The Harajuku Realm
The Harajuku Realm
INTERVIEW WITH FLYING SOLO
Welcome back to the Harajuku Realm!
In this episode, I was able to sit down with Elizabeth Solomeina of www.flyingsolo.nyc to discuss how indie designers can not only find inspiration but also learn practical steps on how to get your brand up and running.
Hi, cuties. Welcome back to the Harajuku Realm, the podcast about fashion and fashion entrepreneurship. I have a guest today by the name of Elizabeth Solomina, who is the marketing, I'm sorry, the managing director at Flying Solo, Inc. And... Flying Solo Inc. is a company that gives a platform to independent designers to show their collections on a large scale with international fashion shows. They have so many fashion shows in so many different countries for so many different fashion weeks, which is amazing. And they also give an opportunity for small brands to have their collections in their actual flagship retail stores. So I am very excited to learn more about Flying Solo and how they help independent designers. As you know, I am an independent designer myself, and I always want to give advice to independent designers because we, I mean, we're shaping fashion. Let's be real. I agree.
SPEAKER_01:I agree. Definitely the next generation of fashion.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. Elizabeth, if you can, I know I gave you a little background about your company, but you know it best. If you can give me just a little bit more about what Flying Solo does and how they help independent designers.
SPEAKER_01:Of course. Well, let me start with, well, first of all, thank you so much for having me on this podcast. And the story of Flying Solo started with a 10 designers we actually it was 10 of us at the beginning of this journey me being one of the designers I'm a jewelry designer and nine others and we actually wanted something for ourselves so a place like Flying Solo but it didn't exist so nine years ago we opened our very first store on Mulberry Street. And it was rather small. And what quickly started happening is a lot of other independent designers reached out to us to join. So 10 quickly became 30, became 50, became 100. So now we have over 200 brands in Flying Solo between our New York and Paris store. And the idea behind Flying Solo was always collaboration instead of competition. Because we realized early on in the journey of being independent designers that it's so hard to stand out on your own and real competition it's not about another independent brand next to you but you're competing against big marketing budgets of larger companies and for you to stand out it takes a lot of resources so by joining forces you not only can afford a place like to be in city like New York and more than being in soho or paris but you also get much more attention so each of us individual could not possibly get the same attention as 10 and then 30 and then 50 so that was always an idea behind flying solo and funny enough i mean right now like nine years later it's almost sounds ridiculous but nine years ago a lot of people thought that uh fashion could never be collaborative it's only after it's only within those nine years we start seeing a lot of brand doing collaboration and start being super popular and different brands like start collaborating collection but actually that wasn't the case back then back in 2016 when we started and a lot of people back then came to us saying like well that will never work you guys all end up just like arguing between each other and parting your own ways and for me it sounds beyond ridiculous because my background I always been in creative industries but I was in film production before that before that I was in graphic design and it's always a team it's never a product like especially when you work on video film shoots it's never been done by one person it's always a collaboration between different creatives and you put ideas together and fashion for me was a little strange because everybody was kind of on their own however we as creatives always crave to be in the crowd so when 10 of us get together something magical start happening we all of a sudden um start like showing each other's designs. It's like, I'm working on this, you work on that, giving each other ideas, collaborating on different projects. And all of a sudden that creativity starts flowing. I was like, okay, clearly something magical is happening. And yeah, that's how Flying Solo grew. Now it's an international company. So we have a store in New York. I mean, it's much larger store than the original one. We move quite a bit. We opened one in Paris a year and a half ago and we have a large press showroom separately from our store. where we do press for our brands and we do New York Fashion Week Paris Fashion Week and Milan Fashion Week with our designers also showcasing them on international major stages also in collaborating instead of competing so it's a big show showcasing different brands one after another so this way we can create so much attention to our show that each of us individually just couldn't even dream of so that's That's a quick story of Flying
SPEAKER_00:Solo. Yeah, and that's amazing. I love that it started with collaborating, just creatives collaborating, because you're right, there's so much of this, like, just like feeling where you need to compete. But like, I think, like you said, the competition is the bigger brands with the bigger budgets and the bigger marketing budgets and all of that. And that's what makes it hard for independent designer to stand out and just feel like, oh, I can reach out to that person. And maybe that person would like to collab. Like you said, you do jewelry, I do clothing. It would be a great collab to have a jewelry designer and a clothing designer or a bag designer and a jewelry designer, you know, like those types of things. Exactly. Really does help the community of fashion because we're all creative and everyone has a different market. Everyone has a different look and idea. So I really appreciate that that's how you started just collabing together, just nine designers collabing and now you've built a global brand. That's completely amazing. Thank you. What advice would you give to anyone wanting to start a clothing brand? What first steps would they have to take to bring that creative vision into an actual business?
