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Conclusions Meeting 5-2-2009
CLEAN & UNIQUE meeting
C&U roofs small sized fashion labels and fashion designers and champions a social and environmental responsible fashion production. The theme was: PROMOTION
Among the speakers were: Ynzo van Zanten (GreenInc), Bea Correa: (Mindwhatyouwear), Gerard de Winter (Koncerna), Daan Dirkson (YUGA), Kentroy Yearwood (Intoxica) and Tim van Looijen (Mudjeans).
Bea Correa, Mindwhatyouwear
Bea Correa is a Brazilian designer living in Amsterdam. With Mindwhatyouwear she uses fashion and internet to make people aware of what and how they consume. Thanks to internet, she generates waves of publicity without doing large investments. You need to be original to draw attention. Bea's best example is her 'Fake' collection, that went all over the internet, and consequently the world. "Faking should be seen less as a crime and more as an attempt of sharing welfare." For this project Bea authenticated black market (fake) bags, by labeling them as FAKE and reselling them. Photographs popped up on blogs in many languages. The collection sold well, but a letter from the Louis Vuitton company made an end to that. Once in a year Bea co-organizes a pop-up market where fashion designers present and sell their work. The sale grew to about 60 stands last edition in 2008. Read further at www.mindwhatyouwear.com
Ynzo van Zanten, GreenInc
In rapid speed marketing expert Ynzo illustrated the great urge and opportunity of going 'green': a shorthistory of how mankind has bred ('like rabbits'), how much we consume, and the need for an extra planet to furnish our needs. In his daily job, Ynzo advises large companies to turn the tide green, and supports small companies shaping their green concepts and marketing strategies. Fragments of the presentation in text and image can be found in his blog: http://www.goodblog.nl/green_inc/ , including the 'The six sins of greenwashing'. To give an idea of what green marketing means, Ynzo gave a list of basic principles, among them: "be authentic and tell your story."
Kentroy Yearwood, Intoxica Jeans
In 2003 Kentroy had the idea to make a radical socio and eco clean, high end denim fashion collection. After one year of lobbying, a bank gave him an innovation grant to start with. Together with a Japanese fabric company working with rather traditional methods, Kentroy developed new kinds of fabrics, denim washings and the first Intoxica collection. At the time, the market was not responding. But Kentroy was persistent, kept on developing, designing and investing.
Intoxica started rolling when a selling agent recognized the potency, and invited him to the UK, where they found high end stores–hesitantly- interested. Now, 2009, almost 60 stores sell his stuff. How does the high end fashion culture respond? They don't care if it is 'clean' or not, they buy because they like the clothing.
Yuga Store
Daan Dirkson started his entrepreneurial career with a children day care centre. As business went well, he went to the bank with the idea for the Yuga Store: a fashion shop where 'fashion meets fair'. A brave concept. Daan told the story from scratch to running the shop.
Every detail is considered on the Yuga concept, including the social and environmental impact; from the shop furnishing to the labels in the collection, to the attitudes of the selected staff. Reaching the goal was a great achievement. "But when you think you reached the finish at the grand opening, then it just starts". The audience was curious about the performance of the shop: after a few months already about break even.
Tim van Looijen, Mud Jeans
From exclusive to high volume: Mud Jeans presents organic eco jeans for rather low prices. Tim has been in the fashion sector and sales for 20 years, and now in the middle of a
great challenge: selling organic fashion to the conventional retail chains.
The process is interesting. The retailers recognize that 'green' is to come and stay, and there is soon one good order delivered to a Belgian retailer. But reactions are more regularly hesitant or even skeptic. Green is a new thing and it takes these retailers time to get used to that.
Gerard de Winter, Koncerna
Marketing expert Gerard started with one key principle: take your own strength as the baseline.What followed was a great talk where marketing theories alternated nice examples and useful tips. Marketing begins with defining the most important values of your company or product. But also about finding out who is your target group. Who are they? Where are they? How do they spend their spare time? What do they read? When it comes to marketing and especially 'green' marketing, Gerard advises to communicate your message clear, with factual information. Be true, consequent, consistent and again: authentic. Further, try to learn from your customers, be open for feedback, have a dialogue. Gerard also mentioned 'storytelling' like blogging and free publicity as the key instruments.
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