further ado, here are some collections brought to you by the incredibly creative people that make MyWear possible:

I’ll start with one of my personal favorites, the folky designs of Ms. Ranka Stevic. Ranka uses patterns and prints that I would normally associate with embroidery, but updates them with modern colors and sharp angles. This marriage of tradition and modern design feels both familiar and fresh.

One of our earliest supporters and favorite designers has been Inspired Fashion. Inspired offers a huge range of unique apparel, with a positive message to boot.

I’m also a huge fan of these trippy designs from Fashion4U:

YSO Serious fashion has some seriously unique graphic tees:

Last but not least, my favorite, Reality Inc., brings technicolor pop art to the table, combining satire, modern art, and a Warhol-esque approach in his designs.

We’re expanding our marketplace constantly with new designers and a huge range of products in the pipeline. Those of you interested in creating your own line can register on LaunchMyWear.com. Those looking to support the artist community and snag your own one-of-a-kind pieces can visit MyWearStore.com.

Happy shopping!

Your Print Guide for Spring/Summer 2016 is Here!

If you caught any glimpses of Dolce & Gabbana’s Spring 2016 ready-to-wear collection, you’ve probably already caught the buzz. After watching the absolutely dazzling array of cheerful, globally-inspired prints that walked the runway, I wanted to pre-order one of everything the models were wearing. Unfortunately, that isn’t in my budget this year, as I am not Beyoncé 😦

D&G took us around the world, with loud, in-your-face color and embellishments that were streamlined in classic, feminine silhouettes. Just look at these photos from the show!

This recipe of adventurous prints and color in ladylike cuts made for an absolutely delightful show that, of course, inspired me to create my own look on my LaunchMyWear:

Clearly inspired by D&G’s lemon print here

Marc Jacobs’ print game was strong, too. His collection showcased a lineup of models with tons of pumped-up, old Hollywood glamour, and even more New York Dolls-style attitude. Marc Jacobs is one of my favorite designers, so, of course I had to pay homage to his  incredible Spring ready-to-wear line, as well.

My take on his plaid/floral numbers. I ❤ you, Marc!

Another gorgeous collection that stood out for me was Diane Von Furstenberg’s. I know floral prints in a spring collection isn’t a new concept, but Diane Von Furstenberg does it so darn well. This woman knows prints like she knows wrap dresses. So, this Spring ready-to-wear trifecta wouldn’t be complete without her.

Love her mix of prints!

Other labels that brought it for S/S 2016 included:

Gucci (Spring 2016 Ready-To-Wear)

Jonathan Saunders (S/S16 Ready-To-Wear)

Temperley London (Spring 2016 Ready-To-Wear)

And Clover Canyon (Spring & Resort 2016)

Because MyWear® is the perfect platform to create custom clothes with your own custom prints, every runway show can provide inspiration for your own designs, without the Beyoncé bank account! What are your favorite looks from S/S16 collections? I’d love to see your takes on them! Be sure to tweet your designs at us @LaunchMyWear

The Benefits of Choosing LaunchMyWear.com

Because LaunchMyWear.com relies on all new, patent pending technology to produce custom clothing and apparel, designers may wonder how exactly our platform works. More importantly, how does it work for them, as designers?

Your Own Private e-Store

First and foremost, with LaunchMyWear.com, you own an e-store, which can be customized just the way you want it. You control everything, from the name, theme, and font colors, to what your customer sees when entering your store.  Upload your logo to establish your brand even further.  You can even group your merchandise into assigned categories of your choosing.

 

Secure Payment Gateway

Your e-store, which showcases your products, wouldn’t be complete without a payment gateway. Hence, we offer you and your customers a secure checkout that’s already integrated into your e-store.

Your Own Label

At LaunchMyWear.com, apart from owning your e-store, you can also launch your own fashion label. This feature will be active after you generate at least 50 orders from your e-store. You can even apply for a trademark through us. Need more help? We offer one-on-one consultations to our designers to help them get their trademark and label up and running.

Ability to Apply Print Anywhere on Your Merchandise

As an artist, don’t be restricted to design only on specific sections of your merchandise. LaunchMyWear.com is the only platform that lets you design a product with all-over prints, or on any surface of the product you like! Our 3D tool will help you design on any section of your creation that you please.

One Design, Many SKUs

Our patent-pending software converts your design, from the 3D tool, to different sizes, including both standard and custom sizes, and automatically creates SKUs for production.  So, you only have to design once!

You Design It, We’ll Manufacture It!