SPEAKER_01:Well, sure. Well, first of all, you have to love it. Honestly, if you go there just for the money, there are other industries to make money in and fashion will not be my first choice. That's for sure. It is hard unless you love it. So if you love it, all those long nights and sleepless nights and, you know, all those like mistakes that you make along the way and in any business, you'll make tons of mistakes and it's part of the journey and disappointments that you'll face and rejection and all of that will be worth it. it if you're actually liking the journey if you don't please like there are other things to do in this world so I truly believe that you are you become a designer only if you cannot imagine doing anything else when it's in you to create like when you know that whatever is in your head must be out there and you must create so in that case it becomes authentic it doesn't become easy by the way but it becomes authentic and customers can connect with that and as long as you stay true to yourself and keep developing your vision i believe you're always going to find some crowd yes sometimes it takes a while to find your crowd and sometimes you need to try different markets to do that and sometimes you need a ton of press to get to those like people that's actually going to resonate with your design because not everybody is supposed to like you as a designer it's fine i mean you like you have to appeal just to a certain group of people that will become your customers and others might as well not like you at all as a designer but yeah that's the whole process and again just make sure you're there for the right reasons and if you are it will give you so much journey I remember the first time you make a piece and it gets sold to an actual person it's a feeling that you'll never forget you and you you all of sudden just from that vision like that was completely yours and only you were liking it i mean people were liking instagram or whatever but it's not a real like unless they uh and someone actually spend their hard-earned money on your design so that's when it became become real like that we're like oh wow i had something that others want. I mean, it sounds a little silly, but it's a realization that you get when you start selling. And so that's the first. And then when you get your first press, I also will never forget how it
SPEAKER_00:happened.
SPEAKER_01:It's like all of a sudden you open a publication and ours was actually for the jewelry brand was New York Times and open a publication and all of a sudden your piece is in there. for everybody to see. So someone chose it to be featured. And it's such a big thing. And in Flying Solo, I witnessed it so many times. Obviously, we are, you know, we... of course there's so many designers along the way and for like you know for a lot of them it will be the first time they get featured in press and I I'm always so so happy to see their like tears of joy and like all the emails back and everything because I remember that feeling I mean of course years later it becomes like oh that's another Harper's another L another book like yeah it just become one or another one and yes we got spoiled here with all the press that we get as designers and flying so but the first one you'll I cannot believe it. It's me. It's my design on the page of a magazine. And yeah, it's a wonderful feeling. And then when you're like, okay, the whole journey, my whole thing was worth it. Let's continue. So I think it's definitely like those type of little things, little recognitions give you a good push to keep going.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, no, that's very true. And just the part of having the passion for it because... Anything creative is very difficult. I say this in my podcast, I say this on my YouTube channel, is very much you have to get people to buy into your art. And that is the hardest part of it, because your art is just like, you know, it's like your baby. It's something you created, it's something you hold close to your heart. And unless you're really passionate about it, then... you're not going to go far, unfortunately. Like you have to eat, breathe, sleep fashion or whatever, whatever industry, creative industry it is. Because I know for me, like I, I work in the corporate fashion industry and I'm working on my brand and a lot of people that my coworkers that I work for, you know, I work with, they say all the time, like, how are you working in fashion all day? And then you go home and you sew and create at night. And I I'm like, because I love fashion. I thought we all did.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Well, funny enough, not everybody in corporate fashion are there for the love of fashion. I guess that's true. But yeah, when you open your own brand, you have to be there for the thrill of just doing the brand.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. Yes. And like you said, there's a lot of ups and downs. There's a lot of lessons to be learned. There's a lot of crying. I tell people all the time, like there's a lot of crying, late nights, crying over a sewing machine, taking a minute and then being like, okay, I need to get back and I need to focus and complete this collection, whether it's for a photo shoot or a fashion show or for a customer, a custom item, whatever it is. You know, it's a lot. It's a lot. But like you said, like building a community of people around you that share the same passion really help like motivate you to keep going.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, 100 percent.
