BOOHOO.COM

Every girl enjoys browsing the net for some online shopping but I’m not one of them as I despise having to send things back if they don’t fit or they end up looking cheap and not as amazing as it did on the website.  I’ve never got used to this trend as I more enjoy walking around shops, trying things on and if I’m in a market, haggling lol.  Whilst talking to my friend yesterday afternoon about getting some nude pumps, she recommended I go on http://www.boohoo.com…so I then question ‘have you bought shoes from there before?’…she replies ‘no’, which I then burst out laughing and say ‘so why you want me to go on there?’…I get a lot of  business through referrals as women have worn my dresses and told their girlfriend about jewel, so why refer me to a site you’ve never used?

Anyway all things happen for a reason…I’ve heard of BOOHOO before and seen their adverts around so I’m guessing their similar to ASOS and may have some nice things so I go on their site.  Browsed the shoe section and didn’t see anything I liked, the shoes looked cheap – no, not only because they were priced cheap lol – but they actually looked like you could wear them for a week and the straps would fall off.  So as I’m on the site already, I go onto the dresses section, and guess what I come across?????  Yup you guessed it a design that looks the same as one of mine!!!! SCREAM, KICK, PUNCH and fall into DEEP LAUGHTER!!!!!

I actually can’t believe it, this dress is a spitting image of the one I made in 2009, same COLOUR, same DESIGN, different MODEL, different WEBSITE!!!

I think this is the reason, small designers like me don’t get far in the fashion world…our ideas are taken by bigger companies and sold for a cheaper price to the mass market – so unfair…why not buy the design off me, why not give me a senior designer job at your company?? Ok, I guess it’s easier for you to just copy as you know  I don’t have the time, nor the money to take you to court…boohoo (crying as I type, lol)

On a serious note, this is a serious matter…I do advise people to copyright their designs and ideas.  As a designer I know how hard it can be to remember these little things and obviously the cost of copyrighting everything you do is NOT CHEAP!!  There should be small business rates for things like this to make it easier for small businesses to protect their ideas.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for being inspired from other designers or people but this is just straight up copying.  I have to give it to BOOHOO, they did try to innovate the design by putting a bow at the back of my design aka their dress but still I think the similarity is still TOO MUCH!!

For more info on how to copyright, trademark etc go to the following sites:

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/48/contents

http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/uk_law_summary

http://www.bl.uk/

http://www.briffa.com/design.php

Fashion Elevations Workshop

I was invited to be a guest speaker at the Fashion Elevations workshop hosted by ACS Kings & Queens.  I’ve never seen myself as a public speaker however I do know what I’m speaking about when it comes to fashion business start-ups.  I’ve been through the process and I know how difficult it can be, however it can be done!  With motivation, determination, commitment, perseverance, a good team and support you can do anything you put your mind to.  I started off not having a clue about the fashion industry…the only thing I knew was that I wanted to make my own dresses.  Through many ups and downs, trials, errors and change of business plan etc I have developed a running business.  

The workshop had a good turn out of young people who were at first glance made me quite nervous.  As I walked past a young girl that was less than 4ft tall she asked a staff member if I was a model…as flattering as this was I thought to myself, when she grows up she’ll find out that I’m not that tall!  

I made a 5 page slide presentation which showed what #jewelclothing was about, how we started, developed, who we work with and where we are now. I wanted to keep it short and sweet so I didn’t lose their attention.

The kids were firing questions left, right and centre but I kept my composure and answered clearly and thoroughly.  At the end they gave me a big applaud which made me feel great as they seemed to like what I was about or maybe because I didn’t stutter! Lol

As I was leaving I had a whole heap of girls asking for my advice, email address and picture with them…I really hope I inspired them to follow their dream, if not I hope I motivated them to do well in life as a young lady.

Will you marry me? Yes… No… Maybe…

This year has been so many weddings amongst people my age…early 20s lol which has opened jewel to a whole new market!! So far we have made bridesmaid dresses for 4 weddings and to be honest I think I love the wedding market.  Weddings have two benefits for jewel…1) we charge more for dresses as we use more expensive materials and it takes longer to make a dress and 2) we make more than one dress!!  However the downside is brides are much more precise in what they want and so the dresses have to be perfect as they have a vision of what their bridal train should look like which puts pressure on us to make sure we design and make brilliant dresses and also although it has nothing to do with business…I feel like I should be getting married!! I had my wedding dresses designed from when I was 8, and now I’m 25 (almost 26) but no prospect of getting married anytime soon! As much as you want the perfect dresses for your day you need to have the perfect partner for life…so until then I’ll wait.

Last night I met a bride-to-be and her partner and she was absolutely beaming from ear to ear. She loved the bridesmaid dress so much she tried it on herself!!

 

On another note I know some fantastic guys who are also in this business of weddings and they make made to fit suits. MyTailoredSuit do great suits for both men and women, I can vouch as I got one made for myself a few months ago.

Traffic Blocking

Request 1) wearing blue and white striped fitted dress with low back going to a friends gig (Nadine Charles)

Walked out my door and just before I’m about to cross the road a man drives his car past me, goes around the round about and stops traffic (although there was hardly any lol)… he winds his window down, stares and smiles then said ‘Hi, do you need a ride?’ oh did I mention I’ve seen this guy around a few times driving past my road with his girlfriend and child in his car? – I respond ‘No thanks’, he then said ‘I like your dress, can I take it off’ I then chuckle with laughter and reply ‘On the street?’ (I know why did I bother entertain it)…he laughed and said ‘No in my house’ then I put on my serious face and said ‘No thanks and walked off’.  