We’ll manufacture your design when it’s ordered, without any upfront fees. That means no inventory, no pre-orders, no minimums, and no cost to you, the designer. And, because it’s made to order, you can design and launch as many products on your e-store as you want!

Social Media Integration

LaunchMyWear even makes it easy to promote your products online! No need to login to individual social media channels and post your content. At LaunchMyWear.com, you can promote away, directly from our social media share dashboard.

Drop-Shipping

Once ordered and manufactured, we deliver straight to your customer’s doorstep. Or to yours, if that’s your preference!

Transparent reporting

Our transparent reporting allows you to keep track of your orders and earnings. Link to your secure Stripe account and watch your designs pay off, literally.

Simply put, LaunchMyWear is an all-inclusive package for any designer to create new, custom looks to be produced, on-demand, without any of the obstacles associated with traditional fashion manufacturing. Hopefully, now you have a bit of a better idea of just how our platform works and how it works for you, as a designer.  And, with no costs to you, there’s no reason not to get started!

What Trends Will People Be Wearing Next?

As I swiped through a fashion blog’s slideshow, “The Top 7 Trends That Fashion Girls Will Be Wearing Next”, I couldn’t help but feel a tinge of cynicism. It was a well-researched piece, filled with examples from S/S 16 runways, some of which were from my favorite designers. What gives? Although the garments were beautiful and inspiring, I was reminded of two winters ago, when I felt an urge to push my usual bohemian prints to the back of the closet, replacing them with newly bought sweatshirt dresses and over-sized tee shirts. I didn’t understand why gray, stretchy-cotton material and white sneakers suddenly felt so exciting, they just did.

Less than a month later it all made sense: Normcore had been a thing for a while, and I was unknowingly riding the zeitgeist. I started to take notice of all the photos of models off-duty, impossibly high cheek bones peeking through air-dried, perfectly-bent hair. Their baggy white tees and mom jeans hung on their long, thin frames, making these young women look even more delicate in contrast. It was then that I realized that no matter how fresh this looked on a 115-pound model, it just wasn’t going to have the same effect on my strong, broad-shouldered frame. I would look more like an off-duty Croatian wrestler on her way to play D&D or a Croatian Andrew W.K. impersonator… Not that there’s anything wrong with that! It’s just… not the same.

I would look so silly in this.

I should clarify that I’m not implying that only certain body types should wear certain things. I believe, and want to see, people from everywhere on the spectrum wearing whatever it is that reflects them, both emotionally and creatively. BUT, I am a product of an environment that’s shoved one beauty ideal down my throat since I was a wee lass, so I hope you’ll understand why I would feel less than chic wearing a billowy poncho with cropped flares, or whatever it is that Alexa Chung’s wearing this week. So, why the pressure to try? Why the need to try and keep up with these fashion girls and the 7 things they’ll be wearing next? What do YOU want to wear or design next?

Trends are just that. They can keep things from becoming stagnant and uninspiring, but if you haven’t developed your own sense of style, they can send you down a long, and weary path of wearing or designing for a different person every few months. I realize I’m stating the obvious here, but it’s amazing how often some of us get caught up in the idea of staying… well, caught up.

My take on a fit & flare involves tribal-inspired prints!

Your perspective offers far more than making sure you create a buttonfront A-line skirt in alignment with the 70s trend that’s currently everywhere. Instead, I’d like to remind everyone to let trends work for you, to motivate you to evolve your own aesthetic. Do you prefer a classic, 50’s silhouette? Maybe your take on the 70’s is a fit & flare with a far-out print? Maybe you want to pair suede platforms with an understated cigarette pant. I dunno, that’s for you to decide! Point being: style is supposed to be individualistic. Celebrate your creative voice and find inspiration in yourself, before paying too much attention to what’s on trend, because the one thing you can offer potential clients, that no one else can, is your own unique voice, right?

So, if it isn’t already obvious, what trends do I think people will be wearing next? Pieces designed by one-of-a-kind people, and customized for every one-of-a-kind body. The internet has been priming us for this for a while. Looking for a panda iPhone case? Browse all 9,600,000 results on Google. Want to order a pizza with 6 toppings, light sauce, slightly crispy crust, and then track it to you door? Pizza Hut has you covered! vPersonalize, MyWear and on-demand manufacturing will give us all the ability to create and find that piece of clothing that’s juuuuust right, made to order, and fits all of our super-specific measurements. As a designer, you’ll have the ability to design the vision that’s been dancing around in your head, without having to worry about overhead, inventory, or even sewing, for that matter. We live in the future, guys! And in the future, we wear whatever we want to.