SPEAKER_00:Sure. Yeah. The next question I have is what's the best way to balance your just your creative exploration and the demands of having a fashion business because a fashion-based business it's hard to be like i want to be creative and do this and do all the designing and the love and the fun stuff and then you're also like but let's talk numbers
SPEAKER_01:yeah well there are a couple ways like at least from what i saw throughout you know journey with flying so and seeing different designers um to go through that so one way is to have two partners and one will be the creative one and another will be the numbers one and if you have If you are a designer and you get that part, are you guys going to fight? Because ultimately, while you align on the same goal of making your brand successful, the whole thing is you kind of will be coming from different sides. And one will be trying to lower cost, to lower production cost, to shorten the production time. So lower the cost again and trying to get maximum money out of it. While another one wants to put all your heart and soul into little details that most likely will cost you significantly more but it's so so important to you so it's kind of the same goal but from different directions so you end up you know fighting a bit so that's that's one approach but that could be very successful if you end up figuring out that partnership and aligning on you know how you're going to move forward with all of that that's a good idea second one is to do it by yourself if you don't have a partner But here, the hard truth that no one wants to hear, if you are a designer running your own brand completely by yourself, At the most, you'll be designing 5% of the time. The rest, 95% will be spent on marketing it, selling it, actual production, dealing with customers, dealing with customers that might not be happy. Even if your product is the most perfect thing ever, there'll be someone still upset about delayed shipping. Maybe something didn't fit, even though you did write all the correct sizing, but so-and-so didn't read it. So there are a lot of things that go into running a brand and dealing with people right and yeah that's what you'll be doing 95% of the time so if you're dreaming of just designing definitely find a partner find a good one find someone that you actually can trust because there are unfortunate stories too how you know a partnership weren't creating in a good faith and then it's all fell apart but if you find someone good that can actually move you forward that's probably the more success uh you can get or you need to be prepared to just um do 95 percent of the time work that you may not like i mean it's actually production is also pretty fun like figuring out like the um how garments or jewelry or accessory are going to come out uh sometimes your strong things can be dealing with customers like maybe a people person and you just love love love chatting with everybody and like showing your designs and if you are good um And even if you don't want to and do a complete partner, outsourcing some of your tasks that you absolutely hate is also a good idea. So let's say you hate dealing with emails. It's just like every time you think of writing one, you're like, oh God, I'll go do something else. I'll go design another dress. So outsource that to someone. And so they will be actually dealing with it because reality of business is you need to push from all these ways. So if you, for example, just design and dealing with your company, customers, you're still losing that. If you are designing, dealing with customers, but not acquiring another customers, for example, through newsletters or press or any other things, then you're missing that part. So you can, you can definitely figure out what you're good at and it will come natural. It's super easy task. If you, if you do something first, like every time there is a, like that much of tasks to do, you always go after something first and then second and third, and then something always left, left to another day. So whatever is always left start thinking about outsourcing it and it could be to an individual it could be to a company let's say you hate it i don't know doing a website maybe think of outsourcing it of course for small brand first and foremost you need to budget well and do not overspend on well anything really like the cash is the most important thing for them for the brand. So I always advise our brands is like, anytime you want to do a big production run, just because they're the item each item become cheaper in the bigger production just don't like unless