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ApparelMagic client Bode nominated for CFDA Award

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ApparelMagic client Emily Bode’s eponymous line, Bode, has earned her a nomination for the 2020 CFDA Menswear Designer of the Year.

Bode’s business, based in New York City, specializes in literally unique garments, many made of reclaimed textiles like quilts or hand-painted with folk-arty designs.

In addition to menswear, the label also has introduced home and baby lines. The home line is a furniture collaboration between Bode and Green River Project, LLC, and the baby line is full of tiny versions of the mainline’s signature shirting.

The CFDA nomination puts Bode in good company. Several ApparelMagic clients have won at the annual award show, many multiple times.

The CFDA Fashion Awards ceremony is one of the most important events in the fashion industry, drawing from top talent across the United States and from overseas.

Normally held in New York each summer, this year the event will be skipped and winners of this year’s awards will be announced on September 14 via social media.

ApparelMagic also partners with the CFDA in their Supply Chain initiative. Read more here.

SoftShirts automates production and logistics with ApparelMagic and Timereaction

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What is Timereaction?

Function: Timereaction coordinates your day-to-day business operations, managing workflow, communications, and scheduling through an integrated calendar app.

Hosting: Timereaction is cloud based, just like ApparelMagic.

Onboarding Difficulty: Low! The Timereaction interface looks much like calendar systems you already use.

Customer Support: Free support and updates

Pricing: Starting at $150 per month for up to 10 users

Learn More: Get the full story from Timereaction’s website.

Overview

For Clayton Hunt, “it all starts with the cotton.”

Hunt, a co-founder of SoftShirts, an organic T shirt manufacturer, is one to talk: he grew up in the American South, where they know their cotton.

“South Carolina used to be textile center of the country. My family was in the yarn business for 80 years, and I got my chops digging through mills in the South,” Hunt says. “I had mentors who taught me how to knit and sew, so I can go into a dye house and set it up exactly how I want.”

Thanks to Hunt’s know-how, SoftShirts is able to follow a business plan that is almost minimalist in an age when his competitors are trying to expand into hundreds of new SKUs every season: “Make one shirt. Make one fabric. Make one dollar. Keep it real simple.”

Challenges

Simplicity, as is often the case, however, is never so easy to pull off.

SoftShirts manages its production down to the yarn, working with suppliers and factories across the world, bringing yarn from India and quality from Peru—all to create the best T-shirts available on the market.

“Most companies are not doing this,” Hunt admits.

Managing their production process requires full transparency. Hunt, who manages production on his own, needs to know where his materials are and where exactly in their WIP stage they sit as they are knit, cut, and dyed.

Working with his factory in Honduras, Hunt found that they were managing their production with only spreadsheets.

When it comes to making quality apparel on time and on budget, “spreadsheets don’t work.” Hunt says, “Nobody knows whats going on.”

The factory relied on just once weekly reports to keep customers abreast of their production status and schedules, leading to outdated, inaccurate data.

“When you do get a report, the data is a week old. You never know what you’ve got,” Hunt said. “I’m more of a real time reactionary: I need to see it right now.”

At the time, the factory was on the look out for ERP software to meet their increased demands, and that’s how Hunt developed a streamlined workflow for his business, combining the features of some of the best software in the business to create a nearly automated process from production to sales.

Solution

“I spent about a year and a half checking out different systems,” Hunt says. “I probably checked ten systems out. I decided to use ApparelMagic because quite honestly it was the only one that could track my contract management.”

With ApparelMagic as the central hub, Hunt was able to keep accurate inventory throughout the process as he got a bird’s eye view of his production pipeline with the Timereaction integration.

Timereaction, a workflow software, keeps everyone in sync through visual calendars that are both easy to understand and incredibly powerful when used across teams and departments.

SoftShirts uses the integration between Timereaction and ApparelMagic to keep both their office team and their factory’s team on the same page. Teams can mark the status of lots and POs so their counterparts can easily see statuses at a glance.

“So if it’s stuck in QC [quality control] because there’s a hole in the fabric and it’s taken twice the time, it shows red on my screen,” Hunt says, the visual cue showing any hiccups in production as soon as the factory reports them.

Insights

What’s the advantage of using this integration rather than a custom-built solution?

“So essentially, without them having to spend $20,000 on an ERP system and project managment, it’s all tied in,” Hunt says. “And they’ve already got the thing built.”

With his fully-integrated workflow, Hunt has been able to automate much of his production and logistics process.

“It’s in the front door of BigCommerce, straight through ApparelMagic, and out the back door at ShipStation,” Hunt says. “It’s seamless.”

How Anaak manages their supply chain through ApparelMagic

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Calling it a supply chain makes it sound deceptively simple, but there are few things more abstract: for a modern fashion brand, the supply chain is a complex web of materials, manufacturers, suppliers, dates, duties, and international logistics.

For a multinational conglomerate, it’s a department. But for a small business? It’s a full time job. Ethical womenswear brand Anaak uses ApparelMagic as their one-stop shop to track products and their supply chain around the world.

