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LaQuan Smith is the ApparelMagic Designer of the Year

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Say you’re the biggest name in fashion. You’ve dressed all the biggest names in music and celebrity. Beyonce’s a big fan. The Kardashians collectively owe you their greatest looks. The Jenners, too, look best in your wares. What’s next?

LaQuan Smith has had to answer all of these questions, and each time, the brand ups the ante. Last season, it was a show on the top of the Empire State Building. This season, it was opening their New York Fashion Week show with the It Girl of the moment (and Kanye West collaborator) Julia Fox.

Jennifer Epstein, Director of Sales at LaQuan Smith, has been a part of the meteoric rise, and she’s been part of the effort behind the glamor to turn a force of fashion into something to reckon with at retail.

Growing isn’t easy even at a normal pace, but when you’re the talk of the town, that exponential growth can be hard to handle from the backend.

“We were manually entering in every single invoice, and that was taking forever,” Epstein says.

When it got to be too much, she turned to ApparelMagic for a cost-effective solution that would keep records accurate, even as their business grew in leaps and bounds.

“Once I opened the department stores, I knew we had to put something in place. There was no way I could physically do this, or rely on someone else to do it,” Epstein says.

ApparelMagic gave her team a way to keep track of sales and inventory from one place, syncing across the system and ensuring numbers were accurate everywhere.

“The collection has grown tremendously in terms of categories and SKUs,” Epstein says. “This avoids a lot of mistakes entering orders at larger volumes as our business starts to get bigger.”

Finally, the brand has a reliable solution that can scale with the business. Growing pains are diminishing, and the team at LaQuan Smith has fewer headaches as they write their next chapter.

“It has added structure to the back end of our business that we hadn’t had before,” Epstein says. “ApparelMagic greatly helps in the organization of all of the new customers that we have acquired.”

JMP The Label is our Startup of the Year – Less Excel and more expansion

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Launching in March 2021 wouldn’t be an auspicious start for most businesses, but Juliette Porter’s JMP The Label is a striking exception. The influencer, MTV’s Siesta Key star, and now fashion mogul built a swimwear brand when most businesses were treading water.

Porter has been the one to watch, being named the Emerging Fashion Influencer of the Year at the American Influencer Awards in 2021. Pairing Porter’s taste and natural affinity with the beach with the skills of fashion industry veterans, JMP The Label is no merch line: it’s a well thought out lifestyle brand.

We spoke to JMP The Label co-founder David Kelleher about the business’s success using ApparelMagic.

“ApparelMagic has allowed us to expand rapidly, while maintaining control of inventory, BOMs, vendor information, and details necessary to stay organized with our 1600 skus—and growing!” Kelleher says.

It wasn’t always this easy though. Like many fashion brands, they hit a bump in the road early on when their commercial success was outpacing growth on the backend of the business.

“Prior to switching over, our information was maintained with various Excel documents, and human error plays such a factor with Excel,” Kelleher says.

By identifying their pain points right away, the team was able to start looking for a solution before any errors started to affect the business.

“Because of the fact that we saw success with sales early on, and that we knew that we wanted to continue to design more styles with more fabrics,” Kelleher says, “we were going to need something that was more robust than Excel. We needed an ERP system, and the sooner we could get to it, the better.”

With the goalposts identified, the next challenge was to find the best system for their needs. Though with a reputation that preceded it, a winner soon became clear.

“We knew we needed to move to an ERP system. We met with a bunch of them, and ApparelMagic seemed to be the industry leader,” Kelleher says.

They moved their business operations to the ApparelMagic platform for its ability to manage everything in one accurate, central hub.

“Trying to figure out how to build a brand on the backend as we scaled: that’s where we saw the worth of the software.”

As a brand that communicates directly with its customers, being able to connect to an eCommerce service was paramount. JMP The Label built a Shopify store using a standard integration between it and ApparelMagic, effortlessly syncing product and order data back and forth.

“The integration into Shopify was so simple, and now that we are able to generate reports on sales, styles, and leftover inventory,” Kelleher says, “2022 is poised to be a great year.”