you already have a proven demand and a proven fit and the proven whatever customer excitement about this particular item so meaning that you sold a bunch before that and you're just reordering like the same or a little bit of a bigger amount just don't do that reality of the production is you don't know what you don't know and oftentimes you run into the problems like a feed some customer dealing like the fabric maybe just too itchy too like too tight too loose too whatever it could be so many things and it's even if your very first production run just start breaking you even it's totally fine at least you didn't start with a big production run that you don't know what to do and you're saying so much money in it reality of it first time around no one gets it right like i have not yet met a designer who did their first production run right like that they did a production and everything sold out and everything is perfect it just didn't exist and even if you already had a career in uh also have another group of brands that um they might already have a career in like a corporate design and they're like okay but now i know everything i know everything about design production everything i did it so many times before and i'll do my brand perfect you won't reality is like you don't have the resources of the bigger company so your smaller production will not put you as a priority like will not give the same thing like while bigger companies have very established relationship with all their suppliers and still you could do a bad production run here. You much more in the mercy of like God hope they'll actually execute on it. So don't do that. Like at the beginning. I mean, if you really follow this advice, you'll thank me later. And second, if you, even if you are like, no, that is probably time to open your own store and you like, okay, if I just use all my money right now, I can open the store and see how it goes. don't do it just yet. I mean, retail is highly competitive. It's really hard to do. And you always, well, at least in New York and in Paris, where we are, it's very expensive to open things. It will be cost beyond what you can possibly imagine. On top of it, you end up paying rent every month. So, I mean, that's partially why we created Flying Solo. So in Flying Solo, you can try out retail without upfront cost, without anything. You just basically pay a small membership fee and we'll sell it for you and see how it goes. And you can start creating demand. So what a lot of brands do is they'll come to us for well sometimes like two or three years like create that customer base and only then start opening their own stores because in the meanwhile while they're experimenting while they're trying different skills for like customers that like within their demographic while they figure out the production while they figure out the pricing and it still takes time they don't pay a full rent like you know on the store and don't have to pay for the stuff and insurance and also many costs that comes insurance into opening even a tiny little store in Soho. So they experiment and then years later when they're like, okay, guys, like we just need the entire store for our collections, like no longer doing it for us. And then you can definitely like create a good business out of it. So yeah, that's my two little advices to the designers and yeah, I hope it will really helps them.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, no, you touched on so much. Like you touched on having a business partner and how that, how important that would be to have someone to handle the business side while there was another creative person. Or if you, if you haven't found that person quite yet, but just being able to give out tasks to other people and delegate, because that is so important too, because I think a lot of brands and designers, they want to be like a solar entrepreneur and never kind of give out things. And they think they're saving money, but they're not really saving money because you're when you're saying something, something's not happening because you're only one person. And then even just touching on getting into retail stores without large budgets and being able to use your brand, like Flying Solo, your company, and being able to get into a store and just test out the market and see what people think of the creations that these designers are creating is very... is really great and it's important to do because just starting out, you know, saying like, I'm going to get this retail store and I'm going to put... my life savings into it and hope it works out is really scary.