“To have one place that we’re going to to look style by style is really important,” Anaak founder Marissa Maximo says.

Why ApparelMagic?

Time is money in any business, but when you’re a small business with higher order quantities each season, an apparel inventory system is indispensable.

“It reduces the duplication of work and reduces the margin of error. For a small designer, that’s really important,” Maximo says. “Whatever investment you have, you need to make it worth your while and have a strong ROI.”

Maximo, whose brand is centered around ethical production by highly skilled female artisans in India, is committed to keeping visibility over her entire supply chain, often traveling to work with the women for months at a time.

A Central Hub

“How did it get made? How did it get the trim? How did it employ people? How did it ship?” she asks. “It’s all these hidden costs that people don’t realize.”

And it’s all of these hidden aspects that ApparelMagic can track.

Using ApparelMagic as a central hub for her business, Maximo has a virtual home for her data with the sales figures from the London showroom, the product designs from the US, and the POs going to India now all in one place.

“The showroom will show the collection to buyers from all around the world,” Maximo says. “We enter the orders into ApparelMagic, and then pull our factory production purchase orders, which is very helpful to have automated.”

Maximo is able to communicate clearly and quickly with her collaborators in every time zone, using reports created directly from ApparelMagic.

“From the production order, you can also print the dye lot, so the factory can quickly see how many styles and how many colors,” she says.

Making Connections

Utilizing ApparelMagic’s connections to the industry’s top services in ecommerce, B2B, logistics, and more, Anaak can do their bookkeeping through ApparelMagic or software like QuickBooks or Xero.

“We do all of our accounting through QuickBooks,” Maximo says, “And so to be able to do that sync is also helpful.”

With all her data under control and ApparelMagic as the central hub, Maximo is able to focus on Anaak’s real mission: making clothing responsibly and giving new opportunities to “all the people that I work with all the way down my supply chain,” Maximo says. “Which might be a short supply chain, but it’s a meaningful one.”

Sportswear staples meet fashion week glam from Sandy Liang

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What does New York’s coolest brand do after almost single-handedly making fleece cool again?

For ApparelMagic client Sandy Liang, the answer was easy: remind everyone how cool you can make other forgotten fashion staples.

Simple looking babydoll dresses revealed hidden complexities in pattern. An apron dress was rendered very literally in a utilitarian-chic black leather. And ruched blouses were paired with strikingly hemmed denim. These were wardrobe basics no longer.

Of course, the fleece look was still there, now updated in sherpa and furry textures and in warm browns and ivories. A more grown-up fleece, if you will.

But the rest of the collection consisted of easy-to-wear separates effortlessly made of-the-moment (and even a little sporty) via Liang’s masterful touch.

While there were new takes on puffers (oversized or eyeball printed) and duster jackets (Wild West styled with huge lapels) the motorcycle jackets Liang presented during her fashion week show, in both bubblegum pink and classic black, were a real stand out. With their tiny pockets they echoed the mini purse trend, but with daring hoop piercings along the neckline, they bit back.

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Lauren Manoogian’s soft statement at New York Fashion Week

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It’s 2020 and we’re beyond trends. But then what do we wear? That’s a question that it appears Lauren Manoogian, an ApparelMagic client, asked herself with her collection for Fall/Winter 2020.

And the answer? Forget the hero pieces of seasons’ past. Don’t worry about making something instantly recognizable for a celebrity’s instagram post. Instead, make something seasonless, timeless, but somehow as au courant as ever.

Showcasing her line in an Axel Vervoordt-designed suite at the Greenwich Hotel in New York, she complemented the moody, dark ambience with moody, dark layers of her own in the finest knitwear imaginable.

Silhouettes were generous, all the better to show off the dimension of the fabric itself. Robe belts lay uncinched hanging off of waists, scarves were draped effortlessly around the shoulders. More than just the most luxurious throw blankets, though, these pieces were precisely tailored to float just so.

Wrapped in warm, wide expanses of wools and cashmeres, the fits were as relaxed as the models wearing them. In shades of ecrus, taupes, and charcoals, the fabrics hid in the shadows. Mysterious, yes, but also infinitely tactile. You want to walk up to one of Manoogian’s clients and ask to pet a sleeve, paw at a hem. The craftsmanship might be untouchable, but the clothes are the opposite.

ApparelMagic partners with CFDA on Supply Chain Collective

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Read the full article in WWD

Eveningwear from Naeem Khan makes a statement at New York Fashion Week

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When formal gets fun: that’s what ApparelMagic client Naeem Khan explored at his runway show during New York Fashion Week.

Making a very compelling case for ditching the little black dress, he pulled out all the stops: with gowns in every color under the rainbow, and frequently several of them at once, garishly clashing with insouciant aplomb.

Shown in famed late architect Zaha Hadid’s futuristic luxury condo building in Chelsea, the designs looked right at home with their ropes of fringes echoing the building’s swoops and curves.

