Interview with Mr Frank Bober

The fashion world has totally changed from the 60’s forward. In fact it truly began to change in the mid to late 60’s and has been on a fast pace ever since. The baby boomers began the major change in fashion from the conservative 50’s and the fast pace of change in so many things from technology to fashion created today’s fashion world.

I can think of two major changes over any others that stand out in my mind. One was the beginning of private label as a business model whereby the retailer began to bypass conventional dynamics and form and began to make their own labeled merchandise. This was in the mid to late 70’s and standouts that lead this change in the US were Limited Stores and Gap. This new way of the retailer becoming its own manufacturer encouraged others to follow suit and also encouraged manufacturers to become retailers. A standout example of this is Polo/Ralph Lauren whose roots were in wholesale and today derives most of its revenue from its retail operations worldwide. The major change therefore was a blurring of the lines between manufacturer and retailer whereby each began to do both.

The second major standout with respect to change was, and is, the speed to market techniques employed by such companies as Zara (Inditex), H&M, Topshop and many others around the globe. This fast fashion dynamic has had a major impact on the design cycle, raw material suppliers, factories and the entire supply chain. Stylesight, by being web based helps to provide a creative solution on the web and thereby enhances the fast fashion approach to design.

There have been many changes in fashion from the 60’s to today but these two truly changed the fashion world.

Arthur Richards was primarily a menswear company although they did have a women’s division and in menswear, private label was far more prevalent than in women’s wear. From my men’s background I saw that many of the techniques applied to the private label sector of menswear could be very well applied to the women’s business. This understanding and experience was a great help to me when I began my company, CMT Enterprises in 1978. CMT was one of the original private label suppliers to many of America’s retailers.

Although I wasn’t at Polo for very long, the lesson learned from my friend Ralph Lauren was integrity and commitment to one’s vision no matter what anyone else thought or the temptation to be dragged into a fad. No one has done that better than Ralph and working with him was a great help to me later in my career. Stylesight dances to its own tune and Ralph was an influence on me by showing what can be done when one sticks to their ideas even in the face of adversity.

As I mentioned in my first response, the maturation of the private label sector combined with retailers manufacturing their own merchandise and manufacturers opening their own retail stores has completely blurred the lines of an industry that prior to the 70’s was rather structured. Hence, the profitability of private label versus big ticket brands is truly no longer an issue.

I think it is and it’s getting even more interesting and innovative. Technology is the game changer now with business to consumer paying attention to social networking opportunities and the internet in general. Fashion is at its best because people are more aware due to the proliferation of the internet. There’s more fun, there’s more awareness and therefore much more opportunity to create interest by the consumer. We see this all over the world today.

In the business to business arena, we, Stylesight, are leading the way by using content combined with world class technology to enhance and enable the creative process and truly provide a creative solution. In this arena, designers can have more fun, be far more creative by being able to see the world quickly and effectively through their screens and move the information downstream into highly creative product in a very speedy manner. This is why fashion is at its best today.

I can’t speak for others, but for Stylesight, we’re changing the way creative people work. We have over 2000 companies subscribing to our service and trend is part of the site but certainly not the entire site. So to characterize us as trend consultants only tells a part of our rich offering.

The way we are making things both better and different is by utilizing the power of technology and content and delivering an incredible amount of information solely on the net. We have forecasting, analysis, and technical tools (software) that make the journey of product creation and development much more accurate and faster than anything that has happened before Stylesight arrived. We also make it fun and interesting for the creative community. Designers can finally enjoy using a web application while getting their jobs done.

We have just begun really to penetrate the world even with 2000 companies and we’re now in 5 languages so our clients can utilize their creativity in their native languages. We have found the way by leading the way. There is no other medium other than the net that can deliver the world of fashion cities and influences simultaneously and provide the software tools such as making your own color palettes or storyboards on the same site other than Stylesight.

I answered part of the subject of fast fashion in my response to the first question but let me expand on that. Fast Fashion is just a symptom of greater and quicker communication particularly enabled by the web. It makes sense that fashion would have become faster just because it could. There are many more ideas than realization so the pent up creativity and manufacturing capability is satisfied through fast fashion. I love the concept because it enhances the amount of offerings a consumer can see and empowers the designers to be more creative. The industry itself has grown dynamically throughout the world because of the concept of fast fashion. Part of Stylesight’s content and technology is devoted to the “speed to market” approach and we are enablers of the concept through the use of the web and the applications we provide.

In terms of intellectual property, this is a major moving target. One really cannot copyright a lapel or a sleeve. The one aspect that can be copyrighted is print design and this has continued for many years and is effective. True creative designers that build a brand and a place for themselves in the market place are not worried about copying. In the age of fast fashion it is very difficult to legislate copyrighting other than prints and graphics. The overall silhouette cannot and should not be legislated. As I said, truly creative people don’t worry about such things because they are building their own following and design personality. Obviously, this statement does not apply to counterfeiting as that is out and out stealing and needs to be addressed and prosecuted.

I would say that on the face of it no. However, we will see a change in the way fashion is presented because of simulcasting, companies sometimes using the web only for their shows, twittering and blogging during the shows, instant information of the shows and surely ordering from the designers immediately is also expected. Once again, the web is the great leveler of the playing field and will be employed more and more whether it’s East or West.

Finally the web is being employed for the creative process and Stylesight is leading that charge. So the economics of product inspiration and development will become more attractive. One does not have to travel all over the world to get information as they once did because we are there for them. Furthermore, the in depth forecasting and analysis and the instant ability to change and adjust the information at a moment’s notice is helping our subscribers be more up to the minute and trend correct with a very economical value proposition compared to only a few years ago. This trend will encourage more people to get in the business and be able to do it more economically.

As an example, countries such as China and India are no longer just producing countries but are developing their own strong domestic markets supported by a vast web acceptance. Stylesight leads this revolution and because all our content and functionality is translated into Chinese, we see broad acceptance of our site and the help it gives creative people throughout China. The industry can only grow worldwide as the adoption of the web becomes more widespread for creativity.

Our growth validates this argument as we have grown more than 60% year over year for the past two years and that trend is continuing in 2010. We would not be enjoying this growth if the worldwide fashion industry was not adopting the concept of creativity on the web.