SPEAKER_01:For sure. And we do have brands like this. I mean, we have, we had a brand that we've been with for, they've been with us for three years. So when they started it, the brand that is called Aparil, New Yorkers probably know them very well because when it gets cold in New York, everybody's wearing their vegan fur coats, very colorful, like they everywhere. But they started with us. A lot of people don't know that they started with us. We opened our brand in 2016 and they opened their brand in 2016, probably the same month as we did. So what a lot of people don't know about them, while they completely right now know just for their outerwear, like vegan fur, that's what they've always been known for. They started not with vegan fur. They started with the entire collection of tops and dresses and all this stuff. And it was only one skew that was that vegan fur coat. And nothing was selling other than coat so literally they're like it took them years to figure out like what's really working so after only once Q was selling they're like okay maybe there is something to it so let's bring two of the same coats in different colors and see how it goes all of a sudden that is sold out and then slowly they're like okay let's try different vegan fur like this and that different colors different models and three years later they grow it into just out of where vegan collection and that was they actually found their niche exactly in the right timing vegan fur was definitely on the rise no one was producing as good quality vegan fur as they were and they were very fun designs it was like super simple to wear like you know was really good body for for the design and they found their market yes they are like they did leave us to open their own stores and now they're in Saks and Bloomingdale's but they always thank us for those like years because they're Like God knows how much it will cost us to run our own store at that time. Because all that figuring out, imagine you sold one SKU in a month, one SKU and you're renting the whole store. And it doesn't mean that they'll never become successful. They did like, but it takes some time to figure out what your customer actually wants. And oftentimes it's pivoting and adjusting and all those things. But at least you doing it without paying huge rents and like having your own stuff and paying for, you have to pay for everything in your own store. Electricity, internet, internet. insurance, your staff, and then you have to have a manager to manage your stuff and all those things. So yeah, I mean, you will, you most likely, if you keep growing, you'll get there someday, but don't start with it. It just, you don't know so much about retail when you've never been in it. Right.
SPEAKER_00:No, that's, that's such great advice because I think a lot of aspiring designers, they see getting into a retail store is just like, you know, the dream, you know? So they see that or they watch shows like Project Runway and all these types of shows where the prize is to get placement in a store. So they're like, oh, that must be the ultimate, you know, dream or that I have to, if I have my retail store, people will come. But like the story you shared of, they weren't even trying to do outerwear. They weren't an outerwear designer or they had some, but they probably thought they were doing other, they were more of like a dress designer or other things. And then- outerwear was the thing that sold, you know? So I, I, I have that as well, which is so funny because I feel like I'm a dress designer, but my number one bestseller is a raincoat. Oh, wow. That is so awesome. Interesting. Okay. See, I don't know. It's this pink raincoat. I designed it in like 2018 and that has been my number one bestseller since then. And it's, but like you said, you never know until you meet that those customers and they they you you see that customer journey of oh we really like this okay so now let me make it in different colors let me try different things and then that became their entire brand like that's uh that's amazing like that I mean, sometimes it happens like that. You don't even recognize it. But sometimes with, you know, brands like that happens and then having it in a placement in a store so you don't have to worry about, like you said, like rents and electricity and insurance and all employees and all that stuff. Like you're only paying like a fee to have your items in a store with people that are actually trying to sell it.
SPEAKER_01:Exactly. And what other advice I'll give to designers is like once you find that item, keep building doing on it what happens a lot to us designers and I mean I can speak for myself because I'm also a designer and I know exactly how the thinking process go you get bored so you start selling something you're like I know I'm not producing next year even though it's but I'll create something better because you know I need my creative juices oh god like you first of all you need money so if something is selling leave that please to sell you might bring a few more colors and see how that goes. But if something is already desired by your customer, so they love the feed, they love this, leave that and build something else. Do not eliminate this cue. And again, I see too many times when, oh, no, no, I need something new. I need something exciting for this. Yes, but you also need the money to be made. So yes, that's my other little advice. Yeah,
SPEAKER_00:I love that. I think you have given so much great advice to independent brands and people that are thinking about going into the design world and not really sure where to start because you can buy all the eBooks, you can watch YouTube University, whatever, but getting... um, actual advice from people that are in it are very different, especially on the independent circuit, because, um, I think also there's, you know, people who do drop shipping and those kinds of things when they're not coming up with the full design themselves. So that's a different business as well. But this is for like, creatives that are starting from ground zero and me too. Exactly, exactly. So that's, it's amazing. Just to close out, because I feel like we've gone over so much today. Is there, do you have any last advice for designers or you want to talk a little bit more about Flying Solo and what Flying Solo can offer independent brands, whether you're in New York or Paris or wherever you're at?