Now that JMP The Label has the software power behind the scenes, they can concentrate on taking advantage of their growing popularity. As they grow, they know ApparelMagic will continue to support them with new features.

“ApparelMagic is the leader in the industry, and we can’t wait to see where the next few years can take us!”

Learn more about JMP The Label here.

Meet the winners of the ApparelMagic Awards

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After considerable deliberation around scores of amazing brands, it’s our pleasure to announce the winners of the ApparelMagic Awards 2021. These clients are going above and beyond to push fashion forward as a business and as a field of unfettered creativity.

Designer of the Year: LaQuan Smith

Between dressing the top celebrities and doing the most talked-about runway shows in fashion, LaQuan Smith’s name is on everyone’s lips.

Growth Award: Holderness & Bourne

Holderness & Bourne proves golf apparel is the fastest growing sector in menswear.

Ethical Fashion Award – Amour Vert

Sustainability is the core value at every stage of business for Amour Vert.

B2B Store Showcase – Dromedaris

Dromedaris puts their shoes in the spotlight with their ApparelMagic B2B eCommerce store.

Startup of the Year – JMP The Label

Juliette Porter, one of fashion’s biggest influencers, makes a splash with her new swimwear line.

Stay tuned as we talk to each of our winners about how they’ve successfully met and exceeded their goals over the course of 2021, and what they see next for their brands in 2022!

5 ways fashion will change in 2022

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Less than two weeks in, 2022 is already shaping up to be a huge year of growth and movement in fashion. There’s a palpable sense of change in the air, and as technology and fashion are finally converging, we’re about to see a revolution. What will this year mean for the fashion industry? Here are my predictions:

Blockchain in Fashion

Between crypto, NFTs, and the new advancements in Web3 technology, fashion is set to surf a wave of innovation based on the blockchain. Perennially plagued by counterfeiting, luxury fashion and collectible accessories are already turning towards decentralized networks to certify ownership and authenticity. It’s no longer the easily-lost certificate in a nice handbag.

Fashion brands will start utilizing the same minting platforms used by NFT artists to authenticate their goods, creating digital twins in the process that can be integrated into the metaverse. Customers will now have the opportunity to sport the newest fashions not just in real life but in virtual spaces like Decentraland, Sandbox, and Facebook’s new Meta venture. The most cutting-edge fashion will be created and exhibited 100% digitally, where the laws of gravity and thermodynamics don’t apply.

The magic of the blockchain is that it gives power back to the artists and creators, and that doesn’t stop at just the brand. Designers can start earning commissions from their work. For independent creators and intellectual property owners alike, a digital register can simplify keeping track of royalties, helping everyone involved reap the benefits of sales. 

Interested in what else is on the horizon? Read my piece in Rolling Stone.

Ethical Fashion

Ethical fashion is finally going mainstream. Consumers have read the stories about poor working conditions in factories, the climate-altering scale of modern fashion production, and the innovations brands are bringing to market. It’s finally all sinking in.

Sustainable principles are no longer fringe activism, and we’re all going to benefit. Concepts like the circular economy are taking hold in the design studio. A dress can’t just go from fiber to closet to landfill: it can now be designed to be broken back down and rebuilt endlessly. As customers begin to recognize the value in this kind of fashion, it becomes an added value in every SKU.

Our clients like SoftShirts and Anaak are already going down this path. Reaching for organic materials and human-first production, they are the trailblazers who are making fashion better. And they’re not the only ones. 

Digital Design

Design doesn’t just happen in the studio. After almost two years of WFH, designers know they can harness their creativity from wherever they are. Brands will continue to empower their creative staff with flexible roles, empowered by new technology in design development.

With 3D modeling and advanced textile physics, pattern making software has grown leaps and bounds. Through further investment in 2022, designers can create new products from their laptops and iterate completely digitally—no sewing machine required. 

With development instantaneous in the cloud, brands will save on sampling, spending less time and money on prototype development. Sophisticated digital design means less lead time and fewer resources used before going to market.

