Textile Blog week 3

#VAMFF

POW!!! Wow what a day at the Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival Business Seminar. The pow is for all the knowledge that was bestowed on my little noggin today. It was great to hear from many different sectors of the Fashion Industry and this one day seminar has really opened my eyes to more of whats actually possible for designers in the Fashion and Textile world.
This seminar got me thinking outside the box or more precisely looking beyond myself and how as a textile designer you can really have a positive impact on the world by just changing your approach and straying away from the norm and looking for alternative resources like Fair trade cottons from Africa instead of buying cheap bulk cotton form China or as they were more favouring using the expertise of the Artisans in remote regions of the world and promoting them and their skills to the world.
But one of the great things I like about the Speakers was that even though you are helping out communities and giving people the spot light needed, it is also OK to make money and charge a high price for an item created/crafted by a Artisan from somewhere like Africa or Portugal which I think is important to note as it seems a lot of people see making a lot of money from your craft or designs as a bad thing which was shown today not to be and which is something I agree with but see a lot of people in the industry being stubborn and mean to people that create wealth from being successful(seriously if i hear another person say Lisa Gorman's a sell out I'll….)which is simply not the case most times.
The seminar did show that contacts and knowing the right people is vital to growing your brand and that raising Capital for your business id important for growth or simply when you're just starting up.

Again like a tape recorder I thank my Cycling contacts for allowing me the contacts that will hopefully one day help my business reach the high goals I have set for it and won't be achievable with out some Cash investors. For my business I will go to the aid of my friend who's job is Capital raising for Companies such as Architectural firms, Air lines, Oil companies and new start ups, with this contact I feel very lucky to have this person on my side.
The only people I really lack in my business endeavours are the right manufacturers to make my products and this is why I think things like Internships and going to Seminars and trade shows are vital if you want to know where the best brands get their apparel made.



Cam