SPEAKER_01:Sure. Well, collaborate like I think collaboration is the most important thing in fashion and I'm not only saying designers between designers but you're also going to collaborate between the stylist and press and photographers and models and please when you do that be kind to each other because really a thank you goes a long way so if you If you get a stylist, for example, someone DM'd you through Instagram and asked for an item to be placed somewhere and then you get a publication out of it, do make sure that you actually thank that person. If someone bought it or wore it and tagged you, be thankful for that because those little things go a very long way. And we always teach our designers in Flying Solar, even though, for example, for our press showroom, we do communication with the stylist, but but we always say, look, someone actually chose your design to be published in this and that magazine. Make sure you say thanks to the stylist who actually pick it up because what will happen is next time when they'll come over, they're like, oh, let me see the whole collection of this person because they were so grateful when it's happened. And especially with press, even if it didn't happen, but someone still chose your design to like, you know, be on the pool, but then somehow they couldn't place it because because I mean, there are a lot of creative decisions made and sometimes pictures get cut from the publication, things like that. Still say thank you. And still, because someone actually gave you attention and very often next time they're going to choose you. Yeah, same goes for the customer saying them a thank you note. For all those little things, this industry, while it seems to be very big, it's actually very small. Everybody knows everybody. Someone being like not nice to someone the word will spread very quickly and someone being like respectful polite delivering on time will also spread quickly so make sure to be that person and yeah again collaborate we're in flying so all about collaboration on all different levels like from this like stories our collaboration between many designers press showroom is so many different brands the one that couldn't stand on their own but because they under the same roof they get so much attention same for fashion weeks they we get so much valuable press like everybody from vogel harper's come over to our show because there's so many brands under the same roof it's just so simple compared to one person just trying to do it on their own and uh it's like it's really hard to get attention but i think independent designers should be under the same roof because we really are Just think of your customer at the end of the day. Your customer who loves you for being an independent brand, it's very likely might like other independent brands as well. And it does mean that if they purchase from you or purchase from some other brand will never purchase from you. They actually like the whole category of it. Like they love something fresh and exciting, something that they cannot see anywhere else. So that's how the whole thing actually works. Not you competing against one of the bigger brands that the person actually deciding should i buy a big brand or should i buy you they come to you because you bring something super unique and that might be uh true for another independent brand so just collaborate like on the small scale on the big scale like we all much more noticed together as independent brands so that's that's um that's my advice to everybody
SPEAKER_00:all right well thank you so much that that's So great. That's very true about just collaborating and being thankful for just your small wins. Just being thankful for them because along the way you'd get a bunch of little tiny small wins and then you'll get a big win and you will be thankful that you were thankful in the past about your little small wins. because it allowed you to get the big win, you know, down the road. And like you said, people will remember you. They will remember when you were nice to them or you thanked them and they're like, hey, what about that person? I remember. Exactly. They're going to constantly remember that as opposed to going radio silence, even if it didn't work out or something, you know, maybe they pulled your things, but they didn't end up using it, whatever the case, at least, you know, you're thankful for the experience of just having that, that all very true and um it's it's a great way to collaborate because people will remember niceness like you said and and meanness and rudeness but they're more likely to work with you again yes yes
SPEAKER_01:100 and any designers that want to reach out to us we have an instagram flying solo nyc so we have all the applications there link in bio or you can just like like and share like you know what we do and see our other designers there we create quite a few entertainment and you educational content there. So you're always welcome to follow us, Independent Designer. We also do our own podcast that is quite fun. So yeah, even if you're not looking into retail, there'll be a lot of fun things along the way there too.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so that's great. Thank you so much, Elizabeth, for sitting down with me today. I know it took up way more time probably than I said it was going to take, but it was a great chat.
SPEAKER_01:It was a great chat. Thank you so much. Yeah, I love your energy. I love your passion and thank you so much for having me today.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, thank you. Thank you so much. So thank you everyone for listening today. And if you want to check out Flying Solo, I will also put it in the links, put the links down in this podcast. But check out Flying Solo Inc and see what they have for you because they might be what you need to get that just put in the door and just start what you're thinking about and what you're working on. So. why not just try thank you thank you so much thank you all right