Pandemic Recovery

COVID-19 represented a shift in nearly every element of life, and getting dressed is no different. As we collectively put away our sweatpants, we’re taking a second look at who we want to be and what we want to wear.

From style we’ll keep from the pandemic (comfortable dressing, masks as an evergreen staple, and the recent vogue for logomania) to what we’ve been missing out on (event dressing, travel wardrobes, and likely, new sweats that don’t remind us of quarantine) fashion is ready for a big shift forward.

For brands, this means staying agile and responding to customer demands as soon as they’re spotted. Powerful forecasting will be de rigueur, and advanced replenishment systems can finally get us off the out-of-stock treadmill we’ve been running on for the past two years. 

Working with retailers, though, will require a whole new approach. Work From Home culture isn’t going anywhere, and even when we’re back in the office, we’ll all be reevaluating our work trips. A successful brand in 2022 has to accommodate buyers from anywhere in the world, so setting up a B2B eCommerce platform is going to be an absolute essential. With these online stores, buyers can browse and add styles to their carts at their leisure, replicating the showroom experience from the comfort of their home or office.

Economic Reset

We’re seeing signs of an economic reset already. As the status quo is evolving, more people are breaking molds and becoming entrepreneurs, fueling a small business boom that’s particularly noticeable within the fashion industry. These rule-breakers are shifting what it means to run a modern business, focusing first on their changing customer profile.

A new generation of shoppers is asking for different modes of browsing and buying. These Gen-Z customers are discovering products on social media like Tik-Tok and Instagram, and they’re forming relationships with brands long before they make their first purchase. 

And no longer are they confined to brick-and-mortar stores and eCommerce outlets—they’re using a whole ecosystem of apps to make their purchases, highlighting the need for a comprehensive, multichannel customer experience. Brands will be well rewarded when they’re the first mover on new platforms and in emerging markets.

And when young customers do buy, optionality is still at the forefront. Businesses will quickly adopt cryptocurrency as a payment method, expanding its utility and its mass adoption. As a side benefit, these early adopters will earn increased social relevance from aligning themselves with both groundbreaking technology.

Going Forward

2022 is going to be full of surprises, but we’re looking forward to a year full of growth, improvement, and openness to change. As the fashion industry embraces the latest technology, we’ll be leading the way forward every step of the way.

-Brandon Ginsberg, ApparelMagic CEO

Bode Logo

Bode wins CFDA Award

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At the 2021 CFDA Awards, presented by the Council of Fashion Designers in America in New York, Emily Bode Aujla won the award for American Menswear Designer of the Year.

Her brand, Bode, uses ApparelMagic’s fashion ERP software to manage its growing business and all of the opportunities, challenges, and rewards of operating a fashion brand today.

Bode has grown from a new voice within the fashion industry to join its upper echelons at a rapid pace. Its rise has tracked a new cultural shift in gender presentation and sustainable practices. Bode’s signature mix of reused textiles and ornate embellishments has not just kept up with the times—it’s changed them.

Bode Aujla is no stranger to accolades. In 2018, her brand was named a runner-up for the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund. Just a year later, the designer took home the award for Best Emerging Designer at the CFDA Awards in 2019.

Prabal Gurung’s all-American girls

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Just before dressing seemingly nearly everyone at the America-themed Met Gala, Prabal Gurung designed a collection honoring the “American Girl” and all that means in 2021. That meant an inclusive, intersectional embrace of models across spectrums of size, race, and gender. It also meant a vibrant collection that felt of-the-moment in a time when we’re all still struggling to remember what year it is.

Florals for spring…but groundbreaking? Here, under Gurung’s aegis, it’s absolutely possible. Abstracting chintzy prints, blowing them up, and pairing them with fluorescent colors and parachute proportions, he makes the well-trodden tropes of spring fresh again. Picnic ginghams were done in bright oranges and pinks or stretched across curves in body-con cocktail dresses.

And genderplay was all over too, with suiting and skirting that was treated with little care for the binary, like a pastel menswear getup covering up a drapey silk top.