You wouldn’t believe on my way back at about 11pm the guy is miraculously parking his car on my road!!! This time I didn’t talk to him, I walked around the block a couple of times entertaining myself by talking to a friend on my phone just in case he tried to make convo again! What a stalker…let’s hope he didn’t see which door I walked into heheee

Clothes Show Live

Clothes Show Live, 3-8 Dec 2010, NEC Birmingham

Go to the events page for details on The Clothes Show Live in Birmingham.

Last year JeweL Clothing showcased at The Clothes Show (London), which was a great experience and an even better platform for to publicise our dresses.  There were a few glitches such as our manufacturer not producing enough garments on time and only when women were trying on the dresses we realised the sizes were made a tad too small.  Issue upon issue but we dealt with them well as we all know nothing ever goes to plan.  Below is an encounter of our

Clothes Show diary:

FRIDAY 29.05.09

Woke up early, got all jewelled up in our outfits and went to Excel London with the mindset that people would love our beautiful garments and therefore we’d sell out!! LMFAO. Well, little did we know that everyone there was on a bargain hunt!! We can’t blame them; we are just like them, looking for good stuff for a very small price.  Some things were even free, such as the Martini cocktails, Kit Kat senses, magazines, goody bags and a free nail polish.  How could we compete with that???  Although everyone loved the designs and tried on dresses, you wouldn’t believe we didn’t sell anything!!  The only thing they took from our stall were our sweets, can you believe the cheek? Next time no one is taking sweets unless they buy a dress….ok we won’t be that harsh but we were peed off!  Anyways, we went home and wiped away our tears as no jewel is giving up that easily!!  

SATURDAY 30.05.09

On Saturday, our manufacturer had finally finished a few more of our garments so we had a wider range to display.  After sipping on a few Martini’s at 8:30am all nerves were vanished.  Crowds came flooding in the showroom at 9am on the dot!!  We had our pitch on point, our smiles from ear to ear and most importantly – our prices dropped.  Did we sell dresses?? YES, we actually sold dresses!! Whoopee!!  We were extremely tired after a two long days but we had to celebrate so we treated the team to KFC family bucket (can’t make money and then spend it all you know), then we went to an after party…SNM.

SUNDAY 31.05.09

We were tired from the night before, however still made it on time to open up our stall to the public.  Sipping on Martinis (as you do) and eating sweets so early in the morning made us high!!  Selling, selling, selling….GONE!! More dresses sold, many contacts made and interviewed by press and magazines!  Sunday was not as busy as Saturday however we sold more dresses. After a hard-working weekend (i.e. not even having time to go on face book) we were happy to pack up and go home.   

Overall, the clothes show was amazing; thank you all for your support and special thanks to everyone who made it down especially our girls and guys who helped sell those dresses!!

Clothes for Charity

One thing I love about being a designer is that you can be so creative and unique and wear something new everyday!  As much as that is a privilege there is a down side…I only usually wear my designs less than 3times…what a waste of time to make and money on materials…yes I know…spoilt!  But one thing I am good it is giving to charity!  From a young age, up until now my parents always send old clothes/shoes back home (Sierra Leone) for poor people and I’ve grown up with always wanting to give things I no longer use to people who need it.   I don’t like wasting as one wo/man’s trash is another wo/man’s treasure.   So every now and then I give some jewel dresses away but at the beginning of this year I set myself a goal to give unwanted clothes/shoes away every month.  

Last year Mary Queen of Shops had a pop up shop in Westfields (sponsored by Grazia Magazine) and JeweL Clothing donated 4 dresses, which were sold to help ‘Save the Children’ charity.  this was such a good cause that it raised thousands of pounds and I really believe designers and high street shops like Zara, H&M, Top Shop, Primark etc should give away clothes (damaged, obsolete, unwanted clothes/samples,) they don’t sell to charities/homeless people.   There many big name designers who do fashion auctions for charity, which attracts a lot of publicity, however this should be made a regular thing as sometimes it seems they are only doing it to build their profile or make people aware of their forthcoming collection!

In a couple of weeks I will be doing a ‘Clothes for Charity’ collection so if you are interested in helping please get in contact with me. 

It’s good to give : )

Photographer

“Do you know any fashion photographers?” (Esther, Kent)

There are many photographers that can be found on Model Mayhem, Facebook and MySpace.  The photographer who did the shoot for JeweL Clothing website was from Luke Miley Creative (LMC)  a creative visual agency who looks after an array of talented photographers, stylists, make-up artists and hair stylists in London, Paris and New York .  For more info go to www.lmcworldwide.com.  If you can’t afford a professional photographer I do recommend working with photography students who may want to build up their portfolios or even get stylists to use you/garments for photo shoots they are doing which in return could give you some very good photos of your modelling/clothing portfolio.

Other photographers to check out:

http://www.stevenbrown.eu/

http://www.stefanobrunesci.com/

Want to get into photography?  Get some lessons at The London School of Photography who provide courses/workshops daily, evenings and on weekends.