For a lot of emerging fashion designers, being creative comes quickly and simply. Ideas flow and inspiration is in all places. But getting your collection developed, branded, marketed and in stores is a heavy — and expensive — lift.

That is where agencies corresponding to Fabric to Finish Inc. can step in and help. The corporate is a Recent York City-based firm that focuses on global product development and production management for emerging and independent designers. Here, Jamie Koff, founder and president of Fabric to Finish Inc., discusses the founding of her agency, highlights of clients and milestones from her own profession in fashion.

WWD: Tell us about your organization, when it was founded, and the impetus behind launching the business.

Jamie Koff: After a luxury childrenswear license that I used to be working for closed abruptly in 2006, I founded Fabric to Finish, a Recent York City-based firm specializing in design, branding, merchandising, product development and production management for the independent and emerging designer. My goal was to ascertain product development consulting as the brand new paradigm to bring budding designers from runway to reality.

Utilizing my experience working for attire powerhouses throughout my 30-year profession, I created a well-rounded, full-service solution that helps entrepreneurs with all of the back-office support that the majority start-up apparel corporations cannot afford to deal with internally. 

WWD: How do you’re employed with brands? What’s the worth proposition? 

J.K: The true value of Fabric to Finish comes when our clients allow us to take over and manage your complete process while still leaning in for his or her creative input. Our team manages all critical functions on a consultancy basis while keeping clients’ overhead low and operational needs in check. We deliver purpose to our clients in a strategic and modern way.

Our team of qualified industry professionals possess the technical knowledge needed to source, fabricate, produce, design and distribute a set. We have now the power to administer the product development process while applying technical expertise across multiple product categories.

WWD: Are you able to share more concerning the brands you’ve worked with and speak about their successes? 

J.K: Over the past 17 years, we have now had a unprecedented roster of brands that we still maintain relationships with today. To focus on a couple of, can be picking favorites, nonetheless, considered one of our clients that we have now helped launch and still currently work with is Powder Puff Collection. They were recently featured in Harper’s Bazaar for his or her collaboration with Veronica Beard CaraCara. North and Mark is one other considered one of our favourite brands that we helped bring to market, through years of labor they’ve change into beyond successful in the posh men’s outwear space.

Gold Ivy offers comfortable, luxurious and sustainable blankets with an incredible giveback model. By purchasing from Gold Ivy, you might be also supporting organizations which are advocating for kids’s welfare. CWT is the proper clean white T-shirt, created to be a blank canvas, staple and investment piece for each woman’s closet.

We’re also so incredibly happy with two of our brands that just launched: Lola Pearl and Sol Saguaro. Lola Pearl offers sleek and versatile pet products created with convenience and the comfort of your pup in mind and Sol Saguaro is a men’s golf polo designed with the comfort and performance of every golfer in mind while adding a trendy printed twist.

All these brands are currently live, distributing and selling their products online, which is what all of them initially got down to do.

WWD: What are among the challenges and opportunities facing brands today? 

J.K: A few of the opportunities facing brands today lie simply in the way in which they’ll present their idea, distribute their idea, and get their idea to market. They’re not beholden to having a physical showroom anymore or booking market appointments with retailers because all the pieces will be done virtually from anywhere on the planet. They will open their very own online store through multiple social media outlets and interact directly with an audience and might personalize the experience as their very own best salesperson. They honestly get to change into the face of their business. 

Some of the most important challenges facing brands today are shipping delays, supply chain disruptions, increased cost of products, labor and workforce shortages. With the pandemic and the way things have modified significantly in our economy, production and sourcing costs have increased significantly and have also impacted the timeline of launching a brand. Customer acquisition is something else so as to add to the combo, as most start-ups don’t truly recognize the magnitude of this cost when venturing out to start out a latest [direct-to-consumer] brand. They oftentimes feel that riding the social media train of influencer marketing is their meal ticket, but truly need to take a position in themselves to create an organic following with loyal buyers.

Ultimately, considered one of the best challenges that brands face today is market share: everyone has an idea, but how is their idea going to be uniquely different from the one next to them — that’s the magic query.

WWD: How would you describe your leadership style? 

J.K: I’d describe my leadership style as “Transformational Leadership.” My goal is to guide with trust and confidence with my team as a collective group that’s working to achieve shared goals for our company. I strive to encourage my team to take initiative, increase productivity and think out of the box creatively to unravel problems and find solutions. I find great meaning in sharing accolades with my team every time we receive positive feedback from a client, recognizing that every member plays an important role in our accomplishments.

While leadership and running a business is definitely a learning curve and should vary between each worker, I make a conscious effort to assist each member on my team further their skill set and encourage them to all the time reach their capabilities. We have now significant relationships each with our vendors and clients, and that’s reflected in our every day flow of communication style to each parties, which is something I’m truly happy with.

WWD: What were among the notable milestones in your profession? 

J.K: Besides landing my first job as a production coordinator for J. Crew and moving to Recent York in 1993, probably the most notable milestone that ultimately was the impetus for me starting Fabric to Finish was being hand-selected to be a part of the start-up team to launch Tommy Women’s and Tommy Jeans back in 1995 while I used to be a cloth assistant at Tommy Hilfiger. Being a part of a team to start-up two hugely successful divisions at an explosive time for that company’s history, made such an impact on me as an worker, me as an entrepreneur and me as a human.

One among my most memorable moments was while I used to be constructing a denim line for Artistix, my former boss and mentor, Tommy Hilfiger got here as much as me after the style show to say, “Wow, Jamie, you probably did all of that?” A detailed second was once I was putting on my first London Fashion Week show for Nathan Jenden [my first client], who on the time was creative director for DVF, and after the show having Diane come as much as say, “job well done.” One other fun milestone was once I helped launch Rosie Pope maternity and located myself within the B-roll opening of all episodes of her Bravo reality show. That was super cool.

WWD: What’s next for you and your organization? 

J.K: Last 12 months was an especially successful and meaningful 12 months for us. Not only did we expand our office, but we launched probably the most brands we ever have in a single 12 months, which was extremely exciting coming off two years of the style industry being under wraps because of COVID-19. We hope to hold over the identical momentum in 2023 and proceed to assist transform start-up fashion the way in which we intended once I first founded the corporate.