A whole caravan of dresses felt safari-ready, with models parading down the runway in every animal print imaginable, from leopard to zebra to giraffe. Others followed soon after in sleek 70s caftans and floral prints that went far past psychedelic.

Khan, a maximalist par excellence, knows his customer well, and demonstrates this season that she’s one that confident enough in her taste and body to put the fun back in capital-F fashion.

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ApparelMagic client Prabal Gurung celebrates 10 years on the runway

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Of any designer on the New York Fashion Week schedule, ApparelMagic client Prabal Gurung might be among the most steadfast proponents of diversity and social justice. From fundraising after the earthquake in Nepal to consistently thoughtful model-casting, Gurung does the walk to his talk.

So what better way to celebrate a decade in fashion than to take his vision back to the source? For his spring 2020 collection, he reimagined classic Irving Penn and Cecil Beaton fashion photography from the 1940s, asking one specific question: what if our image of beauty came not just with white skin, but included everyone?

So with that conceit, he took off: ballgowns and classy separates in patriotic red, white, and blue. Then florals, both printed and appliqué, some paired with matching bouquets cradled in the crook of an arm. Feathers, too, made an appearance, of course, here used in huge marabou shrugs and across the bodice of gowns.

Seeing the range showcased by such a variety of models, however, was the main event. Gurung showed the industry how much it had been missing out on by only now beginning to come to terms with race.

Sashes across the models read “Who gets to be American?” like a surreal, woke beauty pageant. And with that, Gurung is up for another decade of challenging the industry to be more inclusive and just than ever.

Area’s blingy suiting sparkles at NYFW

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What do you get when you combine name plate necklaces, rhinestone beards, and yards of satin? That’s what Area designers Beckett Fogg and Piotrek Pansczczyk asked this season with their standout spring 2020 collection.

Daring to go where few designers could, they dreamt up looks that somehow bridged the gaps between the 90s ballroom scene, 50s couture, and 2010s Instagram culture.

The collection really had it all. Shoulders and skirts with poufs out to there. Downright elegant jumpsuits and shirtdresses in eyelet lace or lasercut vinyl. Golden crinolines, panniers, and shoulder pads worn above pantsuits.

Riotous? Absolutely. But masterfully done? Even more so. Beneath the of-the-moment sparkle, there were perfectly cut blazers with just the right wiggle room, party dresses that could work on ages 16 to 60, and skirt suits that updated the classic Chanel look for the post-Lagerfeld era.

Foresight is 20/20 at Maria Cornejo’s first show of the next decade

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With only months to go before we leave the 2010’s, Maria Cornejo is in the mood for a fresh start. Putting on her Spring/Summer 2020 show atop The High Line park in New York City, she envisioned a warm, comfortable world for the loyal legions of women who make up her base.

Simple it might have felt, but the patternmaking was sublime. A ruff topped one elevated T-shirt, bringing the Elizabethan times to the present. Another touch, accordion-pleated sleeves, curved down the arms like paper fans.

Focusing on a new silhouette: rounded shoulders, a cinched waist, and loose trousers ending just above the ankle, Cornejo reimagined her line, Zero + Maria Cornejo, in tones of ecru, eggshell, and cream. Where there was color, it was cobalt, navy, or a few shots of peach.

With easy wrap dresses, oversized jackets, and even a few utilitarian pieces shown on men, Cornejo showed she’ll be ready for the future, whatever it holds.

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ApparelMagic client Bode wins CFDA award

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Emily Adams Bode of the New York-based menswear label Bode won the Emerging Designer of the Year Award at the CFDA Awards on Monday in Brooklyn, New York.

The designer, whose brand Bode is an ApparelMagic client, is a newcomer on the scene—only launching the company three years ago—but since then has been a critical darling with eco-friendly, heirloom fabrics and nostalgic cuts and embellishments.

Winning an award from the CFDA is the highest honor in American fashion. However, this is not Bode’s first accolade. Just last year, Bode was a runner up for the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, winning $150,000 in the competition.

Jonathan Simkhai takes on Sydney, Australia for his resort show

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With all of the biggest luxury brands flying their guests out to exotic locales for stagings of their resort fashion shows, it only feels natural for Jonathan Simkhai’s growing brand to do the same. This season, the ApparelMagic client experimented with the concept by taking over a Bondi Beach boardwalk in Sydney, Australia.

Starting out with a pink leather jumpsuit that looked custom-ordered for the next Bond girl, he quickly went into what she would wear on her off-hours: scarf-print silk dresses, trench coats covering one-piece swimsuits, and even some black-tie style tuxedo dresses for evening.

Going deeper into the night—literally, given his twilight-staged al fresco runway—he showed off his speciality, negligee-inspired gowns, this time in a rainbow of colors.

These dresses were the big hit of the collection, their oranges, blushes, and lavenders set off by the sunset sky. Timing is everything in fashion, and this designer, more than most, knows how to put on a show.