Towards a pastel modernity with Jonathan Simkhai

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The early oughts are officially back. ApparelMagic client Jonathan Simkhai’s spring 2022 collection shown at New York Fashion Week felt like a refreshing breeze from simpler times. Harkening back to the shapes and refinement of the days of the legendary Helmut Lang, Simkhai took on the minimalist mantel and drew up a line of sportswear of the most chic sort.

Simkhai multiplied spaghetti straps and subtracted midriffs. Dividing layers in suiting into multiple layers and adding on strips and ties that danced in the wind, the collection was full of things to look at while at the same time so much more than the sum of its parts.

Though sleek, almost severe cuts made strong statements, they were beautifully offset by a very human materiality. Whites, sands, lavenders, and periwinkle all draped effortlessly across models’ skins, and fabrics were buttery soft.

Simkhai is one designer never content to stay in one lane, and after this collection, it’s clear that, from maximal to minimal, he can do anything he sets his mind to.

ApparelMagic users make the Met Gala's best dressed list

ApparelMagic users make the Met Gala’s best dressed list

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Whether in threads inspired by home-spun Americana or in full-blown American glamor, ApparelMagic clients dressed some of the biggest names in fashion, sports, music, cinema, and photography. See our big picks of the night:

Venus Williams went old-school Hollywood in a vibrant red gown by Prabal Gurung.

Lorde took on the arts and crafts movement in custom Bode.

Actress Barbie Ferreira had a pearly moment in an intricately beaded dress by Jonathan Simkhai.

Superstar gymnast Simone Biles layered a bodysuit and a daring ballgown in AREA.

Gemma Chan paid homage to Qing dynasty artistry in Prabal Gurung.

Tyler Mitchell gave evening a sporty update in baseball-inspired Bode.

Diane Kruger lit up the carpet in a fluorescent Prabal Gurung number.

Precious Lee went business not-so-casual in a coat dress by Area.

Leon Bridges took on some vintage inspiration in his suede Bode jacket.

Teyana Taylor looked dipped in mercury in a gown by Prabal Gurung

Watching the sunset with Cynthia Rowley

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Basking in the final drops of a New York sunset, ApparelMagic client Cynthia Rowley staged her NYFW fashion show en plein air. Her golden-hour heartbreakers took full advantage of the evening, with their subtle hues lighting up in the daylight.

Printed like a watercolor, one sheer gown stood out for its ease and energy, especially as Rowley paired it with some chunky white sandals. With the lines of a prairie dress but with a mood of languid seduction, it spoke clearly as a summation of the season’s line.

Breezes across the Hudson River made diaphanous gowns flutter and gave new shape to lightweight puffer jackets. Everything was light, light, light in weight but alternatingly moody and fresh in spirit.

Other looks, in black but spangled in rhinestones, reminded you not of the sunset, but of a clear night sky bursting with starlight. Rowley scattered these sparkles judiciously in imagined constellations.

Just like the sunset, the collection captured the vibrant pastels and fleeting energy of a warm evening, as well as the navies and midnight of twilight. A poetic collection from one of New York’s most storied designers.

Sandy Liang has a spring in her step at NYFW

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What’s cool in 2022? Honestly, the best person to ask is Sandy Liang. Long the cool girl par excellence, this ApparelMagic client knows the hum of the street as well as the buzz at whatever gallery opening or dive bar the pretty young things of art, fashion, and music congregate.

So when Liang does her signature sportswear, you know she’s got her finger on the pulse. This season, it’s far beyond her trademark fleeces, and into cottony realms that feel just right for the times. Getting out of our pandemic knits, she’s encouraging an easy-breezy approach full of ruffles and layers, but done with such a je-ne-sais-quoi that it’d be impossible to accuse her frills of frippery.

These are in fact ironic ruffles, that look as aloof as the models wearing them. Even her approach to a classic skirt suit has an air of above-it-all detachment, the tailoring sitting away from the body with the structure of a neoprene. Liang is referencing the greats but making it all her own.

