exhibition

From inspiration to realisation

Way back in October 2014 I posted a blog called ‘The stillness within’ all about my day at the Swarovski trend and presentation launch. I did decide there and then what my Autumn/Winter 2015 range was going to focus on and having reviewed my notes, the images I took as a reminder, my new bag collection (which I’d already made a head start on )I felt my first inspiration was still the one I was drawn to.

Like a child who gets offered a large box of sweets and is then told they’re only allowed to pick 3, the final decision making process is a tough one and also, it’s vital to feel you’ve chosen your favourites.

Might sound odd but even the simplest pair of earrings requires much thought and preparation- settings need to be made, plating colours need to be chosen, chains need to selected, co-ordinated styles need to be thought of and there is always the issue of affordability, will this sell or is it too costly?

In October’s blog I outlined my vision for this collection to be as follows:

The keywords being: retreat, escape, unplug, simplify, tranquillity.

The colour pallete- right up my street- neutrals, opalescent whites, hints of blue and shards of grey. Frosty but sparkly.

When I looked at it all laid out today, I felt satisfied- inspiration realised.

And the winner is….

During our last show (Sept 2014) we previewed a new clutch for Summer 2015. We called it ‘The Hoxton’ simply because the inspiration came from Hoxton, a district in London’s East End , considered by many to be the trendiest district of London. A place where bankers and city workers meet artists and skinny jeans trendies.

Seems our Hoxton, with its smaller proportions and versatile use, was set to become our new winner. So, we’ve continued with it for our Winter 2015 collection and it will be available in what we think is going to be the biggest colour for winter 2015- Cognac.

It makes a perfectly proportioned clutch

A perfect hand held mini shopper

And for those on the go, it also comes hands-free, yes it has its own detachable strap-cross body or shoulder bag is entirely up to you

So good it even made it to our show invite

Oh, and I just thought I should say that as of Winter 2015 it now has a sister, The Shoreditch

wonder which one of these two will come out tops???

New Year, new season, new workspace

Some 10 days before Christmas I decided (or should I say the impulsive side in me decided) to take the plunge and get the ground floor of my office building refurbished. I’ve been wanting to do so for ages but having never had luck with London builders, I kept putting it off.

So happens that this festive season I had a window of opportunity to get some work done when the office was closed, a 10 day break between Christmas and the New Year. On the other side of this break I knew I had a 4 week countdown to our first show of the season at London’s Scoop International. I also had a builder willing to work over the holidays who assured me the work would be completed and on time. So I agreed, the day before Christmas Eve work commenced at 13:00, by the time I left the carpet downstairs had been taken out, as had the shelving units and cupboards, my office had morphed into a complete building site at the blink of an eye. Next morning, Christmas Eve I was already wondering what I had let myself into with the realisation of what a big job it really was: a partition wall to take down, a floor to lift and then redo, doors to remove, windows to remove, a breakfast bar to build, a lot of painting work, shelving, re-wiring and all other ‘hidden’ pleasures that come out of the woodwork as soon as you strip the top layer.

No sooner was Boxing day over I spent my time tooing and frowing to the office, progress was on schedule but it still was a complete building site ,not to mention the state of our upstairs offices which had become a store room for the downstairs contents.

The building work was completed on time, a day early in fact, when we returned to work on Jan 5^th all was in order. And our new working space? Well it’s bright, comfortable, functional and as for the breakfast bar? It now has a coffee machine- best thing if you ask me apart from the fact that we are now eating too many biscuits and drinking too many coffees.

Our new collection is inspired by our new space, less than a week to go before the show begins, we’re on schedule!

It’s London Fashion Week again, how quickly did that come round?

Hard to believe it as it only feels like the last one was last month, but London Fashion Week sure enough is here again. We’re having a change of scene this time, NY fashion week is running at the same time and we shall be accessorizing the Nico Didonna show in the big apple. On the London front we are taking part in The Bloggers Love, London Fashion Week event at the Penthouse in Leicester square, then it is off to Paris. And after this whirlwind, I shall be back at my desk, working on our Autumn/Winter 2015 collection. Yes,the roller-coaster ride of the fashion industry, or maybe I should say the treadmill, on which you have to stay firmly put!

PS any of you bloggers out there wishing to come to the Bloggers Love event pls email sawako@nadiaminkoff.com with your details,

x Nadia

How we venture to pastures new

Globalisation of a brand is such a difficult thing when you run a small to medium size business. Apart from deciding on a clear strategy of where you want to be placed , the financial expenditure on pastures new is large, somewhat risky and certainly not to be taken lightly.

Working with agents in foreign lands is a great solution and over the years I have worked with many, in many countries. Some successful, some less, it was a good way of getting a ‘foot in the door’ so to speak and a great way to establish new markets with insider knowledge and without crippling expenditure.

Things have changed, being an agent used to be a great job, but alas these day… it’s tough and more often than not-without sufficient financial rewards . If you are a travelling sales person, fuel , hotel and food bills mount up quickly- you need to be taking a lot of firm order at a short period time to make the travelling pay off, easier said than done. If you work from a showroom it’s all about the brands you attract for your portfolio and of course it’s all about the triple ‘L’- Location, Location, Location- beautiful, central showrooms are hard to find and cost the earth.

In the UK it feels like agents and showrooms have all but disappeared-it used to be that at a Fashion trade fair such as London Fashion Week or the Paris pret, we were inundated with cold calls from agents looking to discuss our brand for their territory. These days, in our UK shows we hardly ever get approached by a single agent, where have they all gone?

But agents and agencies still exist, in some countries more than others and I genuinely believe that as long as you start off on an even footing, both parties looking to support the other with the objective to grow, albeit taking small measured steps- it’s a recipe for success.