LaQuan Smith’s Empire State of Mind

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ApparelMagic client LaQuan Smith was in a different headspace this season, an Empire state of mind. And quite literally at that, staging his Spring/Summer 2022 show atop the Empire State Building smack-dab in the center of midtown Manhattan.

The venue choice was a statement all its own, and it signaled a new prominence for the designer. Smith, long associated with larger-than-life celebrity clients, is now a household name of his own. And the clothes? They reflected it.

He went bold. Fishnet bodystockings, plush robes, and lingerie transitioned effortlessly into satin minidresses and diamante-encrusted bras. This was not a show for the faint of heart—and not just because of the runway one hundred stories in the air!

Later in the collection, he traded the slick and shine for dazzle-print patterns that evoked the famous black-and-white warships. The LaQuan Smith woman is fierce in the real sense of the word.

Calder Carmel is ApparelMagic’s 2020 Most Promising Startup

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Mark Calder is no rookie in the menswear game. From stock boy for a haberdasher to creative director of a luxury menswear brand, he has spent decades refining his craft and distilling it into the perfect luxury sport shirts.

In 2018, he put his years of experience center stage when he launched his own shirting line, Calder Carmel, with his merchandising and production manager Kristina Stuckenbrock.

The driving force of the brand isn’t anything new, but it’s something far too hard to find in today’s market.

“The quality will last you forever,” Stuckenbrock says. “We buy from the same mills as top Italian brands, and we use the highest quality fabrics and materials.”

And as if that Italian quality isn’t enough, the design too is special, using exclusively-designed fabrics, unlike the competition, most of whom buy a mill’s collection as-is.

This attention to detail is making a mark. Just two years in business, and they’ve already sold almost 20,000 shirts! The real secret to their success though goes back to the basics: forming positive, sustainable relationships.

“We’re partnering with the best retailers across the United States,” Stuckenbrock says. “Some of them have been in business for a hundred years. They really know their customer.”

And that knowledge is key. Calder’s business strategy is to let retailers do what they do best and provide them with the best products possible, showing real loyalty in the process.

“We really believe in partnering with our customers to sell our product,” Stuckenbrock says. “We’ve taken the position that we don’t want to sell online because we don’t want to compete with our customers.”

While direct-to-consumer sales are many brands’ preferred pivot, this one has its own strategy that precisely suits its market.

“We’ve taken the approach that if we partner with our customers, we’re hoping to gain more market share within their stores because they know we’re not going to be coming up with a fifty-percent-off sale in the middle of November.”

That loyalty goes both ways, and already men are learning about the brand from their favorite specialty stores and becoming repeat customers.

“What’s really exciting is when we hear about how customers in store are reacting to it.” Stuckenbrock says. “We have some dedicated Calder customers now that they call on anytime our shirts arrive!”

Even during 2020’s retail struggles, Calder Carmel worked with their retailers to help them get through a difficult time. Whether it was sending them extra collection photos they could use promoting online, extending payment terms, or shifting delivery dates.

And you know what? It’s worked out. Customers reported their best sell-through numbers this past Fall, even with reduced foot traffic, and some styles even had to be reordered from factories—during a pandemic!

“For this terrible year, we had a positive end to it,” Stuckenbrock says. “We’re confident that we’re going to be able to get back to where we were and see some more increases.”

Alongside their dedicated relationships with retailers and mills, Calder Carmel has been powered by ApparelMagic. For a small team of two, it’s an essential service to get work done efficiently and accurately.

“ApparelMagic helps me do the work of ten people, really,” Stuckenbrock says. “What a gamechanger it’s been for us to easily access information so quickly. We don’t have time to be sorting through Excel documents all the time. When I get a call from a customer, I can tell them what our inventory is.”

And for an era when what can go wrong will go wrong, ApparelMagic has a whole suite of tools to keep businesses on track.

“Without ApparelMagic, we would not be able to instantly report on overdue invoices, upcoming payables, and the many pending orders in the system that remain to be filled,” Stuckenbrock says. “It is truly a lifeline that I am very grateful to have!”