I have been looking closely at Germany and Scandinavia as two new potential markets for Nadia Minkoff London, in fact I have been looking at these territories for just over 2 years ( yes- I am a slow mover).

Eventually I decided, my decision was to aim for Scandinavia to start off with and with that said.. I got an offer I couldn’t refuse from an agency in Germany- how the cookie crumbles!

Having signed the agency agreement and sent out our collection a couple of weeks ago this week is the first real ‘test’, we’ve collaborated to show at the GDS fair in Dusseldorf. So far so good, everything got there, the stand was set, our lovely agent Annette is at the helm, making sure it all runs smoothly and looks the part! It’s the last day of the show today, next week we shall be reviewing it together and plotting the next steps- exciting times.

Life on the endless treadmill

So this morning is the morning after…

Scoop came and went before we could even blink. It took weeks to create, prepare and plan and 3 days after setting up , it was all over.

Still we had a very busy 3 days, low-down as follows:

1) Pre show day- Saturday is stand set up day. It was all ready to go by 19:00 hrs

2) Doors opened to buyers and press nice and early on Sunday, closed at 18:00 and were followed by the Scoop dinner at the Mess restaurant in the Saatchi Gallery. Which, despite the fact it was the football world cup final, had a great turn-up although many people left by 20:30 in order to catch the 2^nd half of the match

3) Monday is ‘serious’ buyer day. Department store buyers start doing their rounds on a Monday as they don’t work over the weekend. It was also ‘party’ day, after- show drinks at The Phillips and it was busy, busy, busy , the perfect space for networking and catching up, completely enjoyable

4) Tuesday was the last day, last days always feel the shortest as you continually countdown to closing time. The buyers seem to be in a panic too, did they manage to see everyone on their list???

Today, first day back at the office after a shpw is catch-up and evaluate day: catching up with all the emails we missed, catching up with all the post show emails we have to send and of course we need to start thinking about the next show, London Fashion Week in Sept. Yes, life in the fashion world is life on an endless treadmill.

That’s just about it folks..

12 days to go till we show our new Spring Summer 2015 collection at Scoop International, so I am keeping a daily countdown diary to launch- welcome to my world! Problems, solutions, uncertainties, yet more problems and the unexpected in store!

Days 3 & 2

When I started this ‘count down to Scoop’ blog, 12 working days ago , it seemed like I had till forever to get this show ready. But 12 working days creep up on you before you know it and tomorrow our Spring Summer 2015 collection heads on down to the Phillips Gallery so we can set up on Saturday.

In the big scheme of things the lead up has gone better than expected and despite some niggling problems and the issue of getting our goods in (due to the iPhone 6 launch), not only did we get them all, we even got our slimline wallets, which we weren’t supposed to get … and they fit iPhones like a glove.

Happy to see that some of the industry press have selected us as worthy of listing pre-show, featuring our key bags and writing about us:

And as for the dreaded price lists, I don’t like to admit but on time of posting this they are as yet incomplete… it’s going to be a long, long day tomorrow.

x Nadia

Colour, Colour, Colour

Day 5

It’s Monday, final pre-show week, still a lot to do but we’re getting there and so far so good.

Today we managed to send the new jewellery range to our German agency,but alas we’re still working on those dreaded price lists… we are going to win.

The Party invite to Press, Bloggers and buyers has gone out, sending out party invites is always a fun thing to do:

Last but not least, we’ve just had delivery of our Kensington clutch bags in the new Spring/Summer 2015 colours. We love, how about you???

Have a great week, x Nadia

You’re invited

Day 7 & 6

For all my good intentions I just wasn’t able to blog yesterday so I am lumping day 7 & day 6 into one neat bundle.

Quite frankly, what I am left to do now, with a week to go, is so administrative that I think it may bore you to death in any case. There is the tedious job of preparing the costings and the price lists, when every single bead in an earring needs to be counted and accounted for… trust me, it’s a long job. Does anybody out there know just how long it takes to produce a price list??

But we’ve managed to do other things too, nice ones like our show invite which has been completed and mailed out to all our buyers, I’m so happy with it:

Now busy preparing the second of the invites, this is the after-show party invite which will be mailed out not just to our buyers but to press and bloggers- exciting!! and we are hoping many will turn up, there will be plenty of sparkly to drink and lots of beautiful collections to see as well as the actual gallery

I’ve done my first ‘mock-up’ layout in our showroom of how I visualize our stand will look, it helps me see clearly how the collection looks as an entity and helps me decide how to display it at the show.

Finally, our new look website is scheduled to go live next week, it’s all happening here!

Have a great weekend, can’t believe that by next weekend we will be at the show, it really is the final countdown

X Nadia

Bling Bling, it’s all coming together

Day 8

The correct fittings for our Swarovski crystals have arrived. Sheena our designer, is finally able to complete the missing jewellery items and I’m finally able to see how the collection sits together. I like it, it’s clean, pleasing, commercial with an edge.

We now need to make some final decisions as to how we display the range. The bags are straight forward but the jewellery less so and I can’t make my mind up.. So many factors to take into consideration beyond the fact that the stand needs to be visually clear and make a good first impression. The show is held in one of London’s trendiest galleries complete with art work still on the walls, it’s vital our stand is clutter free, minimalist and modern. I’ve given myself till Friday to decide, it doesn’t leave me a lot of time, but it’s enough.

The photos from last week’s shoot are here, they are great and I short list 4 as options to use for our show invite… which goes out to our buyers this coming Friday… I shall have to make my mind up by tomorrow morning.

And as for the wallets which never turned up (see day 12 of my countdown), well- apparently the factory have made some, but.. they are being sent out on Tuesday 8^th and we set up on the 12^th, will they arrive on time? Won’t they?

I’ll let you know x Nadia